Washington Post

If there is any unifying theme in our degraded political discourse, it is the belief that the other ideological side is mainly responsible for degrading the discourse. Both hard right and hard left argue that the other guys started it and act with greater ruthlessness, and that the time has come, by gum, to take off the gloves, play by the other guys’ rules and finally kick some ideological . . . assumptions. We are seeing a perfectly symmetrical belief that the provocations of politics are asymmetrical.

This might be mildly humorous if it were not undermining the practice of democracy at every turn. Donald Trump supporters have finally found a candidate willing to speak the language of conservative talk radio, even though he is not actually a conservative. The tone of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter is enough. No more of that politically correct rubbish about civility, mutual respect, reasoned argument, honesty, policy sophistication, ethical rectitude and basic decency. What we need is strength. The presumptive Republican nominee — amazingly — is running on a promise to restrict the ability of the press to criticize him.