Tuesday October 30, 2018 · 4:00 AM PDT
2018/10/30 · 04:00
We begin today’s roundup with Eugene Robinson[1]’s excellent column at The Washington Post on the “both sides” fallacy when it comes to encouraging hate and violence in this country:
“Both sides” are not responsible for the horrific political terrorism we have seen this past week. Only the right is to blame — starting with President Trump and his complicit enablers in the Republican Party.
They have been playing with fire. It was inevitable that people would get burned. [...] Don’t tell me that “both sides” need to do better. Republicans who remain silent deserve to be swept out of office.
Catherine Rampell[2] adds that it’s not just Trump but the entire Republican Party which enables his destructive behavior:
[I]t’s not unreasonable to believe that the man with the world’s biggest bullhorn could be at least contributing to a climate in which hate crimes[3] and anti-Semitic incidents[4] are increasing. In fact, most Americans believe Trump’s actions as president have encouraged white supremacist groups, according to a new PRRI poll[5].
But in focusing our anger and debate on Trump, we let
