Demonizing Political Opponents

Demonizing your political opponents did not begin yesterday. In modern times it seems to have begun with one Sen. Joseph McCarthy, a man who made it fashionable in some circles to destroy people for their supposed Communist leanings.

McCarthyism began during the Truman administration. Reliable sources tell us that President Eisenhower was instrumental in bringing it down. And yet, Eisenhower’s vice president, a man whom Ike did not trust, Richard Nixon was a leading anti-Communist crusader.

So, Richard Nixon lost his election in 1960-- doubtless because the results were rigged in Illinois and perhaps even Texas. And he lost again in 1962 while running for governor of California. 

By that time Nixon had long since become the bete noir of American liberals. In response, Nixon uttered these immortal words upon losing in 1962: “You won’t have Nixon to kick around any more.” He was talking to Democrats, but he was especially talking to the press. 

It is one of the great American political ironies that Richard Nixon made a comeback and won the presidency in 1968 and 1972. At that point, the real demonization began and Nixon was chased from office in 1974. I will not opine on the validity of the charges, yet unfortunately for us all, one suspects that if a Democrat had done what Nixon had done the press would have risen up-- to bury the story.

Media hypocrisy did not begin during the Trump administration. It was not elicited by Donald Trump. It had been a long time brewing. And, as for the politics of demonization, recently denounced by none other than Joe Biden, the Democratic party has been practicing it for decades now. It was not just Supreme Court nominees, because the congenial frat boy president George W. Bush was called a liar every hour on the hour for years. 

When it came to Trump, the media went into full demonization mode. It was non-stop. It was damaging to everyone’s mental health. But, it was inescapable. To the point that you would have thought that Joe Biden was the new Prozac, a cure for everything that ailed us.

Dave Seminara has the story in City Journal (via Maggie’s Farm):

The legacy media have fueled this Trump anxiety with an avalanche of negative stories, tweets, books, podcasts, and television coverage, much of it overblown or even wildly inaccurate. There was no escaping it—not in the sports pages, movies, or even travel and lifestyle publications. Anti-Trump venom pervaded society. Even some Fox News personalities appear to have joined in.

He continued:

Imagine what can be done now with all this free time! The media chronicled all of Trump’s missteps, both real and imagined, so breathlessly that people across the country whose interest in politics had always been cursory became convinced that the president’s tweeting represented actual tyranny. Yet, when I asked the Trump-afflicted in my circles to explain how his outrages directly harmed their daily lives, none could articulate a clear answer.

They might not have been able to give a clear answer, but surely they felt that Trump had invaded their minds. They wanted to purify their minds by ridding them of Trump.

Many had simply tired, not only of reading trash talk about Trump, but of being flooded with defamation and slander of the president of the United States.

One point deserves emphasis, because no one seems to be able to say so, but attacking Trump was concomitantly attacking the president of the United States. And also, the constitutional government of the United States.

One reason why Trump was making people crazy is that the attacks had to boomerang. Unless, of course, you could pretend that Trump was not legitimately elected. And yet, however much Hillary Clinton cried out about Trump’s illegitimacy, he was still there. They could not conjure him away. It made some of them crazy. It made many of them, like Adam Schiff, into chronic prevaricators.

Seminara continued:

It was never made clear exactly why Trump, for all his faults, was a threat to democracy. Never mind about the criminal actions of China, or the blunders by Andrew Cuomo or Bill de Blasio; the Covid-19 pandemic was all Trump’s fault because he said some dumb things about the virus and mask use.

Obviously, it was a bit more than a few dumb things. Trump chose to put himself out front as the great virus killer. He did daily briefings about matters he knew little about. He made the attack on the virus about him. No one forced him to do so. He gambled and lost.

But, the demonizing voices on the left now have a problem. They have made Trump the cause of all evil. It would then follow that only good things will arrive with a Biden presidency. Seriously, does anyone really believe that?

But the occupant of the White House doesn’t define the country; America is bigger than the presidency. Surely with Trump gone, Covid-19 will disappear, racism will abate, the economy will soar, and peace will break out across the world—right?

When that fails, when Joe Biden shows himself to be far from up to the job, Seminara explains that the left will need to find a new devil to destroy:

If Trump is out of the picture, the Left will need to find new conservative bogeymen. For our collective mental health and the country’s gross national happiness, I hope that this effort fails, because politics shouldn’t transcend life, and we don’t have to hate other people who don’t share our views.

We would be happy to see the constant demonization of the opposition cease. It is very unlikely that this will happen. When you have developed the bad mental habit of blaming everything on a devil, you will find it easier to name another devil than to learn how to think differently.