We’ve all heard it countless times — Democrats must be careful about how they behave for fear of how Republicans will react. People went too far protesting Brett Kavanaugh. We shouldn’t be impolite. We shouldn’t talk about civil war because they will use any talk of violence to ratchet up their own violent response.
So much for that idea. Some fuckwitted crank mails some primitive PVC bombs to a bunch of Democrats and liberals, and Republicans up and down Cable News Row are blaming — who else? Democrats. So you see, it doesn’t matter how Democrats behave, because any bad behavior, even theirs, will be blamed on Democrats and used as an excuse to ratchet up their violent response. Heads they win, tails we lose.
I won’t even get into the obvious parallels between the suggestions that Democrats tread softly with the kind of rhetoric one hears from the abused spouses of alcoholics. “Don’t do anything to make Daddy angry” doesn’t work for them, either.
The moral: Don’t waste time or thought on how Republicans will respond. You already know how they’ll respond. Stop hoping that this time they’ll admit they’re wrong. They will go to their graves before that happens.