Fighting Words
Think back to Saturday, July 13th of this year. Donald Trump was the target of an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. As he was being led off the stage for treatment for the bullet wound to his ear, he told the Secret Service detail to wait so he could face the crowd and let them know he was alright. Blood still streaking across his face, he pumped his fist in the air three times, shouting the word “fight” each time.
The anti-Trump folks jumped all over that. Pundits on the left couldn’t wait to take to the airwaves to suggest that Trump was actually sending a message to his followers to rise up in violence across the country. Why else would he use the word “fight” if it was not code for encouraging lawless behavior?
That’s why it was odd to me that barely a month later, after Kamala Harris had inherited the Democrat presidential nomination, her campaign started employing a slogan, one which showed up on factory-printed signs at campaign rallies. The slogan was, “When we fight, we win.”
That sounds not like code…but a formal declaration of encouragement of a fight. Want to win? You have to fight. And if the word “fight” when used by one side means a call to violence, how does it not mean the same thing when used by the other side?
Well, that’s different, they say. No, it’s really not. Just another example of rhetoric over substance, hyperbole over truth, fear over policy.
And sadly, that’s the best we’re going to get in the back-and-forth between the candidates during tonight’s debate, and in the remaining eight weeks before election day.
