No 'coming together'

In the aftermath of last week’s shooting at a local synagogue, a Presbyterian pastor demonstrating against President Trump’s subsequent appearance was caught yelling, “You don’t belong here!” Needless to say, the outburst was regarded as proof positive of the hypocrisy, narrowmindedness and incivility of “liberals.” (Now, I personally agree that the president had no business being in Pittsburgh at that time, as the families requested that he stay away until the funerals had already taken place.)

Anyway, in light of that, some people I know who lean left have said, as they often do, that all sides need to come to the table to talk to each other and find common ground to restore a sense of civility.

Sounds good on the surface. But it’s also extremely naïve because the political right, at least over the past few decades, has never demonstrated any interest in working with anyone else. It takes two to tango, as the saying goes, and I’ve seen no indication that conservatives even want to work things out.

Recently I read a profile on Newt Gingrich, the former congressman from suburban Atlanta who later became Speaker of the House, in The Atlantic magazine. Much of the interview took place in a zoo, and he noted that in the wild animals fight each other rather than cooperate, calling that “natural.” In other words, he believed in the philosophy of “social Darwinism” — you know, “survival of the fittest.” He’s the architect of the divisiveness we see in American politics today, which started with his election in 1978.

And then you have the “religious right,” which started around that time and reacted against anyone, even fellow Christians, who came across as “liberal” and dominated Christian TV and radio. Later in the 1980s you had the rise of right-wing talk radio, most notably Rush Limbaugh.

Going farther, you saw the “vast right-wing conspiracy” against Bill Clinton and simultaneous vilification of his wife Hillary. And today you have the ogre that is Trump, who got elected by trash-talking everyone in sight, even in his own party. (Indeed, the reason folks voted for him is precisely because he’s considered “authentic.”)

Bottom line, I don’t think that liberals really appreciate just how little regard and respect many conservatives have for them. I for one took the gloves off when the right went after Bill Clinton — it dawned on me then just how far it was willing to go to defeat an enemy. And I haven’t put them back on since.

As I said before, the right is now complaining about “incivility” from the left, with Republican politicians being confronted by liberals even in restaurants on their own time. But when you continually insult those you don’t agree with — and, as I said, this has been happening for decades — you invite such. And given conservatives’ own incivility since the late 1970s, I’d say they’re getting a taste of their own medicine.

During the presidential campaign two years ago Hillary Clinton referred to many Trump supporters as “a basket of deplorables,” noting the overt racists, misogynists and anti-Semites who were backing him. More recently, she noted that the time for “civility” with the Republican Party has passed. She took a lot of heat for those comments.

Here’s the problem: She was right.