In a week that saw the Red Hen restaurant exclude White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was also hounded out of a Washington, D.C. restaurant and blockaded at her home. Meanwhile, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi was accosted as she left a theater.
These acts, one might suggest, do not befit the American liberal tradition of tolerance and respect for political disagreements. But perhaps that tradition is now dead. Twitter-age progressivism last week descended into mouth-frothing personal confrontations in pursuit of ideological absolutism.
It’s the resistance of the moral and righteous against the immoral and cretinous. And of course, we all know who gets to decide which is which.
god bless https://t.co/rsWvp4sCtG
— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) June 23, 2018
Where does this leave our discourse?
And by discourse I mean social as much as political. After all, if our civil society now disallows our political opponents a meal, movie or sleep, how can we find a common ground of respect, let alone the political compromises we need to resolve our greatest national challenges?
We cannot. While it is certainly true that conservatives do not always show the respect to liberals that we now seek from them, all should condemn the harassment of public officials as they go about their daily lives.
Yet there is hope.
At least for one fleeting moment this weekend, liberals and conservatives came together in mutual respect and passionate disagreement. And on the McLaughlin Group of all places!
