Without calling out any individuals as hypocrites, I believe there are certain guidelines that could be followed to avoid earning that title: 1) If you cheered with the Congressional GOP for the government shutdown, you don’t get to complain that parts of the government you like are shut down. 2) If you were a “birther” who falsely claimed that Obama was born overseas and therefore couldn’t be trusted, you don’t get to support Canadian-born Ted Cruz and then pretend your Obamaphobia is not about race. After all, only one of those politicians actually WAS born overseas. 3) If you opposed Obama because you believed he was going to implement Sharia law, you don’t get to support the passing of legislation based on your religion. Let’s face it, Islamic countries are anti-abortion, very supportive of the death penalty, oppose the separation of church and state, believe religious doctrine should be taught in schools, believe that women should have fewer rights than men, oppose “multiculturalism”, and believe that homosexuality is evil and should be outlawed... If Obama was going to spread Islamic law, he would have been a Republican. 4) If you believe a lawyer should be made available to you if you are accused of a crime and can’t afford one, you don’t get to complain about a doctor being made available to people who get sick and can’t afford one. 5) If you support sodomy laws being pushed by conservatives, or didn’t like the effects of low government oversight (eg: 2002 Enron scandal, the GFC, 2010 BP spill, factory explosions earlier this year, etc); you don’t get to repeat fearmongering slogans about “big government”. 6) If you live in a state that takes more federal dollars than it produces, or relies on tourism to federal lands for a significant portion of the local economy, or complain that companies making billions of dollars a year couldn’t afford to pay their frontline workers an increased minimum wage, you don’t get to complain about “welfare”. 7) If you deny the validity of 99% of religions, you don’t get to insult people for denying the validity of that last 1%. 8 ) If you supported the Republican opposition to any serious investigation of what had happened to cause the deaths of 4000 Americans on 9-11, and even when an inquiry was empaneled, backed the Bush administration in limiting the scope of the inquiry; you don’t get to climb on the GOP bandwagon in calling for massive investigations into 4 deaths in Benghazi. 9) If you ignored violations of American citizens’ constitutional rights when they were locked up indefinitely without charge (eg: John Walker Lindh, Jose Padilla, etc) in violation of their sixth Amendment rights, or support the Tealiban position of going into default in violation of the fourteenth Amendment, or support DOMA in violation of the first Amendment, or support the GOP’s voter suppression tactics in violation of the fifteenth Amendment... you don’t get to claim that you’re passionate refutal of gun control measures is in support of the Constitution. What about that isn't fair?
