The difference between reasonable and unreasonable analysis or argument can very often be found in the treatment of context. The University of Iowa Law Professor who wrote the NYT op-ed published yesterday arguing that “Democrats have been shameless about your presidential vote too” clearly understood that he was playing fast and loose with context. He essentially tried to argue that despite the fact that the contexts within which Democrats challenged electoral college votes in 2000, 2004, and 2016 were dramatically different than when 147 Republicans challenged electoral votes for Joe Biden yesterday, readers should still discount Democratic outrage as little more than partisan posturing. Professor Muller’s “whataboutism” is poorly camouflaged, but still dangerous. It’s really little more than an extended version of “I’m just saying…” that is both intellectually dishonest and illogical.
Acknowledging that Republicans are more wrong today than were Democrats in the past is not the “get out of jail free” card that Professor Muller surely intended it to be either, especially because the real implication he created was that Trump’s GOP shock troops were consciously acting in precedented (not unprecedented) ways when, in fact, Democratic efforts past were always nothing more than consciously employed false pretext for Trump’s minions in Congress.
Professor Muller probably thought he was highlighting Democratic hypocrisy in order to encourage a more objective and non-partisan assessment of the GOP effort to de-legitimize the 2020 election. Instead, he illustrated the ease with which people who should know better can distort and manipulate context without dirtying their hands. Those of us who have been calling out this sort of intellectual disingenuousness for years were undoubtedly the least surprised yesterday when an angry mob proved just how right we have been about the dangers of irresponsible rhetoric, especially the “both sides” and “whataboutism” varieties.
I have to wonder if Professor Muller realized his own role in the mayhem as he watched the Trump mob attacking America’s democracy on national TV yesterday. Was he still concerned that Republicans weren’t being judged fairly?