Although he says he's skeptical about whether what Pelosi has said about not going down the road to impeachment unless the reason is compelling "represents a true shift from toxic partisanship," David French says that at least she's doing what more politicians should do, looking beyond one's one "tribe" and thinking of the larger body politic, and argues that this is a "national necessity." From his article:
This morning the
New York Times’ Thomas Edsall published an
important essay highlighting a
new study that analyzed the extent of “lethal mass partisanship.” As Edsall observes, the paper contained some disturbing statistics. Among them, “42 percent of the people in each party view the opposition as ‘downright evil.’” A stunning 20 percent of Democrats and 16 percent of Republicans believe “we’d be better off as a country if large numbers of the opposing party in the public today just died.” And if the opposing party wins the 2020 election, 18 percent of Democrats and 13 percent of Republicans “feel violence would be justified.”
We hear quite a bit about “dehumanizing rhetoric” in American public life. Well, it appears that tens of millions of Americans now have dehumanizing beliefs. “One out of five Republicans and Democrats agree with the statement that their political adversaries ‘lack the traits to be considered fully human — they behave like animals.’”
...It’s in this atmosphere that I’m increasingly of the view that the vanishing, bipartisan class of civil libertarians represent an important ingredient in the glue that keeps America together. The fundamental idea that we should defend the rights of others that we would like to exercise ourselves often requires that we gain greater sympathetic understanding of our opponents’ points of view. After all, the defense of liberty in the public square can never be merely legalistic. To be effective it also has to humanize.
Nancy Pelosi & Trump Impeachment -- Partisan Hate Is Becoming a National Crisis | National Review
If you see those with whom you disagree as "more jackal than human," then you're "justified" in the impulse to ruin their lives and livelihoods. But at what cost to the nation?
Come, let us reason together, showing respect for all and malice toward none.
