Hyperbole, Hysteria, and Hatred

With yet another deranged lunatic having decided that the best way to get attention is to shoot up a school and murder people, it’s time to look at the role played by the increasingly heated rhetoric that characterizes political, cultural and social debate in this country.
Politicians, admittedly, have done this forever. They demonize their opponents and warn the electorate that electing Candidate B instead of Candidate A will have dire consequences for the city/state/country. Disagreements over policy are routinely spun into moral failings. It has gotten much worse in recent decades; political opponents now compare other candidates to mass-murdering dictators or accuse them (and the party they belong to) of the most malevolent possible motivations. Former President George W. Bush was often compared to Hitler. During the 2012 presidential campaign, studiously wonky Paul Ryan, Republican Mitt Romney’s running mate, was accused of wanting to “push granny off a cliff” — including an infamous political ad that showed exactly that. It’s not possible for a national election cycle to go by without hearing that this or that candidate hates entire segments of the population, doesn’t care about struggling families or wants poor children to starve. But nothing can compare to the reaction to Donald Trump’s election, which can only be described as mass hysteria. On his inauguration day and for weeks thereafter, Washington, D.C., and other cities were roiled by riots and violence. People sat in the streets and screamed. Windows were broken, cars set on fire. Johnny Depp and Madonna made unfunny jokes about actors killing presidents and blowing up the White House.

Why? Because Trump’s opponents had decided that the usual political hyperbole wasn’t strong enough, so Trump had to be painted as Satan incarnate who would not stop until he had destroyed the country and democracy with it.