Not even close

ANY drill sergeant will tell you: Shooting from the hip really doesn’t work. It might work for Audie Murphy, but only when he was in the movies. When First Lieutenant Audie Murphy was shooting real bullets, he put the rifle to his shoulder.

This president likes to shoot from the hip, too—figuratively speaking. Earlier this week, President Trump compared the current impeachment inquiry to a lynching.

He missed. He wasn’t even close. In Arkansas, we know from lynchings. Our state, like many states, has a dark history in that regard.

If our president wants to learn what a real lynching is like, he can hop on over to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas website and read all about the Elaine Massacre. It’s guaranteed to be more useful time spent online when compared to some.

The president should be a little more careful about his word choices.

So should his political opponents in Washington.

Even as the words were coming out of their mouths, and from their Twitter accounts, condemning the use of the word “lynching” in politics today, one news source (read: Fox) was cross-checking the president’s breathless and apoplectic opponents with their words this week vs. their words a couple of decades ago. It turns out that several, including House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, had used the lynching image and phrase when defending Bill Clinton against impeachment in 1998. Only to consider it out of bounds today.

Our considered editorial opinion: It’s always poor form. Like comparing opponents to Nazis. Once you’ve gone down either path, lynching or Nazis, you’ve given up on the argument. And tainted the memory of those who’ve survived past horrors.

Let’s not.