“Scott is the NRA’s Benghazi,” says one official in his department. “The truth doesn’t matter – it’s just something else to talk about. Anything but guns.”

This is the power of whatabout. Republicans don’t want to discuss the deportation of law-abiding Dreamers, but what about MS-13? The allegations about money laundering and influence peddling connected to the Trump White House are duly noted, but what about Solyndra? Sure, dozens of Trump aides lack security clearances, but what about Hillary’s emails? There will always be campus leftists and Kathy Griffins and groups like ACORN to play the role of the enemy. For now, it’s Israel’s turn.

There’s something unsettling about the pile-on, the rush by extremists like Alex Jones and Dinesh D’Souza to demonize a former volunteer Douglas High football coach, a careerlong public servant, the father of triplets who graduated from Douglas High. Even the account for the white nationalist Jack Posobiec’s unborn baby tweeted #ResignSheriffIsrael. If you got all your news from conservative media, you might think the sheriff was responsible for the massacre in Parkland. But Nikolas Cruz did that.