document updated a month ago, on Sep 17, 2024
Examples of demonizing the political opposition
In my mind, it's better to focus on the issues rather than the people . And it's okay to disagree with the other side , even vociferously, but what isn't acceptable is to heap contempt or scorn on the other side, and it's especially bad to paint them as evil-doers, to label them as irremediably bad.
I think this kind of rhetoric serves no purpose but to drive people apart .
Some examples of problematic statements by politicians on either side:
The sheriff of Portage county, Ohio, Sep 13, 2024, Facebook — "What's gonna happen if the Flip - Flopping, Laughing Hyena [Kamala Harris] Wins?? I say...write down all the addresses of the people who had her signs in their yards! Sooo...when the Illegal human "Locust" [immigrants] (which she supports!) Need places to live...We'll already have the addresses of the their New families...who supported their arrival!"
Newt Gingrich, Aug 9, 2022, The Charlie Kirk Show — "I think we'd be better off to think of these people as wolves . Are wolves, you know, who want to eat you, wolves who want to dominate. So when people say, oh, I wonder what they're going to say at the press conference tomorrow, my answer is they're going to lie . These are bad people doing bad things . " [more context]
Marjorie Taylor Greene, Oct 1, 2022, at a Trump rally in Warren, MI — "I'm not going to mince words with you all. Democrats want Republicans dead , and they've already started the killings . An 18-year-old boy was run down by a Democrat driver who confessed to killing the teenager simply because he was a Republican. Even right here in Michigan, just last week an 83 year old woman was shot in the back for advocating for the unborn. Joe Biden has declared every freedom-loving American an enemy of the state. We will take back our country from the communists who have stolen it and want us to disappear. We will expose the unelected bureaucrats, the real enemies within, who have abused their power and have declared political warfare on the greatest president this country has ever had." [more context]