Republican Steve Scalise and Democrat Donna Brazile point way to an undemonized politics

House Republican Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana says it is unhealthy for our country to be on a constant social-media and news-network diet of disparaging each other over differences of

opinion.

“There’s too much of a demonization of the other side, or cancel culture, where if somebody disagrees with you, some people want to just shut that viewpoint down,” Scalise said in an

interview with the Washington Examiner. “That’s not healthy. We need to get back to, in this country, a respect for our differences. That’s what makes our country so strong, is that we can

disagree with each other in a respectful way.”

Scalise said people can hold strongly differing opinions and still grab a beer with each other or, as he did on Wednesday, take a Democrat as their plus-one to the inauguration.

Fellow Louisianan Donna Brazile, the former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, joined Scalise Wednesday. She said that even in a day filled with politics, neither of them

discussed politics as they watched Joe Biden’s swearing-in as the 46th president of the United States.

“We started the morning with some coffee and chicory just talking and sharing stories of our high school experiences, then LSU and the, of course, the New Orleans Saints,” she said of their

multitude of shared interests outside of politics.

Brazile said once they were on the platform, they had the opportunity to greet a wide variety of former presidents, vice presidents, and first ladies, as well as Supreme Court justices. They

even took selfies with Garth Brooks, Lady Gaga, and Jennifer Lopez.

“I know it’s hard during these very troubling times, but to be able to share this moment with one of my home-state congressmen, a member of the leadership, it really meant a lot,” she said.

Scalise, who was shot and nearly killed during a baseball practice by a left-wing activist in 2017, said he is deeply disturbed about what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6 when rioters

stormed the center of government. He was also disturbed by the subsequent response from the media, the Left, and Big Tech to place a scarlet letter of sorts on anyone who voted for former

President Donald Trump last November.

In short, as comedian Bill Maher said this past weekend on HBO, we should not lump in 74 million people who did not storm the Capitol with the ones that did.

“You can see the cancel culture on full display right now,” Scalise said. “It’s a dangerous place to go because the idea that you can literally shut somebody down because you disagree with

their viewpoints is not what America is based upon.”

Since Jan. 6, social media giants, all private companies, have intensified their policies on censorship and are using their power to determine what they believe is acceptable thought on

their platforms, beginning with a permanent ban of Trump across all major social media. This concentration of Silicon Valley power, on platforms where political discourse for years had

enjoyed a virtual town-square atmosphere, then coordinated to prevent users from accessing the alternate platform Parler, leaving free speech advocates and many conservatives feeling

squeezed.

“We should be able to do two things,” said Scalise. “One is, agree that anybody who attacked cops and broke into the Capitol needs to be held accountable and go to jail. That’s going on

right now. On the other side, people who are equally disgusted by what happened, but supported Donald Trump, should not be demonized for that either.”

“You’re seeing an attempt by the Left to just cancel the entire Republican Party or anyone who supported Donald Trump,” he continued. “Do they really want that to be where our country goes?

It’s a two-way street, and it’s not what our country is about.”

What Scalise was getting at, in part, was this: Many Americans caught only glimpses of Biden’s inauguration as they worked from homes or offices. Some were elated, some weren’t, but many I

talked to were proud of the country’s tradition of a peaceful transfer of power no matter where their politics fell. And few matched the stereotypes portrayed on social media of supporters

weeping in cups overflowing with conspiracy stories.

The biggest complaint from those who supported Trump was that the press never afforded him the accustomed grace period of niceties on his Inauguration Day. Those who did vote for Trump also

don’t see his conservative populist coalition crumbling, despite feeling demoralized about both the riot and his loss. Scalise says he hears similar sentiments from his constituents.

“There’s a real movement out there of people who want to focus on America’s greatness,” he said. “That doesn’t go away overnight, and they’re not going to be threatened or bullied into

changing their beliefs. For people to misread the real movement behind Donald Trump’s presidency is to ignore what’s happened in our country over the last few years.”

Furthermore: “We’re a divided country, but there was a large group of millions of people who had given up on politics altogether for years, didn’t vote Republican or Democrat. Donald Trump

really did touch something in them that got them engaged again. That’s something we should be celebrating; that people finally wanted to get involved in voting and participating in

government, again. These are people who decried the violence that happened. And to try to lump all of them in together is to misread this movement. And to miscategorize this movement.”

Scalise said that when not engaged in legislating, he is going to spend his time concentrating on lowering the political temperature and focusing on things that inspire people. On policies,

he says getting the country back on track is his focus: “We need to turn the corner from COVID. The vaccine is becoming more widely distributed. Hopefully, that gets us to a point where we

can get all of our cities open, get all of our businesses and schools safely reopened.”

“That’s going to still take more work,” he said. “I hope that’s where our focus will be in the next few months. I think that’s where people expect us to be better, on both sides of this

divide.”