Incivility isn't incitement Posted on 10/27/2018 at 09:42:15 by Will Croom 2
From Washington Examiner 27 October
Donald Trump was a Democratic real estate developer the first time Cesar Sayoc was arrested on bomb-related charges. That was back in 2002. Sayoc has also been arrested for battery, among other charges.
Trump didn't turn him into a bomber.
Sayoc is a male stripper who recently plastered his white van and his social media pages with incoherent, aggressive, and violent political messages. He’s a disturbed madman. It’s wrong to blame President Trump or any other political figure for Sayoc’s alleged terroristic actions.
We have regularly criticized President Trump’s uncivil rhetoric. Civility is a good thing in political debate, and the president has a higher duty than other participants to treat opponents or rivals with dignity and politeness. The main virtue of civility is to encourage robust political debate, which is a centerpiece of our democracy.
There’s no evidence, though, that the uncivil political rhetoric we see in our country these days turns individuals into killers or attempted killers. Trump’s words may have influenced the targets he chose, but it’s totally unfounded to posit that anyone is responsible for this serial criminal's actions except for the deluded man himself.
Every time violence erupts on the political stage, some censorious partisan will blame “rhetoric” for the violence. “The rhetoric has been outrageous,” Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., said after a progressive activist tried to assassinate many Republican congressmen and senators. “The finger-pointing, just the tone, and the angst and the anger directed at Donald Trump, his supporters. Really, then, you know, some people react to things like that. They get angry as well. And then you fuel the fires.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., made a similar comment after a shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in 2015, “I hope people realize that bitter rhetoric can have unintended consequences.”
This is an ultimately censorious argument. The Collins and Sanders argument doesn’t point to actual incitement — which is not protected by the First Amendment — but simply to incivility. Again, we dislike incivility, but to blame an uncivil comment or attitude for violence is to invite restrictions upon free speech. It’s an echo of the illiberal arguments from college campuses that the expression of certain opinions is in itself an act of violence.
We can’t let this argument win. Blame bombers and shooters for their bombings and shootings. Blame uncivil political speakers for making it harder to have productive debates. But don’t pin assassination attempts on people engaged in the rough-and-tumble of political speech.
