From Politico, Derek Robertson on Washington, D.C., the psychopath capital of America. Republican sadism: Conservatives no longer stand athwart history yelling stop — they seek to inflict pain, for pleasure. The Trumps don’t care: The president can’t see the cruelty of his immigration policy — it’s not clear the first lady can, either. I really don’t care about Trump’s cruelty, do u? Anne Applebaum on the dark history behind Trump’s inflammatory language. The new rightwing comeback is, oooh so you think this is Nazi stuff huh, well then why don’t you go all White Rose and get executed to prove it? Do we need to update Godwin’s Law about the probability of comparison to Nazis? As critics assail Trump, his supporters dig in deeper. This nation is beginning to realize the full extent of what it did to itself in November 2016.
How civil should we be in the face of institutionalized hatred? Sarah Sanders is upset a restaurant wouldn’t serve her — she’s OK with it happening to gays. To what level of horror does this government have to arise in order for even the smallest act of resistance to be justified? Young Trump staffers are complaining they can't date in DC because everyone hates them. Trumpists are suffering the free market consequences of being deplorable. Thread: “The Very Serious People who serve as tone police in DC need to decide what they value more: democracy or civility. Because we’re just sliding, sliding, sliding down this slope, pretending all the while that things are still Normal”.
Keith J. Bybee (Syracuse): The Rise of Trump and the Death of Civility. From The Review of Politics, a symposium on Mere Civility: Disagreement and the Limits of Toleration by Teresa M. Bejan.
