For over a week, Democrats have attacked the Young Republicans for a leaked group chat that had lots of offensive comments in it. Some were very sarcastic and taken out of context to score points. Others were sincere. All were offensive. None of the Young Republicans are running for office. Most have lost their jobs.

A Democratic Senate candidate in Maine has a tattoo on his chest of a Nazi SS skull and crossbones, the symbol used by the troops who initiated and carried out the Holocaust. Politico says the tattoo “appears similar to a Nazi symbol.” The Associated Press and other press outlets treated it similarly. It did not resemble a Nazi symbol. It was a Nazi symbol. The candidate, Graham Platner, who describes himself as an avid history buff, has now covered the tattoo, and Democrats outraged by a text chat are totally cool.

In January, the very same Democrats and members of the press were outraged by Pete Hegseth’s Jerusalem cross tattoo, which Democrats claimed was a symbol of white nationalism until they parked former President Jimmy Carter’s casket in the National Cathedral atop a Jerusalem cross. The unelected Young Republicans, none of whom are running for office, must be punished, while Jay Jones, who actually said he wanted to murder the former Speaker of the House in Virginia and kill his children, is fit for office and should be supported, according to Democrats.

Here in Middle Georgia, a prominent local charter school, the Academy for Classical Education, or “ACE,” is being sued by a former teacher, whom I know. Some anonymous person accused the teacher of going into a bathroom at a golf club with a high school student on the school’s golf team and behaving inappropriately with the student. The students were practicing at the club. The only problem is that it did not happen. The police investigated and concluded nothing had happened. There was no victim. There were no eyewitnesses. The school brought in an independent investigator who made the same determination. There was nothing there. Nothing happened. Still, ACE fired the teacher and, when he attempted to get another job in a different school system, the anonymous accuser struck again, depriving the teacher of his livelihood.

The teacher is suing ACE. Unfortunately, because both the teacher and his wife are people of good character, they are not suing the school for millions of dollars, which they deserve after such bad treatment. Surprisingly, it is controversial in Middle Georgia to talk about the great injustice done by the school and the slander campaign against this teacher. Supporters of the school are outraged, not at the school’s conduct, but by people daring to speak up about the injustice.

John Calvin said, “Man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.” We put tribalism ahead of us. We do not seek justice, just justice for our own. We do not seek truth, just whatever helps our cause. “Man’s mind, full as it is of pride and boldness, dares to imagine a god according to its own capacity; as it sluggishly plods, indeed is overwhelmed with the crassest ignorance, it conceives an unreality and an empty appearance as God,” Calvin added.

Accountability matters. It matters for a local teacher maligned, and it matters because if a school can do it to one person, knowing parents will defend the school over the victim, they can do it to others. Accountability matters in politics, too. If neither side will police itself and demand a higher standard for itself, it will collapse into a moral abyss. Democrats insist on policing the behavior of Republicans but will give their own side a pass. We should not be surprised that Republicans will do the same.

A teacher has been out of work and smeared, and people will excuse the smearing. A group of young Republicans showed themselves to be racists, and their peers will defend them. A candidate will threaten to murder a man, and his family and his tribe cheer. Until we smash our idols and commit to truth and justice, we will not even begin to heal what ails the nation.

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