It is an unfortunate element of recent U.S. history that some people attempt to argue their point of view through character assassination rather than rational debate.
When the Iraq War was going on, many of its right-wing “neocon” supporters tried to bully those on the left and populist right who had objections to the war by calling them “unpatriotic.”
For decades, many in the political and media establishment have attempted to silence those who feel it serves the public good to enforce our immigration laws and to reduce legal immigration by accusing them of being “racists” or “xenophobes.”
A new example comes from many in the establishment who are trying to smear those expressing concerns about U.S. military engagement in Syria as being apologists for the Assad or Putin regimes. Maybe such military action is the right policy. But we should listen to dissenting points of view, not bludgeon dissenters into silence. Once in a while the dissenting point of view just might happen to turn out to be right.
