So you want to attack your political opponent. Then what? Seriously.

Before you attack a political opponent in public, or throw her out of your restaurant, or harangue her at a movie with her family, ask yourself: “Then what?”

What do you think happens next? How do you think your opponents will react? Then how will you react? Then how will they react?

Sam Harris has said that, short of violence, conversation is our only hope for solving our hardest problems. I agree with him.

Ask: Then what? How does what you are choosing to do bring our nation *closer* together instead of driving us *further apart?*

Side note: just because “they” did it first, or Obama did it, or Trump did it, or Clinton did it... that’s not a good reason for you to do it. Be a grown-up.

But what if you think we are now beyond conversation, and is is time to harass your political opponents?

Same question: Then what? Are you going to wreck their careers if they don’t agree with you? Beat them up? Arrest them? Kill them? What is your end game? Think it through. Seriously. How do you see that playing out? That is a dead serious question.

Then what?