The mote in thy brother’s eye

A short sermon on hypocrisy...

“Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.” – Matthew 7:5

The one good thing about being raised up by a mother who pretty much shoved the King James Version down our throats is retaining at least a verse or two from the Bible. The above quote is about people’s tendency to dwell on the faults of others while ignoring major faults of our own.

And not much has changed since Jesus said it.

According to the Washington Post a number of Republicans have argued that the unemployment benefit payments of $600 a week are too high because they deter people from going out and getting a real job and encourage people to continue living off the government.

And one of those Republicans is Mitch McConnell, so let’s use him as an example of what the cartoon refers to.

If Britannica.com is correct:

Mitch McConnell graduated from the University of Kentucky Law School in 1967 and by 1968 was a legislative assistant to U.S. Sen. Marlow Cook, later served as a deputy assistant U.S. attorney general in the Ford Administration, a judge in Jefferson County, Kentucky and was then elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984.

Mitch is running again and is expected to win.

So here’s a guy who has spent most of his adult life living off the government and is now telling other people they need to get off the government’s back and go out and get a real job even though there aren’t a lot of real jobs available.

Now if you’re thinking, “Yeah, but Mitch worked for his money” you have more faith in the work ethic of politicians than I do.

Seems to me most politicians spend the majority of their time doing whatever they think will get them re-elected so they can stay in Washington, D.C., avoid heavy lifting, wear nice suits, dine with lobbyists and not do anything effective about the major issues that confront us like the coronavirus crisis or gun control or climate change or (fill in the blank because we have plenty of blanks to spare).

In fact, when Obama was president McConnell did everything he could to undermine him and make sure government was inefficient, so we were actually paying a guy to make sure nothing got done.

And while some people were arguing that we couldn’t afford an unemployment benefit extension, other people were cramming an extra $29.4 billion in military spending into the same coronavirus relief bill, some of which would fund projects – like the F-35 fighter jet – that happen to be built in the right congressional district.

Apparently we’re going to fight COVID-19 by strafing it.

Here’s a link to an article about that:

https://time.com/5873101/covid-19-aid-package-gop-military/

Back when I first started working in newspapers – at the now defunct Sacramento Union – a coworker pointed out that management was always nickel and diming the little guy, but when it came to something they wanted to do they always seemed to find the money.

That was over 40 years ago and not much has changed since my coworker pointed that out or since Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount.

People are still focused on the mote in their brother’s eye.

http://kingfeatures.com/comics/editorial-cartoons-a-z/