IS There Such a Thing as a Double Standard?

Is Michael Moore ugly and fat? The answer to both questions is YES!

Let’s define what we mean: A double-standard means that there are two sets of rules for the same situation. There is one set of rules for a favored group and a set of unfair rules for other groups.

We’ve all heard the expression of “do as I say, not as I do”, which is a pithy way of describing it.

In politics, it is quite evident that a double-standard exists. For instance, President Obama has a penchant to criticize the large corporations as not paying their fair share and exploiters of the poor and middle class, but he seems to have no qualms about receiving political donations from his “fat cat” corporate friends from Hollywood and Wall Street. It seems like every other sentence he utters, the words “middle class” seems to tumble out of his mostly scripted mouth. Being an “evil” 1%’er himself, you’d think his conscience would bother him from taking that “blood money” from the wealthy liberal elites he associates with, but after listening to him for the past 5 years, it looks like he doesn’t have much of a conscience. In fact, he shows his gratitude by giving his “evil” corporate friends waivers and subsidies (ex. Solyndra) as a payback for their largesse.

Today, the Congressional Black Caucus (all Democrats) are complaining about the various states passing voter laws that require potential voters to prove who they are before casting a vote. They claim that is “voter suppression”, even though those laws apply to Whites, Asians, Native Americans, Blacks etc. Since the Congressional Black Caucus are all Democrats, it was amazing that last year during the Democratic National Convention, all people entering the arena or convention hall, had to show a picture I.D. to be able to enter, regardless of their race, color, or ethnic identity. Where was the outrage? That’s a double-standard.

Another example is in racial language. It is widely considered that it is O.K. for ethnic minorities to use racial epithets about their own race while other races are not allowed to use those same words, under penalty of social ostracism (blacks can use the word “nigga” but Paula Deen or whites cannot). That’s a double-standard.

In gender situations, women are treated far more leniently, most of the time, than men for committing the same acts. An adult male having sex with a minor (female or male) will most likely be treated more harshly than an adult woman doing the same act to a minor. That is a double-standard.

Just in the last few years, in politics, the Democrats used pejorative terms to describe President George W. Bush. Terms like idiot, fascist, baby killer, drunk etc., etc. were common. There was no outcry by the left (or very little) for this incivility toward the President, but today, if you criticize President Obama, the Democrats and the people on the left, call those Obama nay-sayers “racists”, “bigots” etc. That’s a double-standard if there ever was one.

We could go on and on in this age of “political correctness”, to point out all the types of double-standards that exist, but space is limited, but I’m sure you get the idea.

Yes Virginia, there is a double-standard and it is alive and well, here in the good ole U.S.A. (unfortunately).

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann