CHARLES M. BLOW
Last week, when voters in Montana elected Greg Gianforte to
fill the state’s lone seat in the House of Representatives, even after he was
recorded in a physical altercation with a reporter, many Americans — like me —
were left to look on in astonished bewilderment.
There was an audio recording of
the altercation. The reporter, Ben
Jacobs of The Guardian, says Gianforte body-slammed him while he was simply
doing his job, asking questions on the eve of the election. Gianforte’s camp
issued a
bogus statement basically blaming Jacobs for the incident, but that
statement was not at all backed up by the audio.
There were witnesses. A Fox News crew was there, and as
Fox’s Alicia
Acuna wrote of the altercation:
“Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and
slammed him into the ground behind him. Faith, Keith and I watched in disbelief
as Gianforte then began punching the reporter. As Gianforte moved on top of
Jacobs, he began yelling something to the effect of, ‘I’m sick and tired of
this!’ ”
She added: “To be clear, at no point did any of us who
witnessed this assault see Jacobs show any form of physical aggression toward
Gianforte.”
In a
statement, the local sheriff’s department “determined there was probable
cause to issue a citation to Greg Gianforte for misdemeanor assault.” Gianforte
has to appear in court June 7 to answer the charge.
And yet, as The
New York Times reported, “Voters here shrugged off the episode and handed
Republicans a convincing victory.”
Three of the largest daily papers in Montana were aghast and
withdrew their endorsements of Gianforte. But Republicans in Congress didn’t possess
that courage of conviction. Their collective
response essentially amounted to, “Eh.”
Other notably notorious Republicans went further. Babbling
Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center wrote on Twitter:
“Jacobs is an obnoxious, dishonest first class jerk. I’m not
surprised he got smacked.”
Interestingly enough, Bozell commented on Fox about Donald
Trump’s hostile relationship to the media, saying: “What Donald Trump is saying
is, ‘If you hit me unfairly, I’m going to knock your teeth out.’ And that’s
what he’s been doing.”
This rhetoric is overheated, violent and dangerous.
The detestable radio host Laura Ingraham wrote in a couple
of Twitter posts:
“Politicians always need to keep their cool. But what would
most Montana men do if ‘body slammed’ for no reason by another man?”
And: “Did anyone get his lunch money stolen today and then
run to tell the recess monitor?”
Outrageous. Assault is not a game. It’s not a joke. It’s
criminal. Any moral person would know better than to treat it so cavalierly. A
moral person wouldn’t make a joke; that person would take a stand.
But Republicans in the age of Trump have sadly moved away
from morality as a viable concept.
Yes, Gianforte’s assault is a glaring display of toxic
masculinity in an environment made particularly toxic by the man in the White
House and his media bullying. But more telling and more ominous is the degree
to which Republicans no longer seem to care, and their increasing ability to
compartmentalize and justify.
This is all an outgrowth of Trump’s degradation of common
decency. Trump was the gateway candidate. When Republicans allowed themselves
to accept and support him in spite of his glaring flaws and his life lived in
opposition to the values they once professed and insisted upon, they moved
themselves into another moral realm in which literally nothing was beyond the
pale.
It is a sort of by-any-means-necessary, no-sin-is-too-grave,
all-facts-are-fungible space in the moral universe where the rules of basic
human decency warp.
The moment that they allowed themselves to vote for a man
who bragged on tape about assaulting women, appeared in at least two pornos,
and once joked about dating his own daughter, they surrendered the mantle of
morality.
When they allowed themselves to vote for a man who insulted
Mexicans and Muslims, who mocked a disabled reporter, who called for executing
the Central Park Five and who had “a long history of racial bias at his
family’s properties, in New York and beyond,” according to an extensive
report by The Times, Republicans surrendered the mantle of morality.
Republicans sold their souls to this devil and now are
forced to defend as right what they know full well is wrong. They must defend
his incessant lying, clear incompetence and dubious dealings. What was once
sacrilege among Republicans is now sacrosanct.
It is in that context that Gianforte could be charged with
assault and Republicans would pat him on the back instead of rapping him on the
knuckles.
Republicans, blinded by fear and rage, thirsty for power,
desperate for a reclamation and reassertion of racial power, have cast their
lot with the great deceiver and all their previous deal-breakers are now
negotiable.
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De THE NEW YORK TIMES, 29/05/2017
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