I’m not going to apologize for this column. I find it necessary due to a rhetorical trend in politics that’s gotten out of hand over the last few years: The indignant demand for apologies by “outraged” political leaders regarding some “outrageous” statement made or vote taken by a political opponent.
We’ve seen more than our share of this annoying phenomenon here in this enchanted land during this enchanted election cycle. This year, it seems that crying “apologize!” has replaced crying wolf among our politicos.
Last week, we saw it after a gubernatorial candidate debate, during which the state Republican Party tweeted that Democratic nominee Michelle Lujan Grisham looked like she’d hired “Richard Nixon’s makeup artist from the 1960 debate? She looked just like him. Fits great with your campaign message — ‘I am not a crook!’ ”
That’s pretty harsh, but let’s put it in context with the current state of political discourse at the national level. At least they didn’t call her “Horseface.”
But seriously, I can see how women, Democrats and anyone old enough to remember when Republicans defended Nixon’s every move, would be upset. But did anyone really expect an apology?
Although someone with access to the state Republicans’ Twitter account did eventually delete the Nixon tweet, state GOP Chairman Ryan Cangiolosi pointedly said there would be no apology.
And not long afterward, the Republican Governors Association unleashed an attack ad on Lujan Grisham. I’m not sure what kind of Photoshop filter it used on the grainy black-and-white footage of the Democrat, but they made it look as if she was using Bela Lugosi’s…
