When they admire something said by a colleague, politicians will frequently say that they “wish to associate themselves with the remarks made by my colleague” as a way of expressing support.
After recent events, a large number of people in politics have had cause to feel moved to disassociate themselves from things said and/or done by their partisan colleagues, now that both sides seem engaged in a race to the bottom. With each day, each issue, each battle and outrage, we seem to have reached a new low.
Republicans have been facing this ever since President Trump launched himself out of reality TV and shock-jock talk radio and into the realm of those who think themselves statesmen. He has taken with him the good taste and restraint of men like Don Imus, and as John Podhoretz has noted, the rhythms and tics of Borscht Belt comedians, who are high on insults and recriminations but low on tact and finesse.
Liberals never stop urging Republicans to “stand up to Trump” and force him to pay for his gross incivilities. But politics, which is good at both rewarding and punishing actions, has a harder time dealing with words. What if politicians cringe at his words, but support and will vote for the policy he proposes? Are they supposed to vote against measures they think will be helpful because they don’t like the way that he talks?
When Trump has done things Republicans regard as misguided, Republicans have rebelled and joined the Democrats in forcing corrections. But there is no legal or practical method for dealing with offensive or odious speech. Voters handle it in their own way by voting against those who offend them, but this is no help to the distressed politician trying to tame his own party and backers.
And this isn’t a problem unique to Republicans, either. During the confirmation of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Democrats also saw things said and done by their backers that they now have good cause to regret.
Among these things are the thousands of letters and phone calls made to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, whose vote and whose well-reasoned speech just before it decided the issue in favor of Kavanaugh. The leftists mailed, emailed, and recorded messaging expressing the hope that she and her younger assistants be raped or murdered. They allegedly sent ricin to her residence. The ricin and threats were also sent to her colleagues.
Consider the stalking of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who with his wife was forced out of a restaurant; the experience of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and his wife Elaine Chao, who were stalked and attacked in a diner in Lexington, Ky.; the experience of the White House press secretary whose party was refused service in a restaurant in Virginia; and the words of Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who cheerfully urged all of this on.
Not to mention the scene at the Capitol, where feminists and their allies had screamed throughout the hearings, harassed and berated members of Congress, and, when the vote at last went against them, howled and flung themselves at the doors of the Supreme Court.
No criticism was made at the time by the Democrats, because they believed all of this “energy” was an indication of a purpose and drive that would work to their benefit. It was only when the polls came in from the red and swing states where they had candidates running did they start to rethink this position. Right now, a mechanism by which party members could distance themselves from some of their “allies” might serve the best interests of all.
