USE ALL YOUR WELL LEARNED POLITESSE, OR I'LL LAY YOUR SOUL TO WASTE

Golly.  Sarah Huckabee Sanders got kicked out of a restaurant because the owner didn’t want to serve a notorious liar who supports her boss’s policy of separating children from their parents and putting them in cages.

The Washington Post responded with a thumb-sucker editorial entitled “Let the Trump Team Eat in Peace.”  It was the usual tut-tutting about civility.  Funny how the expectation of civility seems to work in only one direction.  Trump’s rabid base doesn’t get similar lectures. 

David Roberts of Vox Media posted a brilliant tweet storm on Sunday, defending the restaurant owner and explaining why this mindful violation of usual norms was both reasonable and necessary.  I agree with Roberts. 

My belief is that Republicans are rapidly taking us towards oligarchy.  The inside-the-Beltway punditocracy probably believes that it’s uncivil to point that out.  But civility ceases to be a virtue when it’s used to legitimize totalitarianism. As King Solomon wrote (Ecclesiastes 3:1), there’s “a time for every purpose under heaven.”  The Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War were profoundly uncivil.  They were also necessary under the circumstances.

But while there’s nothing virtuous about aiding and abetting cruelty, there’s also nothing virtuous about gratuitous rudeness.  There’s nothing virtuous (or smart) about venting for your own personal satisfaction if doing so winds up harming the cause you’re trying to help.  In other words, I’m not endorsing “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take anymore” responses. 

I prefer “I WAS mad as hell, but I calmed down and considered my options, and this struck me as a reasonable response under the circumstances.”  That said, if defending democracy requires a little incivility, so be it.      

Here’s my edited version of what David Roberts wrote.

“Unsurprisingly, the WaPo editorial board completely misses the significance of this whole episode. In fact, it gets it wrong in exactly the same way Very Serious People have been getting in wrong in DC for decades.  The salient fact about US politics is that the right has been going steadily more crazy for decades -- breaking the law, disregarding norms, sinking into a hermetically sealed media bubble filled with paranoid conspiracy theories, seeking to disenfranchise opponents, etc.”

“At every stage, it gets worse. Norms & values we thought inviolate are crapped on, lawlessness becomes more brazen, ugly prejudices we thought buried, or at least suppressed, roar back to the surface. And with every increment, the question re-presents itself:  What should the rest of us do?”

“The ~25% of Americans who believe & want horrible, illiberal shit ("deplorables," you might call them) have taken over the GOP. They are driving it toward fascism as fast as the system will allow them. What's the right response?”

“The question has always been, where do you draw the line? At what point in the GOP's devolution do we say: OK, that's too far. We're no longer in Normal Politics. We're in a crisis situation, on the verge of losing our democracy. Where is the line?”

“The most insidious thing about the descent into illiberalism is that it is incremental. There's no dramatic moment, no Rubicon. Every step seems bad, but only a little worse than the previous step. Smart autocrats are careful not to provide that moment.  As this slide into illiberalism has continued, the mainstream DC establishment, including the sorts of Very Serious People that write major newspaper editorials, have *helped prevent that moment*. They have normalized, normalized, normalized, greasing the skids.”

“When lefties have tried to draw a line, create a moment, force a reckoning, the establishment has united in a single voice to say: calm down. Let's be civil & work together. Let's not raise our voices or be shrill. Both sides do it. We're still in Normal Politics.”

“Now here we are with a president who very openly pines for tyranny, explicitly disregards laws & norms, is nakedly racist, lies as often as he breathes, and oh yeah, is now JAILING TODDLERS TO DETER LEGAL IMMIGRATION.  By jailing toddlers, Trump has potentially made a mistake. Instead of incremental illiberalism, this seems like a jump, something to shock the conscience. It is yet another opportunity for a Moment, a time for the rest of us to say: no. This is not normal. It's not ok.”

“That’s what the owner of the Red Hen was doing by refusing to serve Sanders: saying, No. This is not just a normal political dispute that can remain confined to the political sphere. You cannot support this & still expect to be treated like a normal, decent person.  This is not normal, not "just politics." We must stop pretending it is.”

“And so, right on cue, the Very Serious People ride to the rescue of the aspiring tyrants, saying, yet again: Calm Down. Let's not get crazy here. Let's not be RUDE. Heavens no. We must retain our decorum at all costs.  WaPo editors say that accepting incivility is a "slippery slope." But that gets it exactly wrong. WE ARE ALREADY ON THE SLIPPERY SLOPE. It's a slope that leads to illiberalism, violence, & collapse. It's a slope greased by accommodation & civility.”

“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. To get off the slide will, almost by definition, require a break with Normal. It will require some sand in the gears, some raised voices, some violations of decorum and precedent.”

“Maybe the agents of this cruelty, the ones lying on its behalf, should feel a little discomfort. There are worse things in the world.”