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Partisanship and political polarization are powerful components of American society. The internet in general and social media in particular have given us not only more outlets to express and discuss our perspectives. They’ve also made it easier to pick one side or the other and stick with them regardless of the situation.
The two big Russian opposition research stories of the year involved different campaigns. On one hand, we have the widely reported meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian “operative” that was intended to yield dirt on Hillary Clinton. On the other hand, we have the DNC, FBI, and the Clinton campaign itself paying for the Trump dossier. In both cases, the campaigns attempted to sink the other by soliciting damaging material from people associated with Russia. What were the reactions to each? It all depends on which side you were on.
If you’re on Team Trump, then what Junior did was a nothingburger and what the Clinton campaign did is potentially treason. If you’re on Team Clinton, then the dossier was just part of the game but what the Trump campaign did was pure evil.
To both sides: if you’re going to be outraged about one, you really shouldn’t be dismissing the other. They’re far too similar to allow for inconsistent perspectives. That’s not to say they were equal, but if one was bad, so was the other. If one was an acceptable element of election warfare, so was the other.
I read a stinging piece today by Katherine Timpf on National Review:
Clinton Dossier & Trump Tower Russian Meeting: Both Sides’ Lies Are Despicable
Here’s a radical idea: It’s bad that the Clinton campaign changed stories about the dossier and it’s bad that Team Trump change stories about the meeting. If you’re upset about one and not the other, then you’re not really upset about the issue itself — you’re just a partisan pawn spouting propaganda for someone who didn’t care enough about you to tell you the truth in the first place. It’s amazing how many of the same people who would be mad at their friends for lying to them will willingly defend the lies of a total stranger just because of “party allegiance.” It’s disgusting, it’s dangerous, and it’s time to do better.
What Timpf proposes isn’t just common sense. It should be a standard that every pundit and politician holds dear. When lies are told, their political affiliation shouldn’t make an impact on our perspective. A lie is a lie. Poor judgment is poor judgment. When a political figure tells a lie, demonstrates poor judgment, or both, we should be consistent with our reactions to them.
What members of the Trump campaign attempted to do with Russia was wrong. The same is true for members of the Clinton campaign. You can disagree with me and say that neither was wrong, but you can’t justifiably say one was wrong while the other wasn’t. Unfortunately, the majority of political party puppets out there are doing just that. The moral of the story: pick a side on policy but hold the same standards for both sides when it comes to ethics.
This is just reason #821 I co-founded the Federalist Party.
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