Save The Strongest Language For The Most Dangerous Times

Democracy Cannot Thrive on Permanent Alarm.

In a single year President Trump has reordered much of the world. Creating a better future requires that his actions also change the way Americans evaluate their leaders and the seriousness of events.

During George W. Bush's presidency it was common for liberal media to portray his administration in near apoplectic terms. The same was true in conservative media during Barack Obama's presidency. Their hyperbolic descriptions were an important contributor to our political division but compared to what we're seeing from the Trump administration, they look overblown and misguided.

Law enforcement has been treated in a similar way. In the aftermath of George Floyd's murder, the police were too often portrayed as being racist and heavy handed. Today, the appearance of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in masks and mismatched equipment resembles a third world militia more than representatives of a federal agency. Appearance aside, ICE is acting in ways that mimic the unfair accusations that were previously leveled at local law enforcement.

ICE doesn't seem interested in deescalating confrontations, or they lack training and experience and simply don't know how. Americans can still acknowledge problems with local law enforcement, but after watching ICE in action on American streets, we should keep the behavior of police in perspective and respect the professionalism and restraint shown by most local officers.

It's painful to imagine the carnage that would have occurred on January 6th 2021 if the Capital Police and Washington's Metropolitan Police had acted then as ICE is acting now. The death of Ashli Babbitt was a tragedy, but losses would have been much higher if the police were acting with ICE's current mentality. The same is true for local law enforcement that responded to unrest in the weeks after the murder of George Floyd.

Now that Americans have seen what it looks like to have men wearing masks patrolling their streets, throwing protestors to the ground and sometimes gunning them down, the way we think about local law enforcement officers should change. Police often face taunts and provocations and almost always have the discipline to live up to the high expectations of their values. If good things come from this unhappy period, one of them should be a new and more appreciative view of our local police.

Something similar is true in politics. Criticizing George W. Bush and Barack Obama as lawless and aspiring authoritarians seems silly after watching the Trump Administration, but that's exactly what many people did. Americans should recognize that our rhetoric has often been inflated and commit ourselves to saving the most pointed language for the most dangerous times.

Exercising rhetorical restraint will have the practical benefit of moderating our discourse. If we remember the worst moments from the Trump administration, we can put our future complaints in context. Before accusing a future Republican president of being militaristic, we should compare his or her actions to Trump's threats against Greenland. Before accusing a future Democratic president of being a socialist, we should compare his or her actions to Trump's significant interventions in the private economy. Before accusing a president of either party of bullying Congress, we should remember President Trump's reaction when elected Republicans didn't immediately give in to his demands.

The type of maximalist language that became common over the past two decades played an important role in creating the dysfunctional state of our politics. Americans learned to dislike and distrust one another because both sides accused the other of being the worst thing they could imagine. Looking back, Mitt Romney doesn't look like an extremist and George W. Bush didn't ignore America's allies. If Democrats describe every Republican the way they portray Donald Trump, their language loses its power, becomes background noise and encourages continued dysfunction.

Most Republicans aren't ready to admit the downside of Trump's second term, but when they are, the same lessons apply. Joe Biden's private sector actions look less egregious when compared to President Trump's efforts to cap credit card interest, pick winners and losers in the energy market and control compensation for defense sector CEOs. Accusations that Democrats weaponized the federal government look different when examined alongside the actions of today's Justice Department.

Images of ICE officers shooting Americans on city streets are one of many things that make it hard for Democrats to move toward a post-Trump future without animus toward Republicans. The student loan forgiveness, uncontrolled borders and progressive social policies of the Biden Administration justifiably upset Republicans. Fixing our political culture will require both parties to find the grace to move on.

The next several years will be difficult and uncomfortable, but we have a chance at the end of the president's term to move beyond his brand of coarse and spiteful politics. Doing so requires both sides to change the way they talk about the other and save their most powerful critiques for actions that are truly egregious. If everything is the worst thing ever, it's hard for Americans to recognize what matters, and right now, there's a lot that matters.

Colin Pascal is a retired Army lieutenant colonel and a graduate student in the School of Public Affairs at American University. He contributes commentaries on international affairs and politcs to The Hill and The Baltimore Sun.