A Hypocrite’s Tears — Speaker Boehner’s False Allegiance to Children’s Needs

© 2010 Peter Free

 

20 December 2010

 

 

Hypocrisy is interesting — and so common that it generally goes unremarked

 

In a 60 Minutes interview with Lesley Stahl, House Speaker-to-Be John Boehner choked up. He explained that he longer went to schools because he couldn’t stand to think about whether the kids there would have the opportunities to live the American dream that he had had.

 

There was virtually no commentary after the program aired that focused on the Speaker’s display of:

 

(a) hypocrisy (given his dismal voting record in regard to programs related to children and their futures)

 

and

 

(b) his implied emotional cowardice in avoiding having to confront a problem that he had helped create.

 

 

Professor Tom Lutz skewered Speaker Boehner with Representative Boehner’s voting record

 

There was one exception to the lackluster post-interview critique of Speaker Boehner's emotion. Professor Tom Lutz (author of Crying: The Natural and Cultural History of Tears) explained that crying indicates conflicted emotions.

 

Excerpts from his editorial include:

 

Crying is often the sign of excruciatingly mixed emotion.

 

He does, I believe, worry about the children, and yet his entire political philosophy is devoted to limiting the federal government's ability to help them.

 

He has voted against providing health insurance for children (many times), against student aid, against unemployment benefits, against equal pay, against food safety, against money for teachers, against raising the minimum wage, against tobacco education, mine safety, alternative energy, pollution control, whistle-blower protection, science and technology research.

 

If he were making his decisions based on what government programs might help today's schoolchildren reach their dreams, like the Kennedy- and Johnson-era programs that helped him, his voting record would be very different.

 

It is a deep enough contradiction to make him weep for the future.

 

© 2010 Tom Lutz, A crying shame, Los Angeles Times (15 December 2010) (paragraphs split)

 

 

The take away message?

 

Representative Boehner’s hypocrisy makes him sad.

 

Boehner would probably feel better, had he the guts to speak truthfully about the competing priorities that test fiscal responsiblity.

 

Admittedly, truthful openness would be the antithesis of American politics today.

 

Tears and self-destructive complacence are more easily achieved than courage and honestly-aimed action.