Words of the Day - Duplicitous

From Word-Net Dictionary

Adj. 1. duplicitous - marked by deliberate deceptiveness especially by pretending one set of feelings and acting under the influence of another; "she was a deceitful scheming little thing"- Israel Zangwill; "a double-dealing double agent"; "a double-faced infernal traitor and schemer"- W.M.Thackeray
Synonyms: double-dealing, double-tongued, two-faced, Janus-faced, double-faced, ambidextrous, deceitful

The Republican thought control machine is working hard to turn sins, that they themselves have denounced opponents for, into strengths.

• After non-stop attacks on Obama as lacking the experience to be a President, they have chosen a VP candidate with experience as a mayor of a small town and governor for less than two years.
• Palin's announcement that her 17 year old daughter was unmarried and pregnant, has been turned into 'real demonstration of her pro-life ideals' and 'something we can all identify with.'
  

Consistency is irrelevant. I believe that probably many people generally do not think in abstract principles so that when their ideal is contradicted, they often don't see the contradiction. They don't see that their strong principle in one area has been violated in another area. Others are clearly spinning the truth to favor their position. For example:

Vision America, founded by Pastor Rick Scarborough, posts on its website:

Abstinence education works; condom distribution in the schools is playing Russian roulette with the lives of our children

From Focus on the Family idol James Dobson:

The real reason that teen birthrates are declining is that young people have rediscovered abstinence.

The Heritage Foundation on abstinence education:

Abstinence education programs for youth have been proven to be effective in reducing early sexual activity. Abstinence programs also can provide the foundation for personal responsibility and enduring marital commitment. Therefore, they are vitally important to efforts aimed at reducing out-of-wedlock childbearing among young adult women, improving child well-being, and increasing adult happiness over the long term.[emphasis added]

But after Palin's revelation of her upcoming grandmotherhood, we hear this sort of thing


From the New York Times:

“Families get in trouble all the time,” said Rick Scarborough, a pastor and the founder of the conservative advocacy group Vision America. “From what I see this family is dealing with it honorably. They are going to carry this baby to a full term as a further testimony of their commitment to life.”

“The media is already trying to spin this as evidence that Governor Palin is a hypocrite,” said James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family. “But all it really means is that she and her family are human.”

“I am a high school coach, I interact with 17-year-olds every day,” said Fergus Cullen, the New Hampshire Republican chairman. “And there are a lot of parents out there of 17-year-old high school students. If anything, this is a reminder that Sarah Palin is a real person who has the same experiences that regular Americans do.

From NPR:

"We all have ghosts in our closet," says mortgage banker Reif. . . Hearing the reports that Palin's unmarried daughter Bristol is pregnant, Reif says, "showed me that she is more like us."

I didn't hear anything about ghosts when they pulled out Lewinsky's blue dress.

"More like us"??????????

Unmarried pregnant teenagers are so common that Palin's daughter connects her with the common people???? These are Republicans talking and they aren't talking about their normal poster child for unmarried mothers - African-Americans - they are talking about themselves. This is amazing!!! Does that mean that all the stuff they've been saying about abstinence education is bunk? And that they've known all along it doesn't work?

These are people in serious denial.

I'm sorry that Bristol is pregnant at 17 and unmarried. It's not a moral thing about sex on my part, but rather, at 17, she should be growing up and having fun and studying and preparing to take a responsible role in her community. This is all going to make it much harder for her and Levi not to mention the baby. (I recognize that in past eras, people got married at younger ages, but they also didn't go to college or even finish high school.)

Will anyone of them admit it might have been better if Levi had used a condom? That maybe sex education that reflected the reality of life, that teenage pregnancy is so common that Republican delegates can relate to a candidate with a pregnant daughter? Or does this simply prove that we are all sinners?


This is an example of duplicity. This is not about finding the truth, finding areas we can agree on, 'being Americans not Republicans" as they also said last night. This is about winning at all costs. This is about twisting the truth, stretching our principles, to win. That isn't to say that the Democrats don't do this as well, but I'd like to see more Republicans do what Obama did. He didn't grab this tidbit of Republican duplicity and run with it to his advantage. Instead he said, "Family issues are off limits." That isn't something Republicans are good at.