Immoral Equivalence

MANDEL NGAN via Getty Images President Donald Trump will doubtlessly continue to add more new phrases to the American political lexicon throughout his term in office. This weekend ― in an interview on Fox aired as part of the Super Bowl extravaganza, no less ― Trump made a downright astonishing statement, comparing America to Putin’s Russia. This was not an example of moral equivalence, instead it has to be properly called making the case for immoral equivalence. Bill O’Reilly asked Trump about Vladimir Putin, and Trump was in the midst of giving a stock answer about how it’d be great if America got along with Russia, when O’Reilly interrupted to protest: “But he’s a killer. Putin’s a killer.” Trump’s response was jaw-dropping: “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?” Now, just imagine for one tiny second what Republicans would be saying right now if President Barack Obama had ever said anything remotely like that. Or President Hillary Clinton, for that matter. Conservative heads would currently be exploding, to put it mildly. The denunciations would be loud and feverish. “Obama hates America” would be just one of the indignant responses from outraged conservatives. So, one wonders, where is the outrage now? This wasn’t even an off-the-cuff gaffe. Trump has previously said almost exactly the same thing, in a Morning Joe interview, back in December of 2015. While praising Putin for running his country as “a leader” (unlike Obama, according to him), Trump continued: “I think our country does plenty of killing also, Joe, so you know. There’s a lot of stupidity going on in the world right now, a lot of killing, a lot of stupidity.” This all runs counter to a bedrock belief among conservatives ― the idea of “American exceptionalism.” According to this near-religious belief, America is the best country the world has ever been graced with, nothing America ever does is in any way wrong, and we are the greatest country in the world, by any measure. Period. Any facts to the contrary are nothing short of hatred for America, because America is so unquestionably exceptional. To be sure, most of the American public believes this to some extent or another. Mostly this is ignorance ― simply not knowing that many other countries are, in fact, better in measurable ways that what we have here in America. This is why world travel is such an eye-opening experience for so many Americans, because they see for themselves the reality, unvarnished by the American exceptionalism veneer. Those that have eyes to see (and the budget to afford foreign travel) can come to the realization that some things are actually better in other countries. But back at home, the very idea runs counter to the exceptionalism catechism. It is dismissed out of hand by the high priests of American exceptionalism. But what really enrages them is any suggestion that American motives and ideals might not have always been the highest and most moral on the entire […]

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