Jesus Christ has instructed us to forgive our enemies. For Christians, that command remains unilateral and non-negotiable.
When it comes to de-escalation, however, or even restoring civility to political discourse, it takes two to tango.
Thursday on the social media platform X, a viral video captured a moment at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago when former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy politely confronted CNN commentator Van Jones about on-air comments Jones made that apparently led to death threats against Ramaswamy, prompting what looked like a possible apology from Jones.
During a Republican presidential debate in December, Ramaswamy denounced Democrats’ policy of open borders. In fact, the then-candidate declared that Democrats had effectively adopted into their platform the so-called “great replacement theory,” which overly dramatic liberals denounce as racist but which really means abetting a border invasion so as to harm American citizens and alter the nation’s electorate.
In true pearl-clutching fashion, Jones responded by calling Ramaswamy an “American demagogue” and a “very, very despicable person.”
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At a Turning Point USA conference, Ramaswamy told the audience that Jones should “just shut the f*** up.”
Nothing more came of the Ramaswamy-Jones brouhaha — at least publicly — until Thursday.
“We got death threats after the thing you said,” Ramaswamy told Jones after a cordial greeting between the two at the DNC. Jones, however, appeared to walk away.
“That’s Van Jones for you,” Ramaswamy said before appearing to walk in the other direction.
Should Trump tap Vivek Ramaswamy for a White House role if elected?
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Some time appeared to elapse, however, for the clip then showed the two men standing and talking face to face.
At that point, Ramaswamy explained that Jones’s comment had put his family in danger.
“First time in the campaign, we get a death threat of a man who wants to show up in New Hampshire. Thankfully the police intervened and got it,” Ramaswamy said.
“The next day — the next day, back-to-back days, my wife is scared enough — the next day we wake up, it’s 3 a.m., we get a call from him — he’s my security guard,” Ramaswamy added, pointing to the security guard in question.
The security guard informed the then-candidate of another immediate threat.
“So that’s within 48 hours, and I’m not gonna attribute that to your comment because — whatever it is — but for our family, you know what, publicly I didn’t do it, but for our family, yeah, it pissed us the heck off,” Ramaswamy said.
Meanwhile, Jones listened as Ramaswamy spoke for another 30 seconds about rhetoric and civil discourse.
Then, the CNN commentator appeared to reach into his back pocket.
The clip, which had more than 1.3 million views on X as of Friday afternoon, did not capture all audio clearly.
Jones, however, appeared to say “I’ll call you in a couple days.”
“Okay, we don’t need to do any of this on-air,” Ramaswamy replied.
Jones leaned in and said something, to which the former Republican presidential candidate replied, “It’s classy of you to say so, and I hope we can build a friendship.”
Just now: Vivek Ramaswamy confronts Van Jones at the DNC for the ‘demagogue’ comment which led to death threats
Watch👀@VivekGRamaswamy | @VanJones68
(YT: @bennyjohnson) pic.twitter.com/rdM3SkDw3T— Chris Carapezza (@Chris_Carapezza) August 23, 2024
Democrats, of course, have done nothing to tone down their hateful and dishonest rhetoric about former President Donald Trump.
Thus, until that happens, one cannot get too excited about the return of civility.
If it does return, however, it will do so in much the form that Ramaswamy and Jones demonstrated.
In other words, individuals who once thought themselves enemies must each take the time to discover otherwise.
Meanwhile, if Democrats will not let go of their hatred, then we must forgive them while continuing to resist them.
