Earlier this week, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, a partisan Democrat, released a bombshell 165-page report that another partisan Democrat, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, previously sexually harassed at least 11 women in the workplace. According to the report, Cuomo engaged in nonconsensual touching, groping and kissing, in addition to making generally inappropriate comments toward numerous women. What’s more, in James’ words from a press conference earlier this week, “in doing so,” Cuomo “violated federal and state law” and created a “toxic workplace environment.”
Cuomo has nonetheless denied the allegations and thus far refused to resign. He has done so notwithstanding a direct plea from President Joe Biden—a man similarly known for decades, perhaps an entire political career’s worth, of inappropriate touching of women— for him to do precisely that, as well as a strongly worded statement from New York State Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (another fellow Democrat) that Cuomo “can no longer serve as governor.” In a galling display of a lack of self-awareness, a May 2013 Cuomo tweet was also recently unearthed for all to see: “There should be a zero tolerance policy when it comes to sexual harassment & must send a clear message that this behavior is not tolerated.” Apparently #BelieveAllWomen, the Left’s preferred hashtag during the 2018 Justice Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation saga—and a deeply discomfiting mantra, at that, for all who claim to care about basic norms of fairness—only applies to Republicans, and not Democrats, accused of serial sexual misconduct. Uncle Joe would certainly know all about that. Does anyone in Washington even remember Tara Reade?
Democratic hypocrisy does not stop, of course, at personal sexual misconduct. On Thursday, Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., the newest addition to the socialist, America-bashing House “Squad,” recorded a wild interview on CBS in which she advocated for defunding the police while conceding that she, a sitting U.S. congresswoman and thus nothing if not profoundly privileged, maintains a private security detail. “I’m going to make sure that I have security because … I have had attempts on my life,” Bush argued. She then artfully added, roughly 20 seconds later: “So suck it up, and defunding the police has to happen. We need to defund the police and put that money into social safety nets.”
Huh?
The same people who hypocritically support defunding the police while simultaneously being privileged enough to retain a private security detail, of course, are also those who usually support draconian, rights-infringing gun restrictions. So for those keeping score at home, the hard left wants to defund the police and prevent you from securing your home and hearth with your own firearms, while it sleeps well at night comfortably protected by private security details. Many of these Democrats, as well as their major donors, also support open borders and tearing down even extant portions of the U.S.-Mexico border wall—policies that disproportionately harm legal migrants and working-class ranchers who live near the border, including in such COVID-overrun areas as Texas’ Rio Grande Valley— while they live in wealthy, gated and well-manicured communities.
There is maybe something to be said for the old saw, “Do as I say, not as I do.” But at a certain point, it is exceedingly difficult if not impossible to take these hypocrites’ griping seriously. If an elected official is beseeching a certain lifestyle or otherwise advocating for major changes to public policy, it is not too much to ask that those doing the beseeching or advocating generally live what it is they preach. A leader who leads the polity in a moral and just direction by means of personal example is acting virtuously and properly. Shouting from the rooftop while privately contradicting everything someone says publicly, by contrast, is neither virtuous nor proper; it is immoral and laughable.
The only silver lining that might emerge from this, especially with respect to Cuomo’s trials and tribulations, is that sullied Democrats could theoretically catch enough flak and be sufficiently publicly shamed so as to modify their irksome public-facing positions. In the case of Cuomo, that might take the form of eschewing a manifestly unreasonable “Believe All Women” stance in favor of one more consistent with basic civilizational norms of due process. Then again, if past is prologue, don’t expect the great grandma slayer of Albany to go through much, if any, introspection.