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Channeling her inner ISIS, comedian Kathy Griffin appeared in a photo shoot Tuesday carrying the bloody decapitated head of Donald Trump. The conservative internet is apoplectic, but a lot of us on the left arent terribly pleased either. Griffins beheaded heathen stunt isnt just grotesqueassassination jokes go over in Washington about as well as Holocaust humor in Tel Avivits also bad politics.

Griffin took to Twitter to defend/explain herself:

I caption this there was blood coming out of his eyes, blood coming out of his...wherever. OBVIOUSLY, I do not condone ANY violence by my fans or others to anyone, ever! I'm merely mocking the Mocker in Chief.

An hour later, Griffin published a video with a full-throated mea culpa. I sincerely apologize I am sorry, I went way too far. I made a mistake and I was wrong. Griffin also added that she would ask the photographer to take down the image.

And good for her. While I get the jokeGriffin is quoting Trumps obscene comments during the campaign about former Fox anchor Megyn Kellygags about killing the president are never appropriate, and its good that Griffin has now acknowledged that. Imagine how Democrats would react if Ann Coulter were photographed swinging the disembodied head of President Obama. And in fact, Democrats were rightly livid when two University of Wisconsin football fans dressed as Obama with a noose around his neck. There was an equal outcry, back in 1994, when Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) joked that President Clinton was so unpopular among soldiers in North Carolina that hed better bring a bodyguard if he visited the state.

This is not to suggest that the left and right are equal in their embrace of violence as politics through other means. It was the Trump, and not Clinton, campaign that regularly egged its crowds on to manhandle protesters. Trump even promised to pay the legal fees of anyone who knocked the crap out of them. And its Republicans and not Democrats who routinely call the media the enemy. The press is only the latest victim of GOP ire. During the 2000s, Republicans in Congress demonized activist judges who, they said, were running roughshod over the Constitution. It was only after some of those judges were murdered, forcing former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day OConnor to tell the GOP to back off, that the rhetoric cooleduntil now. Since Donald Trump added judges to his enemies list early on in the campaign, the threats have begun anew for Americas jurists.

Its an Ann Coulterization of politicsvaluing trollery and shock value above all else. And Im worried about its spread to the left: not what we are, but what we may become. Weve seen a creeping intolerance on the left, from the Bernie Bros to the Richard Spencer-punchers. Its subtle, and not nearly as bad as the right, but its there. Ive worked in national politics for nearly 30 years, and it is difficult to face an enemy for decades and not ultimately become them. Their anger fuels your anger. And the incessant attacks on everything you hold dear can eventually break you. And its our job as progressives to be better than that. To be better than them.

But theres another reason Im speaking out about Kathy Griffins joke: Its not just bad manners, its bad politics. I work in Washington because I care about our country and want to make a difference. Joking about Donald Trumps violent demise doesnt help us win any votes in Congress or at the ballot box. All it does is feed a Fox News marketing machine desperate for anything it can find to detract from Donald Trumps latest himbo eruption. While Trump will still be president for the foreseeable future, his presidency is increasingly on the ropes, particularly as the Russia investigation continues to hit closer and closer to home. Why do anything to detract from that?

Theres an adage in politics: If your opponent is hanging himself, get out of the way. Donald Trump is his own worst enemy. Hes not going to grow up and suddenly become more presidential at age 70. One of the few things that can save Donald Trump is Democrats screwing up.

So, to all the Kathy Griffins out there, please just get out of the way.

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Hey, Kathy Griffin, the Left Doesn't Need Its Own Ann Coulter - Daily Beast