O P IN IO N
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Are you ‘complicit with evil?’
YOU DON’T HAVE TO PICK A SIDE IN RHETORICAL POLITICS
BY IAN VA’N ORDEN
ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
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PRINT
Editorial
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Fake N e w s. N a z is. F a s cists. A re you
com plicit w ith evil?
Though extrem e political rhetoric has
existe d since th e ea rlie st days o f our
country, it’ s hard to deny that we live in an
extremely polarized climate today. The last
decade has seen a shift towards extreme
tribalism , w ith citizens and voters being
pulled to one side o f the aisle or the other
by the party they belong to. Today, you’re
either a Republican or a D em ocrat. You
either support President Donald Trum p
or you’ re part of the resistance. There’ s
very little room for nuance.
A p art o f th is s h ift h a s b e e n th e
ram ping up o f speech used on both sides,
M a n ÿ w ould p lace th e b lâm e fo r th is
on the President, w ho undeniably uses
speech that would have previously been
considered unbefitting o f the office of the
presideiit. President Trum p con stan tly
derides specific medià organizations, such
as C N N , for being “ fake new s.”
Supporters o f the president elected him
for this same rhetoric, exhausted by the
shift of those on thé left towards ideas like
political correctness.
W h o’ s really to blam e? Is it President
Trump? The “ Fake News” media? Liberal
or conservative p o litician s? A ll o f the
above.
CLACKAMAS
Editor-in-chief
I t ’ s im p o ssib le to p in p o in t ex actly
w hen this process began, w hen political
rhetoric began to ram p up the way it has,
but it has certainly accelerated during the
President’ s term. Recent events have made
that quite clear.
Ju s t th is w e ek, tw o in c id e n ts have
b een W idely reported b y various new s
o rg a n iza tio n s . The m o st re c e n t, th e
shooting at the Tree o f Life Congregation
Synagogue in Pittsburgh Saturday, took the
lives o f 11 victim s. Six others were injured,
including four responding officers. The
suspect in the shooting, who was taken
into custody after a gunfight with police,
is believed to have shouted anti-Sem itic
com m ents w hile initiating the attack.
The secon d, ta k in g p lace la st w eek,
involved a m an sen ding pipe bom bs to
various liberal figures, including Hillary
C lin to n and fo rm er P resid en t B arack
O b am a. N one o f th e devices exploded,
but the intention was clear.
It d idn’t take long for the President’ s
rhetoric to be blam ed for both attacks.
“ You can draw a direct line from all of the
vitriol and hate rhetoric about the caravan
th at’ s som e 2,000 m iles away from our
border and th e gu n m an in P ittsb u rgh ,
who referenced that, and somehow turned
it into an attack on Jew s,” said CN N host
Alisyn Cam erotaon Monday, referring, in
part, to the President’ s own words about
the m igrant caravan currently m aking its
way through Mexico.
Likewise, in the afterm ath of the pipe
bomb incident, CNN political analyst John
Avion took the tim e to list how many times
the President had criticized the targets of
the pipe bombs, implying that his rhetoric
was the reason for the failed bom bings.
It isn’ t, however, reasonable to blam e
the President for every attack th at has
taken place over the last few years. Only a
few weeks earlier, after all, a Utah resident
m a ile d su sp icio u s en v e lo p e s to th e
President as w ellas other military leaders,
some o f which contained ingredients used
in the creation o f the poison ricin.
2017 saw the shooting of House Majority
W hip Steve Scalise, a Republican House
Representative from Louisiana w hile he
played baseball w ith a num ber o f other
members of Congress. Scalise was critically
injured in the shooting, as was M att Mika,
a Tyson Foods lob b yist, w ho was shot
m ultiple tim es.
Visit theclackamasprint.com for the
continued opinion indepth
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Brett Kavanaugh, left, is sworn in as the United State’s 114th Supreme Court Justice on Oct. 6. Before the Kavanaugh scandal, U.S.
Senator Cory Booker said supporters of Kavanaugh were “complicit with evil.” Read more about Booker on our web published article.
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October 31, 2018