Logic of the Vendetta Now Guides our Politics
Jonah Goldberg Oct 26, 2018 12:01 AM Townhall.com
Whether the packages delivered to leading Democrats and
liberals turn out to be functioning bombs or dummy devices
intended to send a message, the effect is largely the same:
American politics is descending further into the logic of the
vendetta.
If you read about famous feuds or intergenerational rivalries -
Hatfields vs. McCoys, Israelis vs. Palestinians, etc. - one
simple truth makes everything much more complicated: Everybody
has a valid point. The Hatfields shout, "Your family shot my
uncle!" The McCoys reply, "Well, you folks hanged my father!"
And they're both right.
And they're both wrong.
They're right that the other side did something bad, but
they're wrong that the first bad act justifies the second.
They're also wrong because, outside of war, "sides" don't
really kill people; people kill people. If someone named Smith
kills someone named Goldberg, I have no right to kill some
different person named Smith, who did nothing wrong, simply
because I happen to be a Goldberg, too.
Until now, I've been speaking mostly metaphorically. We're not
a failed state where competing coalitions visit bloody reprisals
on each other. We're not Ancient Rome either. But we're getting
closer. And you can tell by the way we're talking.
In response to this still-unfolding crime, the overwhelming
response from Democrats and most of the mainstream media is that
this is all Donald Trump's fault.
"Time and time again, the president has condoned physical
violence and divided Americans with his words and his actions,"
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi said in a joint statement Wednesday. "Expressing
support for the Congressman who body-slammed a reporter, the
neo-Nazis who killed a young woman in Charlottesville, his
supporters at rallies who get violent with protestors, dictators
around the world who murder their own citizens, and referring to
the free press as the enemy of the people."
Trump's call for unity in response to mail-terror attacks "ring
hollow," they added. And they're right.
Indeed, Trump seemed to demonstrate the hollowness the
following morning in a tweet: "A very big part of the Anger we
see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and
inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as
Fake News. It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond
description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!"
On one level, this tweet is loopy. We don't know the motives
of the bomb mailer yet, but it seems unlikely that he or she was
sending explosive devices to Barack Obama, Robert De Niro and
Rep. Maxine Watters to teach the "fake news" a lesson. That
would be some serious three-dimensional media criticism right
there.
But Trump has a point, too. His "enemy of the people" rhetoric
is irresponsibly hyperbolic, but it resonates with millions of
people who have good reason to believe that much of the media has
gone off the rails in their animosity toward Trump and toward
Republicans generally.
More relevant, Trump's most loyal defenders leapt to make the
case that Schumer, Pelosi and all of the Democrats and pundits
blaming Trump for fomenting a climate of violence are hypocrites
given the things they've said and done. Fox News host Sean
Hannity had a furious monologue recounting all of the uncivil
things Trump's liberal critics have said, from Waters encouraging
mobs to harass Republicans in public to Hillary Clinton saying
civility isn't an option for Democrats.
Put aside the asininity of acting as if the most pressing issue
of the moment is liberal hypocrisy when bomb-laden packages are
still being discovered. Hannity still has a point. Ricin was
sent to Trump. GOP Rep. Steve Scalise was shot at a practice
for a charity baseball game by a man motivated by liberal
rhetoric.
The point is not about "whatabism" or "both sides-ism." As a
conservative who is critical of Trump, the Democrats and the
mainstream media, I have no team here. The point is that
everybody is using the real or perceived hypocrisy of the "other
side" to justify their refusal to look squarely at their own
side's irresponsible words and deeds.
It's obvious to me that Trump's demonizing rhetoric, his
inveterate lying and his insinuations that his supporters are the
only real Americans are dangerously irresponsible. His
responsibilities as president of the whole country do not change
regardless of what his critics say about him. But the reactions
to Trump are often irresponsible, too. And saying "Trump is
worse" doesn't change that.
Yes, everybody is right. But that doesn't mean everybody isn't
wrong, too.