War

Conservative writer Evan Sayet provides a reasonable answer to a question that seems to surface repeatably and quite understandably as the Trump wars continue to escalate. He writes:

My Leftist friends (as well as many ardent #NeverTrumpers) constantly ask me if I’m not bothered by Donald Trump’s lack of decorum. They ask if I don’t think his tweets are “beneath the dignity of the office.” Here’s my answer:

We Right-thinking people have tried dignity. There could not have been a man of more quiet dignity than George W. Bush as he suffered the outrageous lies and politically motivated hatreds that undermined his presidency. We tried statesmanship. Could there be another human being on this earth who so desperately prized “collegiality” as John McCain? We tried propriety – has there been a nicer human being ever than Mitt Romney? And the results were always the same.

This is because, while we were playing by the rules of dignity, collegiality and propriety, the Left has been, for the past 60 years, engaged in a knife fight where the only rules are those of Saul Alinsky and the Chicago mob.

The Left, would, of course, disagree, but it's only reasonable to ask:

• Who vilified suggestions of entitlement reform with images of a Republican pushing a "grandma" off a cliff?
• Who currently suggests that health care reform is akin to mass murder ("thousands will die")?
• Who suggests, without a shred of real evidence, that the current president is a Manchurian candidate?
• Who tried to end any meaningful debate about immigration or Islam with epithets like "racist" or "bigot" or "Islamophobe"?
• Who shouts down (and often threatens with violence) college speakers whose ideas they reject, rather than allowing them to speak? 
• Who smiles and nods as BLM "activists" incite violence against police and then condemn Tea Party organizations as racists?
• Who applauded the rise of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and now remain silent as his socialist policies destroy the country?
• Who has decided that Donald Trump (like the leaders of virtually every other country on the planet) America first stance makes him a "white nationalist"?

And that's only the beginning of a list that is hundreds of examples long? Progressives would respond, I think, with the suggestion that they are only responding to immoral behavior by the GOP,  but it is also reasonable to ask who appointed them as the final arbiters of what is moral and what is not?

To their credit, I suppose, the Left plays to win, treating politics as war—and they act accordingly. The right understands this, but has not had the courage to respond in kind. Sure, hyperbolic language, smears, and outright lies are not unique to the left—the right uses them too. But the Left has perfected them to an art form, and because it is backed by a compliant and often sympathetic media, the Left's memes become entrenched in public consciousness.

Donald Trump responds (often in a less than presidential manner) to the Left's outright smears and lies in a manner that resonates with many. That doesn't make his supporters "deplorables." It simply indicates that they realize that they too are in a war, and they also intend to win.