A warning notice: if you’ve been advised by your doctor not to get upset over reading political hypocrisy examples, you’d better steer clear of this list of 11 biggest hypocrites in American politics!
“All politicians are hypocrites” — this is usually what people say when they wish to justify the fact they’re not voting or paying attention to who’s ruling their country. Or it doesn’t have to be the whole country, but just one small part of it. Local elections — that’s where it all starts, and if you turn your head away from such events, you don’t get the right to complain. You can only complain about what or who you have chosen. But with so many shining examples of hypocrisy out there, how can you trust the system anyway? Hmm, if that is true, how many hypocrites and specific situations can you name to prove they’re lying to you and the whole nation? Let go of the most prominent political personality for now and think harder. Can you name some examples of hypocrisy in today’s society and politics and stand firmly behind your words with concrete evidence? Didn’t think so. That’s the reason why we chose to deal with hypocrisy in American politics and give you on the spot, real and approved facts of the US politicians’ hypocrisy.
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Political hypocrisy definition would probably go something like this: “a politician’s feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; behavior that contradicts what a politician claims to believe or feel” (based on Merriam-Webster’s definition). The reason why so many people rage about political hypocrites is that they have a huge impact on our lives. If you choose wrongly, you have to put up with that leader for his or her whole mandate. Fortunately, there are some examples on our list in which the discrepancy between public and personal opinion was so great that the person had to resign and retreat from politics. Unfortunately, there are a lot more of others whose sudden changes in attitudes didn’t cause any turbulence in their political life.
We were trying to find the biggest hypocrite for 2017, but it was too hard a decision. For that reason, we had to leave the list random. Is voting pro-life while advising your wife and mistress to discontinue their pregnancies worse than sending out missiles to kill a number of people abroad, even though you were originally against it? We can’t really be judges of human lives if we are to be impersonal. Interestingly enough, even though everyone around you is reciting political hypocrisy quotes, there’s a small number of papers and websites that dare to pinpoint the liars and represent them as hypocrites. With so many politicians in the US one would expect the internet to be swarming with examples of wrongdoings. On the contrary, the information is scarce.
But we have it! We collected the data from Nola, Sites, US News, Jewish Atheist, Death and Taxes, The Street and Reason. If you’re keen on reading about criminals in politics, we also offer you an article about 10 most corrupt politicians in US history.
Now get ready to nod, raise your eyebrows, or even curse because here are 11 biggest hypocrites in American politics!
11. Donald Trump
Admit it, the current president of the United Stated was the first name that popped into your mind! And why wouldn’t it? Wherever you turn, people are mentioning his name, and not for very glorious reasons. On the contrary. With so many arguments, protests and stories, it seems a bit odd that he is still the president. Sometimes the stories are just that: plain gossips. However, there is one scandal that we can account for. His 2017 intervention in which he sent 50 tomahawk missiles to the Syrian airbase is in serious opposition to his claims of non interventionism during the elections. Naturally, the Democrats are criticizing his shift of opinion, while Trump supporters have changed their attitudes overnight, too. Trump justified himself for not being able to be just an observer due to the chemical weapons attack in Syria in which even children were harmed.
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1o. Joe Walsh
Up next on our list of biggest hypocrites in American politics we have a Republican, U.S. Representative from Illinois, Joe Walsh who had nothing but extreme criticism for Obama’s government, especially for his fiscal responsibility. The man surely knows a lot about being stingy since he was about $100,000 behind in child support payments. Obviously, he was trying to transfer his personal life into politics – why spend money when you can avoid it?
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9. Barack Obama
Do we dare to dish the dirt about “saint” Obama? Yes, indeed. It was too tempting not to when he himself called the Wall Street bankers and investors “fat cats” and criticized the nation’s “top 1 percent” harshly whenever he got the chance. Of course, Obama is no longer the president, and he can do as he pleases. He is involved in many activities, and one of them is giving speeches. The former US president received an amazing sum of $400,000 for a one-hour speech to the very same “fat cats.” That is basically the yearly salary of the president. The sum itself is not an issue as much as his previous constant criticism of the people that he gladly gave a speech to. After all, he could’ve simply said “no” if he wanted to.
