Divide and Conquer
The Weaponization of Identity Politics
LIE #5: Politicians Who are Not Perfect Should be Removed From Office…
I remember the day I sat down for another after-school session with my professor, and I noticed the strangest look on the old man’s face. At first, I couldn’t decide what it meant. Was he looking at me the way my mother looked when she was about to lecture me about one of my character defects? Or what is the way my father looked when as a child he caught me “playing doctor” with the neighbor’s young daughter? Finally, he spoke up and mercifully answered my question.
“So … have heard the news about your guy running for office?”
Clueless about what he meant, I shrugged. “News? What news?”
“Scandal, my boy, scandal.”
And at that point, my professor proceeded to relay the latest story, hot off the press, describing all the sordid details about a political candidate that my professor knew I was planning to vote for. Something about an alleged extramarital affair, and then more about an alleged payoff to keep the story from hitting all the major news outlets. Sadly, it wasn’t the first time I had heard such things, which I considered to be nothing more than the basest form of politically motivated gossip designed to sway votes away from this person.
“Pretty despicable stuff, eh?” my professor spouted.
Trying my best to act unaffected, I shrugged again. “Pardon me for saying so, Professor, but are you sure it isn’t just more political gamesmanship?”
“Good God, man, how can you say that? You, of all people? I thought you were a Christian. What happened to your scruples? This is a public office we’re talking about. If what they’re saying is true, this isn’t just some minor indiscretion: we’re talking cover up here. You know very well if someone is caught doing stuff like this in their private life, they’ll do the same thing in their public life.”
After carefully considering his words, I slowly replied, “I noticed you said, ‘If what they’re saying is true.’ Aren’t you at all worried the story could turn out to be false?”
Story Continues Below
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Story Continues From Above
“Good luck with that,” the old man smugly replied, with an arrogance I had never seen in him before. “This isn’t the first time stories like this have circulated, you know.”
“I realize that,” I said, still unwilling to pile on without any real evidence. “What ever happened to due process? I thought in America, we were innocent until proven guilty.”
And at this, that look of his returned: part disapproving mother, part shocked father. He leaned back in his chair, and exhaled deeply. “I don’t mind saying so, but I am surprised at you.”
“Surprised? You’re surprised at me?”
“Why, yes, I expected so much more from you. I mean, we’re talking about someone who, if elected, could potentially defile an esteemed position of public trust. Don’t you find that troubling?”
“Yes, I do,” I quietly replied, which seemed to satisfy my professor, as if he’d changed my mind. However, what really troubled me wasn’t so much a politician’s alleged misdeeds but how my usually rational professor could become so emotionally charged without his typically scholastic approach to evidence. And as was my typical response, I, in turn, determined to explore the dynamics of such reactionary behavior, hoping to avoid a similar irrationality in myself.
“I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely an action of mine whose motives is not subject to a double interpretation. There is scarcely any part of my conduct which may not hereafter set a precedent.”
George Washington
