Writing at National Review: Stop Making Excuses for Greg Gianforte’s Assaulting a Reporter
But the age of Trump has corrupted a great many people and shattered norms. Those whose moral compass has long since been stashed in the bottom drawer defending the indefensible piled on to applaud Gianforte’s thuggishness. The Media Research Center’s Brent Bozell tweeted, “Jacobs is an obnoxious, dishonest first class jerk. I’m not surprised he got smacked.” (For the record, I’ve known Bozell for decades and hope this was a momentary lapse of judgment. We’ve all experienced the itchy Twitter finger.)
Laura Ingraham chose to impugn Jacobs’s manhood: “Politicians always need to keep their cool. But what would most Montana men do if ‘body slammed’ for no reason by another man?” She followed up with “Did anyone get his lunch money stolen today and then run to tell the recess monitor?”
Dinesh D’Souza struck the same tone, calling Jacobs a “crybaby,” and also implying that the story was a “scam” perpetrated by Jacobs to swing the election to the Democrat.
I will note that that schoolyard level and macho nonsense here is amazing. Does Ingraham really think that Jacobs should have furthered the fight with Gianforte to prove he is a real man? I am certain had that been the case she would not have defended his actions. For that matter, any responsible parent would teach their children to retreat from such a situation, not to escalate (and any adult should clearly know better). And in the adult world, going to the authorities after being assaulted is not being a “crybaby.”
I will say that in the case of these individuals, I am not sure so much that they represent the corruption of “the age of Trump” as much as they were some of the agents through which that age was allowed to dawn.
She concludes:
None of this is a gray area. You either uphold certain basic standards of decency or you don’t. Some who call themselves conservatives have shown that they are nothing of the kind. To be conservative is to be honorable. These are contemptible, partisan hacks.
Indeed. (Emphasis mine).
h/t: Matthew Stinson on FB.
