EDITORIAL: Politics as usual? No, even worse

Dirty politics just keeps getting dirtier, thanks partly to the infinite reach of the Internet megaphone and partly to the gullibility of the media in repeating any accusation no matter how ridiculous.

The latest case in point is the nonsensical attempt to paint an American hero — Rep. Ryan Zinke, a highly decorated Navy veteran — as a scurrilous and evil man because his campaign accepted money from two people whose views on race are out of the mainstream.

Mind you, when he found out that his campaign had accepted money from Earl Holt, the leader of the Council of Conservative Citizens, and Richard Spencer, the director of the National Policy Institute, Zinke took steps to have the money donated to a fund set up for victims of the Charleston, S.C., church shootings.

But beyond that, Zinke did nothing wrong in the first place. Accepting campaign donations does not imply an endorsement of the donor; nor is there any sensible way for a candidate like Zinke to be able to vet the character and background of everyone who donates to him. Perhaps the Democrats crying about Zinke’s culpability have discovered some way to “look into the soul of the person sitting next to them,” to quote a Woody Allen joke about cheating on his metaphysics exam, but the rest of us do not have superhuman powers.

That, of course, has not stopped critics from piling up on Zinke in an effort to gain a political advantage from Zinke’s bad luck. The Montana  Democratic Party put out a press release accusing Zinke of “unbelievably poor judgment” in accepting the contribution from Holt. They also implied that he is in favor of “hate and intolerance.”

Well, sorry, but the intolerance is being exhibited by those political operatives who create a false expectation that candidates can somehow personally vet every donation made to their campaign.

It can’t happen, and the only thing that this kind of wild accusation does in the long run is encourage politicians to  accept more money from PACs and so-called dark-money organizations, rather than private individuals.

If you don’t like dirty politics, then consider where it is coming from. What makes this story sleazy isn’t that Ryan Zinke accepted a couple of donations from unpalatable sources, but that he is being held to an impossible standard by his political enemies.

 First they complain about dark money; then they complain about transparent money — maybe the complainers just like to complain.

Of course, there is nothing to stop political operatives from putting out stories that try to taint their opponents with false narratives, but it would be nice if the media didn’t just go along with the “gotcha” attacks on honorable Americans like Zinke and instead told the truth:

Dirty politics comes from the people throwing the dirt, not the people on the receiving end.