Schmookler: Responding To and Engaging With a Right-Wing Troll

I did not just assert that proposition. I argued it. With three different arguments — using facts and logic — I made a case for what I claimed to be true.

Little did the commenter realize that his comment provided more evidence for my proposition: that something has gone wrong in that political subculture where Trump’s supporters dwell.

The commenter’s “argument” consists merely of two words of insult and denigration: garbage (the insult to dismiss the message) and loser (the insult to dismiss the messenger).

This insulting comment would not be worth discussing — except that it is remarkably representative of what one encounters from the Republican side in such forums of political discussion.

With extraordinary consistency, these defenders of the right do not deal with the substance at all. No concern with evidence, no concern with logic, no engagement with the ideas under discussion. Just hitting against “the enemy” with contempt and no concern whatever for establishing what’s true.

Surely, something has gone wrong in a political subculture where discourse that ignores the work involved in discovering the truth can be considered heroic.

Anyone interested in understanding how American politics became so ugly could begin by asking how a conservative America, which historically has had articulate and thoughtful spokesmen like William F. Buckley and George Will, has devolved into a political culture which now brings forth to the public conversation almost only this kind of viciousness of spirit.

If one feels no need to defend one’s beliefs, one is sure to end up with indefensible beliefs.

In this, the commenter is indeed symptomatic of what has happened, on the larger scale, on the Republican side of American politics in our times. On one issue after another, the positions taken by elected Republicans, and apparently believed by Republican voters, prove indefensible in view of the evidence considered in the light of reason.

Surely, also, something is wrong also in a political subculture that attempts nothing constructive whatever in its interactions with the other side, but rather is invested solely in waging political war against whoever has a different view.

Just as my commenter showed interest only in waging war with his words, so Trump is constantly creating conflict and unease:

» tweeting insults at private citizens and elected officials alike, as no president before him has ever done;

» suddenly announcing tariffs, potentially sparking a trade war;

» ending DACA, and then rejecting bipartisan measures to resolve the issue;

» sabotaging Obamacare;

» disrespecting our most sacred treaty obligations to our best allies;

» bringing in, as his third National Security Advisor, perhaps the most bellicose American figure among international affairs specialists; and

» simply declaring war on the role of science in informing policy on such things as climate change and the environment generally.

In both these ways, my commenter stands as an indicator of the problems on the right. But I don’t think that such right-wing trolls are representative of the spirit of the Republican voters generally. (Certainly, most of my Trump-supporting neighbors seem a finer, more benign lot.)

What seems to be the case, rather, is that the right has developed a subculture that makes the trolls their public face while intimidating the more reasonable into silence. (The same seems true of the Republicans in Congress, where the more combative are far more visible than the more constructive.)

America needs a better conversation than such a dynamic provides in our public arena. In view of that need, I would like to issue a challenge to the Republican Party in this part of Virginia:

Don’t let the trolls represent you in public discussion. Find thoughtful people who are prepared to defend their Republican beliefs. If your positions are defensible, you should be able to find someone capable of defending them.

And here’s a specific challenge. I will post this piece on my own website, at https://bit.ly/2FkpPn3. Then, at that site at noon on Wednesday, May 9, I will be ready to engage with whomever you send to discuss or debate with me the following proposition: “The Republican Party has become a threat to our constitutional order.”

The invitation is for a substantive discussion, worthy of what American conservatism has been in the past. (Trolls need not apply.)

The public is invited to attend to see whether any thoughtful Republicans show up, and if so how the exchange goes.

Schmookler was the 2012 Democratic candidate for Congress in the Sixth District and is the author of the website “A Better Human Story” at ABetterHumanStory.org. He writes an occasional column for The News & Advance.