Maybe liberals are so ‘PC’ because conservatives keep excusing bad behavior – Washington Post

By Lauren A. Wright By Lauren A. Wright April 5

Lauren A. Wright is the author of "On Behalf of the President: Presidential Spouses and White House Communications Strategy Today" and a board member of the White House Transition Project. She begins a teaching appointment in the Department of Politics at Princeton University in the Fall 2017 semester.

Donald Trumps presidential campaign almost ended with his grab them by the p y riff. Last month, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) stood by his statement that We cant restore our civilization with somebody elses babies. Last week, on air, Fox News host Bill OReilly watched a clip of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives and then mocked her by saying, I didnt hear a word she said. I was looking at the James Brown wig.

Enough Americans voted for Trump last year to prove that his unprecedented crassness wasnt fatal to his political aspirations. King has gotten away with a series of racially inflammatory remarks (Remember calves the size of cantaloupes?). OReilly offered an apology, but instead of taking him to task, the Daily Callers Jim Treacher argued that critics were playing a racial gotcha game. CNN commentator Ben Ferguson deflected blame from OReilly by wondering aloud, about Waters, isnt she a racist for saying that the white guy, who was elected president, who had done nothing wrong, but get elected, should be impeached? And former congressman Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) played down OReillys comments by saying, It always seems like its okay to make fun of a conservative, but liberals are off you cant touch em. Making fun of Maxine Waterss hair, making fun of Donald Trumps hair, I dont know what the difference is.

Two separate incidents involving a black congresswoman and a black White House reporter sparked outrage on social media, leading to the hashtag #BlackWomenAtWork. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

Go far enough back and recall that after Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) suggested that women possess innate biological defenses against legitimate rape, former senators Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) still endorsed Akins 2012 Senate bid, calling him the candidate of freedom-loving Americans.

Im not naive enough to be stunned by Akin, King, OReilly or Trump, but as a Republican, I continue to be dismayed by the willingness of fellow Republicans and conservatives to overlook, rationalize and make excuses for this type of behavior. And each time I see conservatives defending, or looking away, in the face of other conservatives noxious behavior, I become less and less sure that liberals arent justified in taking the sometimes-condescending, always-disapproving politically correct approach that they do in these all-too-predictable episodes.

Maybe liberals are so P.C. because conservatives keep making excuses for bad behavior.

I didnt always think this way about liberal highhandednesstoward Republicans. I used to co-sign the typical conservative rejoinder to political correctness, which generally goes something like: Lifes not fair, so please get over yourself. My feelings on the topic were rooted in my experiences as a Republican in an overwhelmingly Democratic graduate school environment, where my liberal colleagues routinely derided my political views.

That case against political correctness was used to great effect in the 2016 presidential election, starting at a GOP primary debate when then-candidate Donald Trump addressed the litany of derogatory statements hes made toward women by saying, The big problem this country has is being politically correct. Ive been challenged by so many people, and I dont, frankly, have time for total political correctness.

But even if theres a grain oftruth to Trumps logic, in general, its not a catchall that makes it okay when a politician or anyone takes a cheap shot thats uncivil and degrading at best, and sexist or racist (or both) at worst. Impatience with political correctness isnt a get-out-of-jail-free card for a future president to mock a disabled reporter. Ritual deployment of the supposedly un-P.C. phrase radical Islamic terrorism isnt a foreign policy.

And its not just being politically correct to publicly scrutinize the serial allegations of sexual harassment against OReilly. If even half of whats been alleged by women who say he harassed them is true, hes a disgrace, and so is any conservative or Republican who decides that what hes done doesnt merit consequences, just because OReillys shame might also be cheered by liberals. Already, 20 companies have announcedthat theyre pulling advertising from OReillys show, even though its the gold standard when it comes to cable news ratings. The question, now, is whether self-respecting conservatives and Republicans will stand on principle, or if, as former Republican Capitol Hill communications director Tara Setmayer wroterecently for Cosmopolitan, they continue to circle the wagons around him just because hes on their team.

If thats what they do, it would be pretty indecent, but it would also turn out to be bad politics.

Yes, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) was rewarded for choosing expediency over morality by endorsing Trumps candidacy, even as he condemned Trumps attack on Judge Gonzalo Curiels Mexican heritage as the textbook definition of a racist comment. In doing so, Ryan confirmed an unsettling truth: When some in the Party of Lincoln witness racism, its not necessarily a dealbreaker. Indeed, the GOP won big in 2016 embracing the same rhetoric Im calling out now rhetoric we said we were leaving behind in the 2013 autopsyreportcommissioned after Mitt Romneys 2012 defeat.But antagonism is only a short-term strategy. Trump lost the popular vote with our current demographic landscape by a margin of almost 3million, and demographics are rapidly changing, not in his favor. Republicans who treat 2016 as the rule rather than the exception will come to regret it.

More important is acknowledging, before we try to beat political correctness into extinction, is that its not political correctness to expectcommon courtesy and respect. And its not a burden on a politician or anyone else to refrain from making sexist and racist remarks. Its both the right thing to do, and an approach in keeping with the values that the Republican Party issupposed to stand for, including judging all people as individuals, not caricaturing them because of their race or gender.

Its hard to deny that weve become a society where people are put out by the smallest slights, real or perceived. Conservatives are right to bristle at left-wing condescension, and liberals would be foolish to ignore that their elitism helped fuel Trumps rise. But thiscuts both ways, and every time conservatives and Republicans let an OReilly slide rather than take a stand in favor of common decency the politically correct scorn of liberals becomes just a bit more justified. Hoping that the GOP becomes the Party of Lincoln again may be wishful thinking. But if thats what we aspire to, no longer defending the indefensible would be a start.

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Maybe liberals are so 'PC' because conservatives keep excusing bad behavior - Washington Post