We can do better
Sean Parnell, Republican candidate for Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District seat, is a better candidate and a better man than his recent rhetoric.
In a campaign video, Mr. Parnell, who is challenging incumbent Democrat Conor Lamb, provided a bleak rendering of the national scene: “The enemies of America are here on our soil,” the candidate asserts, “and they are trying to burn our country to the ground.”
Showing footage of statues being toppled, Mr. Parnell says the U.S. is a “nation at war, whether we’d like to admit it or not.”
He says the goal of “the mob” is to destroy our way of life because, “They hate America. They hate our history. And they hate you.”
He also says: The Democratic party has been “hijacked by Communist revolutionaries . ... Fight with me. Fight now.”
Most of this is not helpful. There is a mob out there. But they are a relatively small number of people, driven by emotion. An equally emotional response to them fixes nothing, builds nothing, helps no one.
In Mr. Parnell’s either/or world, “If you don’t denounce the mob, you endorse the mob.” But the entire Democratic Party cannot be equated with people who rip down statues, just as every American who voted for Donald Trump cannot be equated with white nationalists who advocate or incite violence.
We don’t need more political and cultural polarization. We need reason and common ground.
Retired U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal once wrote, “Life is more interesting and pleasing either when it is simplified, or, in the other direction, sensational.” Maybe. But most Americans would welcome an era of good feelings, or at least a period of relative rest.
And the people of the 17th District need representation of their hopes and interests, not another culture warrior.
Mr. Parnell is not the first candidate to evoke a sense of fear and threat to win votes, and he will not be the last. But he is an able and promising young man who is capable of more. He can do better. We all can do better.