In a race for the North Carolina legislature heated campaigning went beyond an exchange of words. The Bladen Journal reports:
According to witnesses, Republican District 46 candidate Brenden Jones and Democratic candidate Tim Benton were exchanging words Saturday afternoon at the main entrance to the festival near U.S. 242.
“Some flyers have evidently been circulating saying Mr. Benton was involved in (a white supremacy group), and he was accusing Mr. Jones of being responsible for the flyers,†said eyewitness Woody Hester. “Mr. Jones told him he wasn’t responsible for the flyers and there wasn’t anything he could do about it, and he suggested they continue the conversation across the street away from the crowd.
“Mr. Benton kept nudging him with his shoulder the whole time they were walking across, and then he just stepped back and little and coldcocked him,†he said.
“To beat all, he (Benton) left a little child in a stroller to walk across the street, and if Mr. Jones’ (companion) hadn’t caught her, the child would have rolled into the street,†Hester added.
I’m surprised there isn’t a lot more of this sort of thing. As Chesterton said, it is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged.
More care should be taken with all of the reckless name-calling. There are such things as “fighting words” which justify a physical response and “racist” might just be one of them.
There is such a thing as principled disagreement and if we’re self-editing for fear of being called a racist, misogynist, etc. that too is a form of bigotry. Inferring bigotry from disagreement is fallacious and may even spill over to bigotry of its own. When every disagreement is bigotry nothing is and it distracts from identifying actual bigotry.
Baloney. We should call things what they are. The GOP is a racist party now under Trump. Period. It is a racist party. It is a misogynist party. People who vote for Republicans are casting votes in support of racism and misogyny. If they don’t want to be called racists or misogynists, it’s pretty easy: stop being racist or misogynist.
Calling someone racist is an act of principled disagreement, so there’s really no argument here.
I don’t think it’s helpful, in certain circumstances, to say what you think about somebody, at least in civil society, but it’s not helpful only if you want to talk to them in a meaningful way under circumstances in which you have less power and social capital. Black people have swallowed a ton of racism in polite society without saying a thing because their version of the world has always been forced to the margins; they still do, but what’s acceptable has changed, their world is becoming more apparent, and it’s freaking white people out. Mostly because they have real doubts about the white version of events, the one that says nobody they know is part of the problem. Which is why white people want their safe spaces.
“People who vote for Republicans are casting votes in support of racism and misogyny.”
So, people who vote for candidates bear responsibility for all the positions that candidate takes? If that’s the case, what does that say about your quite vociferous support for HRC? IOW, If you can call Trump supporters (actually, all Republicans) racists, by your logic shouldn’t others be able to legitimately call you a warmonger, a serial liar, and an avid supporter of corrupt pay-to-play politics?