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8. Jon Corzine
Jon Corzine ranks 8th on our list of biggest hypocrites in American politics. He is a former New Jersey governor, U.S. senator, and former Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO. With so many titles comes great responsibility. His hypocrisy lies in the fact that he just didn’t follow his own advice. While he was fervently proposing that financial firms are safely leveraged, with sufficient liquidity, in order to mitigate the impact of risky strategies that had failed. Eventually, he was fired with a nice $12 million severance package but the bankrupt firm had a loss of $1.2 billion in client money. Did we mention he was its CEO? The company in question was MF Global Holdings.
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7. Al Gore
We’re all aware how much the environment means to us and that we should be extremely careful about our natural resources. No one seemed more committed to environmentalism than former Vice President Al Gore. Reducing the carbon footprint and offsetting global warming was his mission. How is it then that in 2007 reports we have the information that Gore’s 20-room home received nearly a $30,000-a-year energy bill, and used more than 20 times the average kilowatt hours of the national household average? In his defense, the house was both a home and an office, and he was using lots of “green” sources, too. But then again, $30,000?
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6. Michele Bachmann
Michele Bachmann, a conservative and a U.S. congresswoman from Minnesota, had a long history of advocating the fiscal discipline. Bachmann often accused the government of spending too much money on… well, everything. From healthcare reform to welfare programs and subsidies. It’s really strange for someone who had been enjoying the money from the very same government to criticize its funds so much. Over 13 years her family farm in Wisconsin received around $260,000 in federal subsidies, and her husband’s counseling clinic also obtained $30,000 in state and federal grants. Infuriating, isn’t it?
5. Barney Frank
The list of 11 biggest hypocrites in American politics just couldn’t go without this person. Barney Frank, a Democrat representing Massachusetts in the U.S. House, is a prototype of every politician out there. Why? He is just one of many who are publicly scolding huge banks and investors but continue to receive donations from them. When he was asked about it, he said he didn’t see anything wrong with taking money from organizations he doesn’t support, so it’s their loss.
4. George W. Bush
We are continuing our list of biggest hypocrites in American politics with George W. Bush and his stances on child adoption by gay couples. While in 2005 he said the ideal family was a heterosexual one (and gay families would be less ideal), he supported his gay employee Mary Cheney when she decided to take that step. Also, some still remember his policy over frozen embryos for stem cells research. He declined the funds for it since it inevitably involves the destruction of life, but on September 11th he was fine with giving orders to shoot down any unresponsive plane carrying innocent civilians so as to protect other citizens. Indeed, being a politician is one tricky task.
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3. Tim Murphy
Tim Murphy ranks third on our list of biggest hypocrites in American politics. He has recently resigned, but that’s just before his planned retirement in 2018. It wasn’t so abominable that he had an affair with a married woman. What really caused the rage in voters was the fact that he asked his lover to abort their unborn child. For someone who has clearly and publicly supported anti-abortion policy, this act was a huge blow ( or rather the public finding out about it).
2. Scott DesJarlais
Scott DesJarlais is definitely one of the most hypocritical politicians. He is still a US representative despite the scandal that broke out n 2013. Once again a male politician who is pro-life when it comes to voting, but his personal life is a completely different matter! It should be noted that there is no evidence his mistress was pregnant (who, by the way, was his patient), but there is clear proof he advised her to have one.
1. Hillary Clinton
The biggest loser of the year, but at least we’ve put her in the first place of 11 biggest hypocrites in American politics — Hillary Clinton. Of course, this has to do something with a notorious rival in the elections. While Hillary was often criticized for encouraging military actions in the Middle East, and even recommended sending over 40,000 troops to Afghanistan (!), she completely disagreed with the previously mentioned Trump’s decision. As the matters are, if she had become the president, she would’ve gladly sent those 50 tomahawk missiles to Syria, or even more!
