In this column last month, I shared a movie idea based on listening to my mom and mother-in-law talk about how evil they think Donald Trump is. In my 80 For Brady rip-off, a member of a book group of retired liberal women gets terminal cancer so they all take a road trip to Washington D.C. so she can assassinate the Republican president and spend her last months in jail. No studio called me with an offer. Luckily no Secret Service called either. The point is, I don’t have a lot of subscribers. If my movie pitch had an intelligent thesis – which I will now invent to make me look better – it was to point out the irony that Democrats’ fear of authoritarianism has led them to wish physical harm to those who disagree with them. Which is pretty authoritarian of them. A University of Chicago poll in June found that 10 percent of Americans agree that “the use of force is justified to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president.” Another 22.6 percent are “ambivalent” about the idea. I’m not sure which group scares me more. What else are these people ambivalent about? Group texting? And what exactly is going to persuade these ambivalent people to take up arms? “Are there free snacks? I’ll overthrow democracy if there are Kind bars.” If half of Americans are voting for Trump, that means that 65.2 percent of Biden voters think it’s okay to use force to stop Donald Trump from becoming president as long as there are Kind bars involved.
Many nice, liberal people I know – some of them teenagers in very progressive schools – are wishing Trump was assassinated. Or are only concerned that the shooting will help his campaign. We have done what only people in war do: Dehumanize the enemy. We’d be calling the other side some animal if it weren’t for the fact that donkeys and elephants are adorable. Everyone must condemn this shooting. Everyone must stop hoping for physical harm to political opponents. Especially those of us who are scared of losing our democracy. Because when you advocate violence against leaders, you’ve given up on democracy. You’re saying that the only way to settle disagreements is by force. Which is not a great plan when your constituency is college-educated cosmopolitans who settle disagreements by Googling. In addition to condemning violent action, we must condemn our lack of action. We’ve been talking like the prospect of a Trump presidency is an emergency for our democracy. But we’re not acting that way. In France, Hungary, and Moscow, those opposing the authoritarian party engaged in smart voting. Everyone who wasn’t polling in first or second place against the far-right party dropped out. They held their noses and teamed up for the election. These parties have long hated each other and have different opinions on emotional issues such as immigration, gay rights, and the nationalization of industries. Because when there’s an emergency all the things that matter to you must be put on hold. Which means the democrats need to put a Republican vice-president on the ticket. They need to promise to fill half of the cabinet with Republicans. They need to bend to conservatives on issues that make me sick to give in on: immigration, trans rights, the ability of children to be read to by drag queens – all of it. Every last person who is against Trump must work together. You don’t win by shooting or imprisoning your opponents. You win by convincing people that you can help them with their concerns, no matter how dumb those concerns are. That’s what democracy is. And if you really want to keep it, you better play by its rules. Thank you for paying to read my column. Wait: This is for the people who didn’t pay? Then I owe you nothing. You are the ones contributing to the end of my career. If you want to pay an exorbitant amount of money to get one extra post a month – which often won’t even be that good – upgrade to a paid subscription here:
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Monday, July 15, 2024
We Liberals Need to Calm Our Rhetoric Down
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