Vituperative Political Discourse is American Tradition

We’ll hear a lot of calls, many of them well intended, to “take down the temperature” of political rhetoric. And the temperature will go down — briefly. (Except on @MSNBC where some guest or host will surely call Trump a fascist within a week or two.) But then it’ll just revert to where it is now with the left calling the right fascists and calling Trump “actual Hitler”, and the right using somewhat but only somewhat less inflammatory language about the left.

Here’s the thing: I think calling someone Hitler goes way too far because if someone were Hitler you can argue that any action taken to stop him would be justified. (Indeed, quite a few on the left feel that way about Trump.) But short of that, I think almost anything (especially facts and honestly held opinions, even if wrong/stupid) is fair game in politics. And it doesn’t matter if people get offended. People should study the rhetoric surrounding the presidential election of 1800.

Yeah, we should take the temperature down…but only a few degrees. Not only is vibrant and quarrelsome political discourse an American tradition, but I also don’t like setting unattainable goals. And some sort of genteel and gentlemanly (even for women) version of American political debate is both impossible and, from my viewpoint, unwanted.

So let’s deal with public pronouncements of wanting people harmed or comparing an American politician to one of the very worst figures in human history. But other than that, when it comes to our politics, I say carry on.

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