Double Standardism

Everyone knows that politicians and pundits on the left operate according to a double standard.

A fault, even a trivial fault committed by a conservative or a Republican becomes a crime against humanity. The same or even more egregious fault committed by a liberal or a Democrat becomes trivial.

Prime examples: Clarence Thomas and Bill Clinton.

Also, think about what would have happened to a conservative media executive if he had ever spoken of President Obama with disparaging, racist language… as Amy Pascal, head of Sony pictures did.

Is there any doubt that if Pascal had been a Republican the hue and cry would have forced her out of her job by now? As of today, it looks as though she will survive.

Pascal has job security because media figures and politicians do not judge liberals and conservatives according to the same standards.

Pascal adheres to the correct ideology. She and her Hollywood friends give gobs of money to the Democratic Party. She is one of them. In her world, being one of them counts for a great deal.

When former San Diego Clippers owner Donald Sterling was exposed for having made racist remarks in private, Oprah denounced his “plantation mentality.”

When Amy Pascal’s emails were exposed, Oprah counseled against a “rush to judgment.”

Jonah Goldberg has explained the double standard succinctly:

If you work from the dogmatic assumption that liberalism is morally infallible and that liberals are, by definition, pitted against sinister and — more importantly — powerful forces, then it’s easy to explain away what seem like double standards. Any lapse, error, or transgression by conservatives is evidence of their real nature, while similar lapses, errors, and transgressions by liberals are trivial when balanced against the fact that their hearts are in the right place.

Despite controlling the commanding heights of the culture — journalism, Hollywood, the arts, academia, and vast swaths of the corporate America they denounce — liberals have convinced themselves they are pitted against deeply entrenched powerful forces and that being a liberal is somehow brave. Obama, the twice-elected president of the United States, to this day speaks as if he’s some kind of underdog.

I don’t want to take anything away from Goldberg’s excellent insight, but I would add that liberalism functions like a church that hands out indulgences… dare I say, liberally.

Those who belong to the church of modern liberalism can get away with things that a conservative, even a mere mortal never could. Surely, it's a persuasive recruiting tool.