Pundits have tried to find a term other than polarized to describe the political environment. I call it vigilante politics. From the time Obama was nominated, through four years of Trump, right wingers have concocted virulent attacks on anything deemed progressive. They’ve tried to verbally lynch the targets of their disdain by inciting fears of rampant socialism, black ascendency, immigrants of every kind, and threats to gun ownership. That’s fifteen years of vigilante politics culminating in an attempt to overthrow democracy through violent insurrection.
Picking up the torch, some left wingers are using the same tactic to attack anyone and anything connected to Trump in any way. He may have headed the most scandal ridden administration in history, but verbal lynching, inspired by allegations because they are lurid and widespread, is precisely what progressives have fought against for generations.
There is no excuse for vigilante politics, no matter how self righteous the mob declares itself to be. It violates the rule of law, erodes our democracy, undermines our highest ideals, and demeans us in the eyes of a world that thought it could trust America. The antidote lies in the voices we use to publicize our opinions: take serious allegations seriously, investigate and let the facts tell what they can, make them public, withhold judgement that can’t be made with verifiable confidence.
“Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: Direct, in our time, we pray, those who speak where many listen and write what many read; that they may do their part in making the heart of this people wise, its mind sound, and it will righteous…” (BCP, 827)