Scott Tibbs
Context is important when analyzing political animosity
By Scott Tibbs, February 16, 2024
David French is correct when he bemoans
the rise of political animosity as the driving force behind support for Donald Trump. Politics should be driven by principle, not by grievance and victimhood. This is how we get Republicans abandoning basic conservative principle, while also coarsening the culture. Where French's analysis fails is not recognizing the moment where he lives. You cannot understand animosity-driven support for Trump without understanding the context for that animosity.
What French fails to recognize is that Republicans had experienced decades of animosity from Democrats, the constant drumbeat of "BusHitler" in the 2000's and the shameless race-baiting of Democrats in the Obama years. A
plurality of Republicans, faced with this animosity, responded with the most vicious, pugilistic "street fighter" in the 2016 primary field. Was this the right response? No, especially for Christians who are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves. But Republicans embracing animosity did not happen in a vacuum.
It also was not unusual for Republicans to line up behind Trump once he won the nomination. That was boringly normal. Millions of Republicans who were wary of John McCain and Mitt Romney nonetheless voted for them in the 2008 and 2012 elections, respectively. Republicans were angry with George H W. Bush raising taxes despite his promise not to do so, but 39 million of them still voted to re-elect him anyway. This is because Presidential elections are a binary choice. Yes, you can vote for a minor party candidate, but only the Republican and the Democrat have a realistic chance of winning.
It is also disappointing that French has largely wasted his platform at the
New York Times. French is a traditional conservative in a crowd of Leftists, writing for a newspaper where the majority of readers are also Leftists. He could have used this platform to explain conservative ideology to an audience that would otherwise never encounter it. While it is important for Republicans and conservatives to hold our own side accountable, this is the wrong platform for that. If French was still writing for
National Review, that would be another matter entirely.
French does make good points, and continues to have many valuable things to say about the state of the conservative movement and especially about conservative Christians. French has displayed legitimate courage in his substantive criticism of Trump despite a flood of vicious hatred directed at him. But as long as he has a myopic focus on the Republican party's flaws without recognizing the Left's many flaws and culture war aggression, he will not reach the conservatives he has tried and failed to reach for the last eight years.
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