Double Stardard Alerts

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Dr. Malcolm Cross
Dr. Malcolm Cross

Recent news reports indicate that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are both the practitioners and the victims of double standards.  For example, during the campaign Trump was excoriated for refusing to say whether he would accept the outcome of the election.  Hillary professed to be shocked! – shocked! – that The Donald would threaten to undermine American democracy by questioning the legitimacy of an election outcome. 

But who’s questioning the outcome of the election now?  Granted, Hillary didn’t initiate the recount of votes in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, which Trump won by small margins, and neither she nor anyone else associated with her campaign has claimed to have evidence of actual voter fraud. Yet her campaign decided to support the Green Party’s challenge to the election results after all. So what’s become of Hillary’s contention that she would support the legitimacy of the election outcome, whatever it was?  Was it wrong for the Donald to say he might challenge the election results, but now okay for Hillary?  Double Standard Alert!

And what of Trump’s demand that the election results be accepted as is, and beyond challenge?  Why is it okay for the Donald to imply during the campaign he might challenge the election results, while thinking Hillary is wrong to do so now?  Double Standard Alert!

Or take the news that Carrier Air Conditioning has decided to keep 1100 jobs in the United States, rather than move them to Mexico as it initially planned?  Nobody should begrudge the workers whose jobs have been saved—at least for the time being—the relief they no doubt feel. 

Yet the news media are questioning what Carrier was promised or threatened with to keep its jobs in America—Government subsidies?  Tax breaks?  Tariffs on whatever it made in Mexico and tried to import back into the United States?  Fair questions, to be sure—but why weren’t the media equally vigilant in questioning President Obama’s use of subsidies to aid and prop up failed green energy companies such as Solyndra, A123 Systems, Evergreen Solar, and Abound Solar? Double Standard Alert!

The Donald, in working with Carrier, seems to be practicing a form of industrial policy, using government aid to prop up companies and industries which otherwise would not be competitive unless they changed their policies.  Believers in free trade and free markets have long denounced industrial policy, claiming that at best, the government shields the recipients of its aid from the realities of the marketplace and thereby delays the implementation of changes which would otherwise make them more economical and efficient.  At worst, industrial policy can degenerate into “crony capitalism,” whereby government aid goes to those who might be politically well connected even if economically or managerially incompetent.

Trump himself seems not guilty of any hypocrisy on this score.  Until recently, he was a fairly liberal Democrat and a long-time advocate of government protectionism.  Yet too many Republicans who support free trade and free markets and oppose industrial policy and crony capitalism when practiced by Democrats are remaining quiet on The Donald’s policies.  An honorable exception is Sarah Palin, who wrote, in an op-ed critical of Trump’s move:  “When government steps in arbitrarily with individual subsidies, favoring one business over others, it sets inconsistent, unfair, illogical precedent.  Republicans oppose this, remember? Instead, we support competition on a level playing field, remember? Because we know special interest crony capitalism is one big fail.”  Good for Sarah!  Otherwise:  Double Standard Alert!

So what’s the big deal?  So each side in this wretched election liked to judge the opposition by one standard and itself by another?  So the practice continues?  So what else is new? 

Well, maybe none of this is a big deal, and all of this is just politics as usual.  But the use of double standards under any circumstances introduces more dishonesty into discussions than might otherwise exist, and this tolerance for dishonesty will further corrupt our political discourse and ultimately our society and ourselves.  We’d be better off to question double standards when we (think we) see them, and avoid using them ourselves.  Whether we’re Democrats or Republicans, we should work for more honesty, not less, in our politics.

Malcolm L. Cross has lived in Stephenville and taught politics and government at Tarleton since 1987. His political and civic activities include service on the Stephenville City Council (2000-2014) and on the Erath County Republican Executive Committee (1990 to the present).  He was Mayor Pro Tem of Stephenville from 2008 to 2014.  He is a member of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and the Stephenville Rotary Club, and does volunteer work for the Boy Scouts of America. Views expressed in this column are his and do not reflect those of The Flash as a whole.

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