Pray That We All Don’t Become Monsters

Turns out, President Trump is letting retribution be his retribution.

A laundry list of targets

The candidate who promised that success would be his best revenge upon his tormentors is now governing like Torquemada. As the administration’s list of high-level targets – including Sen. Adam Schiff, New York Attorney General Letitia James, former CIA Director John Brennan, Former FBI Director James B. Comey, and former National Security Advisor John Bolton – continues to grow, the president has worked to remove bureaucrats, punish law firms, and attack universities that do not share his priorities. Trump’s grievances are not baseless, but no one can doubt that these people have been targeted for political reasons.

Unraveling of the old give-and-take between the parties

At first (and second) blush, this is exceedingly dangerous; it’s the stuff of banana republics. The United States has thrived for 250 years, in part, because of the continuity of our government and the freedom of academia and the private sector. As control ping-ponged between the parties, each largely sought to modify and build upon what had come before. Sure, this meant that some bad policies endured and powerful wrongdoers often got a pass for misdeeds, but the stability of the system was deemed more important than disruptive reform and accountability.

That system is unraveling. The president’s enemies in government, the media, academia, and the progressive infrastructure of private businesses and nonprofits spent the last decade shattering every norm to destroy Trump by any means necessary. The hydra-headed Trump/Russia collusion hoax was a prolonged attack on the peaceful transfer of power that dwarfs Jan. 6. The efforts to jail and bankrupt Trump during the Biden years were a naked abuse of power without precedent in our nation’s history.

If Trump is evening the score,…

In this context, Trump’s supporters are not wrong to believe he is merely evening the score. To them, his aggressive response seems necessary – while providing a measure of justice and accountability. What’s more, his enemies have no inkling that they did anything wrong. Democrats, Never Trumpers, and their legacy media typing pool cannot be accused of hypocrisy for ignoring the obvious fact that Trump has simply turned the tables on them because they do not believe they did anything wrong.

As they rail against the officials now being investigated and punished for relatively minor infractions regarding their mortgage paperwork, they ignore how the lives of Trump and his allies were upended by false allegations and or placed in legal jeopardy in their manic crusade to derail Trump’s presidency. It is why they dismiss the damning evidence of malfeasance exposed in the recently declassified documents connected to Russiagate. In their minds, those people had it coming; they were using the law to bring an evil man and his enablers to justice.

This is a major reason why rational political discourse is now all but impossible. You can’t find common ground with people who only accept facts and opinions that will produce the results they desire, who see history as a tool of power.

Trump working in the context his enemies created

This departure from reality is why they refuse to acknowledge any past wrongdoing and dismiss polls showing that they have lost the trust of most Americans. They honestly believe the problem is their messaging, not their message.

That is also why no one can doubt that if and when the Democrats return to power, they will do more of the same – with a vengeance. Knowing that the people can turn against them will inspire them to push even harder to vanquish the opposition.

Unfortunately, this is the context in which Trump is operating. If he doesn’t lance this boil now, it will only fester. Many Americans who see the rationale behind his attacks are nonetheless troubled by what is being unleashed.

Trump’s supporters should remember Nietzsche’s warning, “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster.” The president’s efforts to seek retribution and recast a deep state dominated by progressives are forcing many to justify troubling behavior. It is another step in the normalization of political warfare, as extreme elements on both sides of the political divide now dominate the national discourse.

Just win, baby

Consider the current controversy regarding gerrymandering. Representative democracy is under attack as our leaders seek to rig the system to protect their jobs and extend their authority. But instead of taking a step back and declaring this is wrong, each side is justifying its power grab by blaming the other side. A third grader knows that two wrongs don’t make a right, but that is the level to which our two major political parties have descended. And because neither side appears willing to blink, this corruption seems inexorable.

It would be nice to believe our country will come to its senses, to recognize how this political war has turned us into angry, unprincipled people who defend the indefensible. But it is hard to see a come-to-Jesus moment on the horizon. Given how deeply both sides are dug in, it feels like victory by one side or the other is the only way out of this mess. I don’t know what that will look like, but it won’t be pretty. Heaven help us.

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This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.