During last week’s vice presidential debate, Hillary Clinton running mate Tim Kaine defended a woman’s “right” to seek an abortion, even a late-stage one. There was nary a peep—no screeching for his removal from the ticket or even calling for his excommunication from the Catholic Church. Apparently, it is far less reprehensible to defend the killing of human life in public than to speak like a boor in private. (One can’t help but wonder if Trump would have gotten off easier for shooting someone on Fifth Avenue.)

The reaction to Trump’s comments stems in part from identity politics, the focus of the Clinton campaign and something the elite Right has largely bought into. Trump, a heterosexual white male, spoke like a (churlish) heterosexual (white) male at the expense of women, and this must spark intense and righteous indignation because women are a permanent—and large—element of the victim class.

We can speak of the life-and-death matter of abortion in dispassionate, polite tones and agree to disagree, but a heterosexual white male can never, ever speak disparagingly (or critically) of a member of the victim class, even in private. Republicans’ glee in joining the Trump takedown shows the wheels are already greased for Clinton’s identity-politics agenda if she gets elected.