I’m sympathetic to the premise of Jeff Jacoby’s Dec. 8 column (“Contempt is corroding our politics,” Ideas), in which he approvingly notes then-prime minister Menachem Begin’s rebuke of racist invective and subsequent call for national unity during Israel’s 1981 parliamentary election. However, Jacoby’s citation of divisive rhetoric on both sides of US presidential politics is a classic example of false equivalence.
A good number of politicians make regrettable statements (and some sincerely regret making them). For certain individuals, such utterances are infrequent or uncharacteristic—by and large, Barack Obama demonstrated decency, respect, and compassion as a candidate and as president. The same may be said for George W. Bush.
But at times, a difference in degree becomes a difference in kind. The frequency, vehemence, and maliciousness of Donald Trump’s rhetorical offenses are unprecedented, and serve as irrefutable documentation of his contemptuous and apparently immutable view of his perceived enemies. The American electorate is still waiting for the Republican Party’s Begin moment.
Steve Novick
Somerville
Note from KBJ: Those of us who voted for Donald Trump love his rhetoric, Steve. What really bothers you, I suspect, is that, unlike George W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney, he fights back.
