The Trump-Deranged are cheering Michelle Obama’s decision to boycott Donald Trump’s Inauguration. Personally, I wouldn’t cross the street to greet Michelle, so I am inclined to think that her petty effort to show her contempt for the duly-elected President of the United States (and virtue-signal to the Axis) has little significance other than telling us more about her character.

Nancy Pelosi is similarly boycotting the event, which is a minor insult compared to others she has inflicted on Trump and the office. But tradition and those “democratic norms” Democrats are supposedly so fond of dictate that former First Ladies accompany their husbands to these every four years affairs regardless of party or position. It is symbolic. It is unifying. It is part of the pageant that demonstrates to the world our peaceful transfer of power.

‘Nah,’ says Michelle, ‘fuck that shit.’ “There’s no overstating her feelings about [Trump]. She’s not one to plaster on a pleasant face and pretend for protocol’s sake,” an Obama friend told “People.” “Michelle doesn’t do anything because it’s expected or it’s protocol or it’s tradition.”

Funny, that sounds a lot like Trump. But Donald Trump, at least, has actually engaged in public service and held elected office, built things, employed people, and made tough policy decisions in the last two decades. Michelle hasn’t practiced law since 1993, and has been riding on her husband’s metaphorical coat-tails since 2008. She is a legend, as they say, in her own mind.

Michelle lowered the standards of dignity and decorum set by previous First Ladies by feeding her fans such yummies as her cavorting on the Tonight Show (with Jimmy Fallon in drag above) in 2015. This was the extent of her foreign affairs expertise…

Aww, look, she made a frowny face for those 200 Nigerian girls kidnapped by terrorist in Nigeria and turned into sex slaves, or raped or murdered. The infamous (and, of course, futile) photo was pretty much the high point of Michelle’s substantive contribution to her husband’s administration. She had the usual pet projects First Ladies take on to be (or to look) busy, like warning about the dangers of obesity and unhealthy eating. You can see the impact that had. Since the end of the Obama administration she’s been cashing in along with her husband.

Attending the Trump Inauguration was one positive gesture she could have made toward political comity and the essential cultural value of accepting opposing points of view. The woman who hypocritically said of Republicans, “when they go low, we go high” went extra-low last October when Democrats realized that Harris was tanking. She called Trump “a convicted felon, a known slumlord” and a “predator found liable for sexual abuse.” Now she is intent on showing the world that she meant it.

I really don’t care what Michelle Obama does or says, but it is rankling to hear her defenders use Rationalizations #2. Whataboutism, or “They’re Just as Bad,” #7. The “Tit for Tat” Excuse,” and # 32. The Unethical Role Model: “He/She would have done the same thing” to justify her decision. Trump, you see, did the same thing to Joe Biden in 2020.

Yes he did, and it was unethical: divisive, irresponsible, unpatriotic, and wrong. Fortunately Michelle Obama is a historical footnote whose conduct is far less consequential; nonetheless, her emulating the conduct of a man she has condemned and is now publicly shunning is rank hypocrisy.