So let's get this straight:
Donald Trump advised Mitt Romney to released his tax returns when Romney was running in 2012, but now Trump says his own taxes are none of our business.
Trump says that we shouldn't pay attention to his pretending to be a spokesman for himself because "that took place 25 years ago. But Bill Clinton's affairs from 20 years ago or more are important enough for Trump to bring them up on the campaign trail.
Trump ally Chris Christie said in a press conference this week that the so-called "Bridgegate" investigation, from a multi-day incident in September 2013 that's still under investigation by the US attorney, is "old news" and "I'm done with that." But when Christie brought up the much-investigated September 2012 incident in Benghazi, Libya, as a way of degrading Hillary Clinton, that's current enough.
And let's not get into all the ways the Trump embraces the people that he was insulting during the campaign. That's just run-of-the-mill everyday political hypocrisy. Or that now he's saying that the Muslim ban was "just a suggestion" and that everything he proposes is just a negotiating tactic, although what's being negotiated isn't exactly clear. Banning some Muslims? Every other Muslim? Forget about the ban, that thing that was one of the main reasons you voted for him?
Or what about some more general Republican hypocrisy, like the uproar on the right over whether Facebook is suppressing conservative content in its news feed. These are the same outrage-mongers who think that bakers and florists and anyone who is a priggish Christian shouldn't have to provide services to same-sex weddings. They should have the "freedom" to make those decisions as a business. Yet Facebook can't say, "Yeah, we think conservative stories are bullshit and won't feature them"? Where's Facebook's freedom?
Or how about conservatives demanding that any welfare recipients follow the letter of the law, even getting drug tests in some states, but Texas or North Carolina can get all pissed off about being told that money they receive from the federal government is contingent on them following guidelines attached to the money - in these cases, that transgender people can use whatever bathroom matches their gender identity.
Which is it? What do you actually believe? The answer, of course, is "Whatever is convenient in the moment."
