By Damon Linker, The Week

Nothing will open a pundit to anger and abuse like pointing out that both sides in our politics have a point — or a specific blind spot. That’s especially true now, in our era of political polarization, and when one of our two major parties remains in thrall to a demagogue who provoked an insurrectionary riot against the national legislature to keep himself in power after losing a presidential election.

If ever there was a moment when drawing hard distinctions and rendering severe moral judgments would seem to be necessary, it’s now.

Yet the opposite may in fact be true. Maybe the present — more than other, less rancorous moments — cries out for greater efforts at understanding “both sides.”

This doesn’t mean embracing moral equivalency. I’ve probably devoted more of my writing to denouncing former President Donald Trump and his intellectual apologists than to any other single subject in my eight years as a columnist. I also sometimes sharply criticize so-called “woke” trends in the culture along with other forms of progressive overreach. But as I do, I try to make clear that the criticism doesn’t imply the danger posed by “cancel culture” rivals the political threat of right-wing antiliberalism.

Yet denunciation — the rhetorical equivalent of jumping up and down, pointing and shouting, “Oh my God, this is dangerous and evil!” — isn’t the only worthwhile response to a grave threat. On the contrary, it’s exceedingly important to do more than that, to seek understanding beyond moral rebuke. And, yes, also beyond partisanship.

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