Someone tell Trump supporters two wrongs don't make a right (Hillyer)

[corbe]

Someone tell Trump supporters two wrongs don't make a right

by Quin Hillyer

August 03, 2018 11:45 AM
 
This isn’t about who should have been elected president in 2016; it’s about what is or isn’t acceptable behavior from any president or his staff, today or at any time.

It is long past time for leaders of the conservative movement, the conservative commentariat, and the Republican Party to begin insisting again on standards of decency, rather than embracing double standards or the morally fraught resort to “whataboutism.”

Almost daily, leaders or pundits or activists, who formerly seemed to know better, now deflect criticism of misbehavior by Trump or his supporters by irrelevant comparisons – as if some earlier offenses by liberals excuse today’s transgressions by conservatives’ own side.

For example, it doesn’t matter if “our side” does bad stuff, because we can ask “what about” what the Left did at another point.

So, for example, without saying a word against the vile behavior by Trump fans against press covering a rally in Tampa, one conservative activist belittled the complaints of one of the abused reporters by tweeting that “it would have been really traumatizing” to have been shot at like Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., was last year. (The activist is a friend, so I won’t name him, especially because I could use dozens or hundreds of examples interchangeably and it’s not fair to single him out.)

<..snip..>

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/someone-tell-trump-supporters-two-wrongs-dont-make-a-right

[Suppressed]

How else do you defend the indefensible?

[INVAR]

Someone tell Trump supporters two wrongs don't make a right

That idea and sentiment is for LOSERS.

We have already been lectured that the behavior we once decried from the Left is perfectly acceptable when OUR GUY DOES IT!

Juvenile tit-for-tat intimidation tactics and behavior is now a patriotic virtue when Trump and his people engage in it apparently.

[skeeter]

Er, Steve Scalise wasn't just 'shot at last year'.

Why would the writer seek to minimize that event, let alone compare it with some CNN reporter having his feelings hurt by chanting rally goers?

Folks complaining about 'whataboutism' remind me of Harry complaining to Loyd about double stamping a triple stamp.

[TomSea]

Good to see Miss Manners weigh in but with that said,  I and I am sure, others, have reservations about some things that happen such as the twitter account. Others see no problem with it. Some say, they expressly approve the tweeting. The author dredges up old news, Marion Le Pen and Milo?  Steve Bannon? I don't see problems with him.

Trump throws out a lot of info; some of it may be in error but I would not say that is necessarily a lie.

[truth_seeker]

Er, Steve Scalise wasn't just 'shot at last year'.

The author is a nobody. His judgment is awful. Scalise nearly died, at the hands of a violent actor.


There is no comparison between strong talk about the biased media, and acts of violence.

Those unable to distinguish same, deserve zero attention.

*still waiting for the Special Pulpit Binding Version, of "Foundational Principles"

[Suppressed]

Er, Steve Scalise wasn't just 'shot at last year'.

Why would the writer seek to minimize that event, let alone compare it with some CNN reporter having his feelings hurt by chanting rally goers?

It reads like it was the reporter's comment that said that.

[Machiavelli]

It is long past time for leaders of the conservative movement, the conservative commentariat, and the Republican Party to begin insisting again on standards of decency, rather than embracing double standards or the morally fraught resort to “whataboutism.”

Almost daily, leaders or pundits or activists, who formerly seemed to know better, now deflect criticism of misbehavior by Trump or his supporters by irrelevant comparisons – as if some earlier offenses by liberals excuse today’s transgressions by conservatives’ own side.

For example, it doesn’t matter if “our side” does bad stuff, because we can ask “what about” what the Left did at another point.

 

[INVAR]

*still waiting for the Special Pulpit Binding Version, of "Foundational Principles"

Why?   You've discarded them wholesale as losers and irrelevant. 

They have no meaning in your shared world with the left now.

[Machiavelli]

While I liked the beginning of the article, I didn't like the way he lurched left later on:

“What about Hillary” doesn’t excuse Trump’s habitual lying. (linking a WaPo article about Trump's misleading statements)

Whataboutism doesn’t ... excuse assertions that a white supremacist mob contains “some very fine people.”