I’d like to take Etheridge at his word, but it’s hard to accept that he has always worked to promote a civil public discourse, considering he just grabbed someone by the neck for asking if he supported Obama’s political goals. So, with all due respect to Etheridge, I’m inclined not to give him the benefit of the doubt. I am inclined to believe the person asking the question is genuinely a student working on a student project until I find out otherwise. (Gee, I can’t imagine why the questioner would blur his face, considering people are bending over backwards to blame him for having the audacity to get grabbed.)

But if we do find out otherwise, I hope we can all remember the basic lesson that the conduct is fundamentally wrong. I want to believe our politics are not so partisan that we will excuse physical attacks if we think the victim had an ideological motive for being at the scene of the event.