Oh the hypocrisy!
Republicans are hypocrites. We have said that until we are blue in the face and out of breath. Yet, they continue their hypocrisy without blinking an eye, especially if it benefits them. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Retrumplican (as Chris Cuomo calls them) from Mississippi, gets this month’s vote as the biggest Republican hypocrite.
Many southern state legislatures have been scrambling to change the voting laws with the intent of making it harder to vote for people of color. They can say this is not the case, but when you closely examine the changes they propose, they directly impact that voting bloc. Take for instance the limiting of voting on Sunday. During the 2020 election, Black churches were highly involved in “Souls to the Polls” to help get their parishioners to polling places and their absentee ballots submitted. The drive to shut down Sunday voting is a direct slap in the face to these churches and parishioners and will likely prevent many from voting. According to Daily Beast, Cindy Hyde-Smith has jumped on this bandwagon with both feet. The problem is that her own campaign promoted church involvement.
In her zeal to quash Sunday voting, Hyde-Smith invoked the Bible, saying that Sunday should be free of politics to “keep it holy.” That in and of itself is funny, as most of these people are anything but holy. For the sake of argument, however, let us pretend that they are, and it offends them to talk politics on Sunday. The problem with that is that it is not true. This is merely a case of “do as I say and not as I do.” The Beast reported that during her own campaign in 2018, Hyde-Smith hosted back-to-back events in Columbus and Meridian, Mississippi, including a visit to a Pentecostal Church where she claimed Jesus “has lifted [her] up.” Lady, Jesus does not even know your name. There is absolutely nothing Christian about people who want to keep others from voting. If you believe in Jesus, you know that He loves all of us—black, brown, white, and yes, even politicians. The way they drop His name is cringeworthy, but Cindy Hyde-Smith—Miss “keep it holy”—was sworn in on a Sunday.
During her 2018 campaign, she made it clear that she had no qualms about voter suppression. She said that it sounded “like a great idea” when speaking at a gathering. She further said, “Maybe we want to make it just a little more difficult [for them to vote].” Given her history and her own words, relating Sunday voting to anything other than voter suppression is a lie. She further showed her disdain for people of color with her “public hanging” comment and photos that surfaced of her wearing a Confederate hat while holding a musket, under which she commented: “Mississippi history at its best.” If you like backwards thinking and residing in the poorest state in the nation, yes, Mississippi is history at its best. Hyde-Smith is yet another embarrassment that people have unadvisedly sent to Congress, but her views are exactly why the people of Mississippi sent her to serve.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years