During election season, there are often sound bites passed
around which depict a candidate saying something offensive when they were
significantly younger, sometimes in their twenties or even their teens. The
takeaway message is always, “Is this the kind of person you want in office?”
I understand the validity of this if the
candidate still expresses the same attitudes today, and so it’s meant to show
that they haven’t grown. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. Almost always, it’s meant to imply that an opinion someone holds in
their youth is a defining part of their permanent nature. That assumption is
not only unfounded, but unfair. How many of us cringe when we recall
insensitive, bigoted, or just plain ignorant things we said when we were
younger? Everyone deserves a chance to be seen as a more evolved version of our
former selves, as long as we actively demonstrate it and denounce the harmful
things we used to espouse. In that case, changing your mind isn’t hypocrisy.
It’s maturation.
If the candidate is known for flip-flopping, that’s another
story. Tailoring your core values to your audience, rather than just adjusting
the presentation, is dishonesty. That deserves to be called out. All the same,
I think it’s rarely relevant to try to prove a point by showing a clip of
someone being foolish in college.
This relates to the way that consistency is falsely assumed
because it's so overvalued. You hear a lot of quotes like, “Don’t make fun of
other peoples’ appearance when you’re not attractive yourself” or “Don’t use
the Bible to be homophobic unless you follow all of its rules.” Why is being
hateful toward the LGBT+ community somehow more acceptable if you’re
religiously consistent? Why is it more excusable to harass people about their
looks if you are traditionally attractive?
It’s better not to hold horrible beliefs at all, whether or not
they’re consistent with other behavior or with beliefs one has held in the
past. Unfortunately, the allegiance to sameness—even sameness to your self—can cause
many to stubbornly cling to bad ideas.
