On Sunday, ABC’s Goerge Stephanopoulos attempted to shame Congresswoman Nancy Mace (R-SC) for endorsing former President Donald Trump in his 2024 bid for the presidency. Stephanopoulos raised the fact that Mace is a rape victim to question how she could support someone “found liable for rape.” Setting aside the fact that he’s wrong on that legally, Stephanopoulos’ attempt to use Mace’s victimhood to shame her was a new low.
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It got me to thinking about the politics of shame and the fact that Americans typically don’t respond favorably to such efforts — or, at least, didn’t before COVID. We’re oppositionally defiant by nature. It’s sort of how we, as a nation, came to be. The more you badger and bully, the more we’re liable to dig in and say, “No.”
But we’re in the…
