Jonah Goldberg — not a pundit with whom I usually agree — writes about the use of the phrase, "Let's go, Brandon" as euphemism for "F.U., Biden!" And to the extent his position is that Democrats started this kind of thing, I think he's wrong here. There's a big difference between Robert DeNiro cussing out the President of the United States and an elected leader using or encouraging that kind of thing. I don't buy most "both sides are guilty of this" arguments but I do on this one with one exception: Donald Trump was the first politician to talk like that when he was in or even near the presidency. And let's not forget that.
But I also understand that we're getting more and more polarized in this country. More and more, it seems to me that political arguments are not about what they're really about but who gets the "win." People are against things just because "the other side" is for them. I will not be surprised if we soon see elected leaders, functioning in their job descriptions, calling each other most vulgar names imaginable…because a certain sector of their followers want that. They get tingles and think it's straight-talking when their side insults the other side.
It's indicative of a growing mindset in this country that the goal in every negotiation or confrontation is not to reach a point where both sides are happy. It's to reach a point where you get everything you could possibly want and the other side is lying on the floor, bleeding and sobbing and begging for mercy. The next time there's an opening on the Supreme Court, the idea will not be to select a justice that everyone agrees is fair and unbiased. The objective will be to select someone that the other side will loathe…someone who will "decide" based not on the merits of the case but according to which team they're on.
In a way, it may be a good thing that there's almost no ambiguity on where people stand. In another way, it's awful because it gets everyone farther and farther from reality to presume that the other side is wrong 100% of the time. I happen to think the truth sometimes lies somewhere in-between and people used to know how to be partisan but to still get to that middle-ground. These days, it's getting harder and harder.