A Smear Too Far

We've spent the last few months trying to figure out what Donald Trump could do that would finally be too much, only to find that there didn't seem to be anything. But now, finally, after insulting the parents of Captain Khan, we might be seeing it. It took the combined offense of simultaneously insulting veterans, Muslims, and women. What's weird is that he has already insulted each of these groups individually, but there's something about the combined force, like a Voltron of inhumanity, which had accomplished what none alone could do.

Of course, when I say he's "gone too far," it's a relative term. He probably won't lose much support over it. And the many condemnations from leading Republicans have been gutlessly vague. Nevertheless, it seems like a a line had been crossed. Liberals are hitting harder and more united than they have at any time in the campaign. And it's great to see that the media is treating it as a clearly-offensive incident. That's in contrast to their usual practice of reporting both sides' reactions oblivious to the nature of the incident. Dispationately reporting on Trump's buffoonery always looked like some sort of modern-day Monty Python sketch.

But really, it's not about who's been offended or how many groups get hit at once. As one of the talking heads on TV mentioned today, the real reason that people are angrier this time around is that Trump didn't attack a group, he attacked actual people. Until now, he's mainly gone after either entire communities, or public personas. For those of us with a more developed sense of empathy, we see an attack on, say, Muslims as an attack on real people. Unfortunately, a lot of voters don't seem capable of making that connection between large groups to the people who make up the groups. It has to be spelled out for them that there are actual victims. Well, now it's finally been done. Hopefully this will make a difference, if only by illustrating a way to defeat Trump's tactics.