There’s no doubt, in my mind at least, that Professional Left blogger driftglass is the Dean and Professor Emeritus of the Academy dedicated to the study of the High and Holy Church of Both Siderism. From his latest observation:
Most of the time, being a ecclesiastical officer of the Beltway's most profitable denomination --
The High and Holy Church of Both Siderism -- is, dollar-for-dollar, the easiest and most profitable job in the world. First, Very Large Media Corporations hand you a large and influential media platform from which to speak to a huge audience, and from that platform literally all you have to do is
automatically and indiscriminately blame "Both Sides" for every Republican atrocity.
(emphasis added). I add this emphasis because I’ve been thinking about something that relates to Both Siderism, not just from reading driftglass but from observing the reactions of Facebook friends and casual acquaintances to current and recent events.
Now, granted, right now the Republicans are in power and the Democrats are out (way, way out, but that’s a story for another day), so it’s really the former and not the latter who are in a position right now to be committing political atrocities of any kind. But it occurs to me that even during the Obama years, for every time we heard, read, thought or said “Yeah, but Democrats are just as bad,” or “Well, Both Sides are just as bad,” in response to some Republican atrocity, how many times did we hear, read, think or say, “Yeah, but Republicans are just as bad,” or “automatically and indiscriminately blame ‘Both Sides’ for [any] [Democratic] atrocity”?
I mean that question only half-rhetorically, as I’m well aware that my own biases, and driftglass’s, will get in the way of actually knowing the answer. But it occurs to me that I almost never hear or read Democratic partisans — let alone, and perhaps more to the point, self-proclaimed “moderates,” “centrists” or “independents” — defending Democratic atrocities by pointing to “Both Sides,” or “the extremes on Both Sides,” nor do I hear or read any of my friends and acquaintances — let alone those who proclaim independence, neutrality, and equal contempt for Both Sides — ever use the “Both Sides” defense to defend anyone or anything but Republicans and the political Right, let alone to deflect from the importance of magnitude of any awful thing Democrats have, or some random Democrat has, done.
In short, for every “Yeah, but Democrats...”, there don’t seem to be many, if any, “Yeah, but Republicans...”
Just by way of example, did anyone think, say, hear or read that “Republicans are just as bad” in response to Anthony Weiner’s … umm … behavior? Was it “the extremes on Both Sides” dominating the conversation when Democrats blocked or filibustered President Bush’s judicial nominees?
I’ve started asking that question whenever someone knee-jerks to “Both Sides” or “Yeah, but Democrats...” in conversation. When was the last time, I ask, you said “Both Sides” in response to something Democrats did? How often have you said, thought, heard or read, “Yeah, but Republicans…” ? When has the “Yeah” at the beginning of that sentence ever referred to anything some Democrat did, or was accused of doing?
Haven’t gotten a good answer yet. The best answer I’ve gotten is, “Well, liberals do that all the time,” which is really just a variation on the same theme and begs the same question.
I doubt that very many Daily Kos readers would argue or agree that Both Sides are equally guilty of equivalent atrocities in equal measure, of equivalent nature, equal in magnitude, frequency or importance. Yet the more I think about this, the more it seems to me that this is yet another shoe that is never, ever on the other foot. “Both Sides [or, “Yeah, but Democrats] are just as bad” is only ever used as a defense, deflection, rationalization, excuse, &c., when Republicans and their cohort misbehave. As driftglass has often written, it’s practically a reflex to just assume, imagine, and insist that there must be, or must have been, some Democrat or some liberal out there somewhere who must at some point in time have done something equally atrocious.
And of course we are obligated to apply the qualifying prefix, “Not that there aren’t any bad actors on the Left, but...” without even wondering whether or how often anyone ever feels obligated to qualify whatever comes next with, “Not that there aren’t any bad actors on the Right, but...”
The fact that this only ever seems to go one way leads to a couple of hypotheses. Either this is a rhetorical tactic exclusive to the Right (to include those who pretend to be “neutral,” “independent,” “non-partisan,” &c. but consistently and invariably carry water for the GOP), or there simply haven’t been any (or enough) atrocities on the Democratic side to prompt this sort of reciprocal knee-jerk reaction as a means of avoiding the appearance or accusation of partisanship. Pretending that Both Sides are equally guilty of equivalent misdeeds when they’re not, only makes the side that is actually worse, worse.
But I don’t actually know whether, and to what extent, anyone outside my sphere of influence invokes “Both Sides” (or “Yeah, but Republicans...”) to defend Democrats, let alone “automatically and indiscriminately” as driftglass suggests. Do Daily Kos readers and other liberals do that in conversation with GOP fans? Do “moderates” do that on conservative blogs? Do Fox News Contributors do that?
Again, I mean that only half-rhetorically. I’m really interested to see how often this phenomenon goes from Left to Right, as opposed to Right to Left.
