Hypocrisy at its worst

by SCOTT TAYLOR, Placerville

As we know, most Republicans voted against the infrastructure bill stating that it was a slippery slide to socialism. Now that the money has started being distributed and projects have begun, a handful of these same congresspeople are now extolling the benefits of the bill for their districts and states thus implying that they voted for the bill. While neither party is immune from hypocrisy, this seems to be hypocrisy with a capital H. Changing your mind about an issue is one thing but, voting one way and then implying that you voted another way is not OK.

Before the Trump era, I would have assumed that most people would see this duplicity for what it is. However, the past six years have taught me that we are highly susceptible to misinformation and disinformation and there is a sizable portion of the population who will infer that because their congressperson is praising the infrastructure program, he or she voted for it. Ironically, our own representative, Tom McClintock, is so against any federal government spending and programs that he will almost certainly never see the infrastructure bill as a benefit to the constituents of his district.