Vice President JD Vance last week presented the Republican Party and the conservative movement with a fork in the road. They could either denounce the increasing examples of racist, antisemitic and extremist rhetoric in their ranks, or they could whatabout them away.
Vance suggested the latter course. Responding to newly published vile text messages from Republican officials and staff, he pointed to violent texts from Democratic Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones.
“I refuse to join the pearl clutching when powerful people call for political violence,” Vance said.
The approach made political sense. The Trump administration is in the process of misleadingly painting the political left as more violent and extreme than the right – this despite years of data to the contrary and court rulings rejecting its characterizations.
But increasingly, prominent conservatives are rejecting Vance’s tack.
They’re arguing that those texts and other revelations betray a very real and g
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