Wilhoit’s Law
I think one of the tidiest encapsulations of Republican hypocrisy comes from one of the internet’s many laws. This one is called “Wilhoit’s Law,” and it goes like this: “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
From this dry proposition comes such MAGA contradictions as Donald Trump’s outrage at the very idea that he, a former president of the United States, has been and is being prosecuted for crimes he actually committed, while vowing to prosecute everyone who ever said an unkind word about him — including Joe Biden — once he returns to power. Without a shred of evidence (or irony) Trump is once again accusing Democrats of election interference while he blatantly interferes with elections, to wit January 6, to wit his fake electors, to wit his demand that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensburger “find” 11,780 votes.
Wilhoit’s Law is the very soul of precious Republican sanctimony. It is the ancestor of that much older disputative adage first enunciated by La Rochefoucault: “Hypocrisy is the compliment that vice pays to virtue.” Of course, whole MAGA committees are being created around the proposition that Democrats are “weaponizing” the Department of Justice in the wake of Donald Trump’s very own personally weaponized DOJ, headed up by his personal body guard and attack dog William Barr. An entire (and eternal) presidential impeachment hearing is being prosecuted with the fictional proposition, entirely without evidence, that the current outgoing President engaged in financial corruption with the Chinese and Ukraine, while the previous president openly exploited the presidency for economic gain, had a bank account in China and tried to blackmail the president of Ukraine into announcing an investigation of his political rival.
During the vice presidential debate, JD Vance unjustly and without evidence once again maligned the Haitian residents of Springfield, Ohio, by claiming they were there unlawfully. He then expressed outrage when debate moderator Margaret Brennan contradicted him by later adding, “Just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio, does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status.” Vance indignantly reminded Brennan that there wasn’t supposed to be live fact-checking. Vance expected the rules to protect him. He wanted to lie without consequence. Ms Brennan was responding to a higher rule, the law of human decency. She did not wish to stand by and allow further harm to be committed against the innocent legally resident Haitians of Springfield by this awful and disgusting man.
The constant whining and grievance-signalling from MAGA, that the law and the rules don’t protect them enough but should never protect their enemies, is the essence of MAGA hypocrisy. It is precisely because they are almost never fact-checked that they get away with it so frequently. It is precisely when they are fact-checked that they whine and tremble with indignation the most.
Republicans want for themselves everything they deny us. They have gerrymandered their self-serving code of rules into the fabric of half the country and most of the mainstream media to the point where this almost seems normal. In another generation it will become normal, if we allow it to. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe. Donate now
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.