Americans hate hypocrisy. We call it out, we deride it, we claim to despise it. But what if hypocrisy isn’t only inevitable in politics but actually necessary? What if the very thing we think makes us weak is actually what keeps us human?

The history of American hypocrisy is tragically long. Out of all the things I wished about my country, it was that our hypocrisy would end. Part of me still wishes this, but I'm not so sure any more.

There was a time when I thought hypocrisy was a great moral travesty, perhaps the great moral travesty. When I was a kid going to (Muslim) Sunday school in the suburbs of Philadelphia, the hypocrite was a character of intense fascination. In the Quran, the hypocrites were a distinct group, mentioned time and time again across 29 chapters. They were the wo

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