Claims from the right are always taken on their own terms—unless they're so outrageous they need sane-washing first. Claims from the left (even if the majority position) are always contorted to right-wing portrayals of them and framed as a slippery slope.
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwòrelated to another bizarre feature of political discussion in the US: that it's supposed to mark you as reasonable/bipartisan/fair or whatever that you take these discourses on their own terms. as opposed to marking you as (at best!) a mark