Stop Blaming “Both Sides”

By Danny Muldowney

"I think the problem is that neither party represents us, and they're both to blame for what were seeing right now."

Ughh, really...?

You'd be amazed how many times I hear something like this every time someone asks what my major is and decides they need to explain their entire worldview to me...on the bus.

You're one of these people, aren't you? You know, one of the people who believe both sides are equally to blame for political problems like government shutdowns, polarization, gridlock, and violent, dangerous rhetoric? If you, as I suspect, are a “both parties suck" person, you love to say it as much as possible, especially during political debates so you look like the reasonable adult in the room.

If you suffer from this horrendous disease of being an intellectually dishonest delinquent, then get off your high horse and come back to reality.

Of course our government is broken, our elections are broken, our discourse is broken, and our education, healthcare, and justice systems are all broken in every sense of the word.

But, sensible adults like yourselves, well versed in political history and current events, know that there is only one party responsible for our descent into mediocrity, right? Of course you do.

The Republican Party, or more specifically the conservative movement, has been at the source of all of these serious breakdowns in our American experiment for decades. Why did people of color have to drink from a different water fountain than white people for so long? Why did women have to fight tooth and nail to get the vote? Why do we see growing wealth and income inequality? Why couldn't same sex couples get married in all 50 states as recent as 5 years ago? Why does the government consistently shutdown during budget season?

The conservatives of yesterday overtly practiced racism and discrimination. From Jim Crow to the Southern Strategy, conservatives were obsessed with the crushing of colored people legally, financially, politically, and socially. The modern conservative movement is a direct descendant of the old movement. Sometimes it's hard to distinguish the two. Republicans of today embrace voter ID laws, a racist justice system, discrimination of same sex couples, and so much more.

Today’s conservatives have aligned themselves with the alt-right, the President praised the neo-nazis in Charlottesville as “very good people" yet called honest Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers, tried to ban Muslims from entering the country, wants to build a border wall, and quite literally put children in cages.

The President, and an alarming number of high profile Republicans, including *two* Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh (TWO!), have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women. The President himself has over a dozen accusers. Republicans even embraced Roy Moore, a credibly accused child molester, for the U.S. Senate.

Moreover, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan have presided over the most embarrassing sessions of Congress in recent memory. McConnell took the nuclear option with judicial nominations, stole two Supreme Court seats, tried to kick millions of people off of their health insurance, and embraced the birther movement and wild infowars-level conspiracy theories.

These are just a few of the unbelievable atrocities committed by one side. Sure, the Democrats and progressives make mistakes, and as someone who identifies as both, I'll be the first to tell you that. But they don't force two-year-olds to go before immigration court alone, and they don't put rapists on the Supreme Court or in the White House.

I could go on about the Republicans obsession with lying and conspiracy theories, or their inaction on gun violence, or their shameful rhetoric, but you get the point.

The next time you wanna sound high and mighty during a political discussion, do everyone a favor and stop peddling the lazy idea that both sides are equally to blame.