I’m going to try to make this a short scream of frustration and a call for help.
Nobody believes this, but I really try to search for examples of ethical misbehavior from the right side of the political spectrum and admirable ethical conduct from the Left. I do. The events and people determine what goes up on Ethics Alarms; I have no ideological agenda. However finding some semblance of balance started becoming difficult in 2016, as the “resistance”/Democratic Party/ mainstream media alliance began solidifying (that’s the “Axis of Unethical Conduct”), and Trump Derangement caused the Left (and others, like the Bill Kristol NeverTrumpers ) to lose all touch with restraint and decency to begin what has been called here the 2016 Post-Election Ethics Train Wreck. I saw that as a disastrous political and cultural development then, and I was right.
Because I (correctly) view this as a historically destructive development in not only American politics and institutions but our society and culture generally, this has led, unavoidably, though critics of EA refuse to accept that, to a disproportional amount of criticism of progressives and their captive institutions, like academia, scholarship, journalism, entertainment, law, medicine, and Big Tech among others.
The imbalance has become worse over the last several months, and now, with the Democratic Party revealing itself to be so infected by anti-Semitism, a dearth of integrity, hypocrisy and whatever the combination of panic, denial and rage is, the content here only promises to seem more unbalanced still.
I look everywhere for stories that will give me an opportunity to legitimately expose the unethical conduct and attitudes of conservatives and Republicans. But most of my old sources have become too corrupted to use: The Daily Beast and The Huffington Post, for example, are now little more than web versions of MSNBC. I subscribe to the digital versions of both the Washington Post and the New York Times, both unconscionably leftward biased, and too often find laughable material like Paul Krugman’s latest fantasy, “Why Does the Right Hate America?” What it shows me is desperation, “it isn’t what it is’ blame-shifting, and gaslighting with a “it isn’t as bad as people think” aroma.
Sure, there’s always Donald Trump doing or saying something I can pick apart, but his hateful critics already do that at every opportunity, and, frankly, I’ve done my share. I have written literally hundreds of anti-Trump posts, as well as posts pointing out when the Axis and its allies have used Big Lies, unethical tactics and dangerous breaches of tradition and democratic practices to bring him down.
I sift through many blogs, substacks and other punditry, only to find the caliber of reasoning too often the level of this leftist wacko, defending Biden’s incompetent and dishonest judicial nominee (discussed here), while denigrating GOP Senators Kennedy and Cruz (whom she calls a dummy) for trying to hold the alleged ethics professor to something resembling professional standards.
Oh, the right wing media is always ripe for ethics fouls, though way behind their counterparts. This headline—“Barring Trump from office could bring closure for Jan. 6 riots, former officer says”—nearly tricked me into a post about the sick deterioration of the public’s respect for due process; how dare a law enforcement official argue that unconstitutionally barring Trump from office (because the January 6 riot was like the Civil War, see, and Trump was like Jefferson Davis) would be justified to give an officer injured in the battles with the mob that day “closure”? But that’s not what he said: the headline was fake news. He was asked what might give him closure now, since he said he’s haunted by the events of that day, and the officer replied, “What is closure for me? I don’t know. It could be that [Trump] gets barred from political office and never set a foot in the White House. It could be that he [goes] to jail. It could be that he lose[s] everything he had because he put everybody else’s lives at risk.”
So it wasn’t a recommendation by the officer, or even an assertion that those results would be legally reasonable. He was just relating his emotional state. He might as well have said, “Maybe if Trump were eaten by a shark, I’d feel better” And anyway, the misleading headline was posted by a left-leaning source, The Hill. Never mind.
Meanwhile, the Left shows that its abandonment of ethics—never mind ethics, rationality—is in full gallop. Here is Squad member Cori Bush today showing America how our elected officials conduct inquiry and debate in Congress.
If a Republican acts like this, ever, please let me know and I promise to write about it.
Then there was this Democratic voter today, erupting in fury at a stranger who offered to hand him a sample ballot with Republicans highlighted. This occurred in Arlington, Virginia, about ten minutes from my home:
A bit further away, in Prince George’s County, a Democrat voter did this:
Are conservative voters treating Democrats like this at polling places? If so, I’ll be thrilled to write about it.
Help me out here. Unlike Fox News, I really do aspire to be fair and balanced.
Ethics Alarms 
I keep saying we conservatives need to strike back, but few seem to agree with me. These are bullying tactics, and I have found that bullies respond very poorly to their own tactics being used against them.
The only Democrat who seems to be consistently supportive of Israel’s hostages is the one that’s severely Brian damaged.
So there’s that…
It take severe mental injury to get a Democrat to do even one right thing.
Welp. I suppose I’m also Brian damaged.
Stupid phone.
Poor Brian. Getting a double whammy in two comments. 😉
(The 2nd one was intentional)
So who corrupted the ethics of the Democratic Party?
I can’t say this is anything unusual, but the Republican Party has its own issues, for sure. I don’t blame him for not running again. It’s noble to stand for what you believe in but death threats and evictions are a little extreme for an opposing political stance.
tHow many Democrats declined to run for re-election because of their party’s embrace of the whole “Trump Colluded with the Russians®™ to Steal the 2016 Election” conspiracy theory?
J6 was such an obvious set-up by the power mongers on the Left, but I see that Capital Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell is still milking the planned false narrative with his testimony and book. This guy is not real big on asking questions and writing about that. I mean really Sarg, you didn’t notice anything unusual about the events that day??
Perhaps monthly visits to Ashli Babbitt’s gravesite will facilitate your closure.
Part of the problem is that with as divided a nation as America is, there’s no incentive to push towards the center. Right now, Democrats are being dragged ruthlessly on social media for taking centrist stances on Israel, and it’s amazing how many of them seem to take their ques from social media.
A rare example against that would be the discombobulated John Fetterman, who has plastered his office with missing Israeli posters and said they’ll remain there until the hostages are recovered. When someone heckled him on that at a public venue, he said something to the tune of: “One of the benefits of having a stroke is that I have no idea what you’re saying right now.” Which I found kind of funny.
Juxtapose that with Canada. Don’t get me wrong, we have our bad actors too, but with an economy with similar markers to America, this is what our political landscape looks like:
https://338canada.com/federal.htm
If an election were held today, the Conservatives would get 205 seats. The Liberals would get 83, and the balance of 50 seats would be distributed among the other four likely parties. This would be like the Republicans getting 388 House Seats.
I think the reason that the ineptitude of the Democrats isn’t translating into seats is that a bipolar first past the post system lends itself to a contest where you’re just as much voting against the people you’re afraid of as voting for what you support. And in a system like that, so long as the fringes of your party act bad and aren’t checked, Moderates end up voting for who scares them less. And the race to be only slightly less offensive and frightening than your opponents is a race to the bottom.
Reference:
And:
“The joke is on you. I had a stroke, I can’t fully understand what you’re saying.”
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fetterman-cant-fully-understand-protester-joke-stroke