Trump Cooled Down and Said This About Iran Breaking the Ceasefire
Man Connected With Fertility Clinic Bombing Dies in Custody
Even Democrats Know That Impeaching Trump Is a Fool's Errand
'Peaceful Protests' Cost LA Taxpayers $32 Million and Counting
ICE Arrests Former IRGC Member, Army Sniper in Wake of Iran Strike
CNN Anchor Has a 'Fiery But Mostly Peaceful' Moment Concerning Iran
In Just 48 Hours, Trump Reshapes the Middle East and Silences Doubters
Operation Dragon Eye: Most Successful Child Rescue Operation in USMS History
AOC Crumbles After Trump Nukes Her Over Calls for Impeachment —'Just a Silly...
Ceasefire Gives Iranian People Opportunity to ‘Rise Up,’ Says Israeli Ambassador
This Republican Senator Thought About Switching to the Democratic Caucus
Have You Seen Oil Prices Today?
Socialist Mamdani Promises State-Run Grocery Stores in NYC
House Already Defeats Plan to Impeach Trump Over Iran
Jasmine Crockett: I'm Supposed to Make the 'F***ing Decision' About Iran
OPINION

The Lies Tearing America Apart

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
AP Photo/John Minchillo

Last week, the Capitol was breached by a group of fringe Trump supporters who had bought into a series of lies: the lie that President Donald Trump lost the election due to proven voter fraud and irregularity; the lie that the Electoral College results, legally certified state by state, could be overturned by Congress or the vice president; the lie that Trump would remain in office if only some sort of armed rebellion were to prevent the election certification by Congress. Those were lies. And those lies had deadly consequences.

Advertisement

Thankfully, the vast majority of Americans don't believe those lies. Which means we should be able to unify around certain basic truths: that Joe Biden is legally president-elect of the United States; that violence in pursuit of political ends is a deep wrong and those who participate in it should be punished to the full extent of the law; that broad claims regarding invasion of rights ought to be backed by compelling evidence.

But we won't.

That's because while the Democratic Party and the political left agree that Joe Biden is president-elect, they absolutely disagree with both the fundamental precept that violence in pursuit of political ends is a deep wrong and the even more fundamental precept that claims require evidence. We saw that this summer when Democratic Party officials made light of riots spreading across the nation in the name of yet another lie -- the lie that America is systemically racist, rooted in slavery and Jim Crow, and replete with bigoted police dedicated to endangering black lives. Democrats demanded no evidence to support those claims; in knee-jerk fashion, they simply repeated ad nauseam untruths about the existential threat to black Americans in the United States. Which means that for the Democrats and the political left, violence is fine so long as it supports their narrative, and un-evidenced claims are fine so long as they support an agenda.

Advertisement

In order to defend such violence, the political left has mobilized behind another convenient and advantageous lie: the lie that the Capitol riots represent all conservatives and Republicans. Paul Krugman of The New York Times suggested that the "putsch was decades in the making," chalking up the rioting to "Republican elites" since before Ronald Reagan. The Washington Post amplified a nutty post from the chairman of the Nye County Republican Party in Nevada into a referendum on a "long-festering struggle within the Republican Party over conspiracy theories, purity tests and fealty to the rule of law." Members of the media gleefully hunted for Republicans to blame for the Capitol riots, calling for the deplatforming of brand-name conservatives and cheering on social media crackdowns.

Lies are dangerous. And double standards are perhaps the most dangerous form of lying: They grant the bravery of purity to those most willing to defy decency, prompting similar spasms of cruelty and malice from the other side. The solution to our national crisis of conscience isn't bad-faith political purges or repetition of tiresome falsehoods about the nature of the United States. It's truth.

But truth is more a shield than a sword. And we are now in the age of swords, wielded aggressively by those with little principle but an unending sense of their own moral superiority.

Advertisement

Ben Shapiro, 36, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of "The Ben Shapiro Show" and editor-in-chief of DailyWire.com. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers "How to Destroy America in Three Easy Steps," "The Right Side of History" and "Bullies." 

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement