It has been just over a week since the revelation of Waterville Mayor and Maine Republican rising star Nick Isgro’s long history of uncivil, degrading, and even bigoted public comments leveled against immigrants, Muslims and political opponents ranging from Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg to Mitt Romney to Pope Francis. As a result of his statements, Isgro has undergone a public fall from grace that has so far cost him his job as an executive at Skowhegan Savings Bank and triggered a recall campaign against him in Waterville.

In the days since, there has been an outpouring of hand-wringing from a constellation of conservative Maine pundits and elected officials over the unfolding events.

Mainly, these conservative thought-leaders are decrying the the injustice of an otherwise “intelligent, respectful” man losing his livelihood to an “onslaught” over what is characterized as a few crude comments. Maine Heritage Policy Center’s Matthew Gagnon went so far as to fret for the very souls of those opposing Isgro, which stand to be darkened from the “hedonistic joy” he assumes political opponents feel over watching Isgro’s years-long hobby of lobbing vitriol through cyberspace lead to a public reckoning.

Such spiritual concern, while touching, is wholly misplaced.

The idea that progressives are hedonistically reveling in the social consequences of the reprehensible public behavior of the mayor of one Maine’s largest cities is simply a mischaracterization. If there is any elation to be had, it’s in the dawning hope that perhaps the twin guardrails of mutual respect and a shared capacity for shame that once bounded the public discourse may once again be finding some purchase in these unsteady times.

Once, maybe, a baseline of self respect would have kept a prominent politician from taking crass swings at teenage students or at those who have come to Maine seeking refuge from famine or war. The latter group have been common targets for Isgro’s casually hateful rhetoric–part of what he refers to as an anti-American “refugee racket.”

Isgro’s defenders have tried to limit the discussion about Isgro’s conduct to a single recent tweet in which he told Parkland survivor David Hogg to “eat it,” but that tweet was a single data point in a larger body of evidence presented toward a showing of Isgro’s bad character.

Far from ashamed, Isgro remains unrepentant. And allies including Governor LePage and LePage’s disgraced former staffer David Sorenson (himself recently fired from the Trump administration due to allegations of domestic violence) have written open letters to Skowhegan Savings, condemning the bank for caving to a liberal thought police.

The Waterville Republican Party, far from condemning the rhetoric, is doubling and tripling down, swinging wild and lionizing Isgro while demonizing Hogg. They blame a vast left-wing media conspiracy for Isgro’s plight.

The disingenuous argument of those trying to rationalize their support for Isgro by minimizing his actions and magnifying his personal consequences of those actions seems to be that, in their ideal world, the consequences of the misdeeds perpetrated by those in power should remain confined to their lives in the political realm, rather than spilling over into the “real world.”

This argument, though, ignores that politicians’ behavior, whether or not it is contained to the political realm, will always affect people in the real world at the other end of their rhetoric. Indeed, while those on the right decry Isgro’s treatment as harsh, unfair and socially dangerous, at least one prominent local opponent of Isgro has apparently actually received credible threats by extremists claiming to defend Isgro.

Rather than being unjust, asking politicians to also be bound to the social consequences of their words is only fair.

The nature of political power on a fundamental level is that by possessing it one is able to influence the behavior of others, whether through shaping the law or by shaping public opinion. Serving the public with this power is a privilege; one that requires you to think hard about the things you say, because your words can and do carry consequences for others. Forcing politicians to think about that power more carefully before they use it, far from being a brick on the path to Hell, seems like a way to elevate the discourse so that our better angels might once again prevail.

The preceding originally appeared on mainebeacon.com, a website and podcast created by progressive group the Maine People’s Alliance.