← the whole motif index

🧩 BND Motif Index · M1585

Reach across the aisle and slap them

After a win, the call for bipartisan unity is mocked and turned round: the only reason to reach across the aisle is to punch, slap or haul the other side before investigators, and unity with them is scorned.

πŸ“£ ExhortationsπŸ—‚οΈ Elections

⚠️ A story people tell, not a claim that it's true.

A motif is the shape of a story as its tellers tell it, named the way a folklorist names a tale type, so the same story told about other people, by the other side or in another year lands in the same place. Some of the claims below are true, many are false. Arguing against a story is often a story of its own, its answer (Voter fraud is answered by Voter suppression, Lawfare by No one is above the law), and we file it there; where no answer has a motif yet, the arguments against a story sit with its tellings.

πŸ“° In the news

the stories its claims were told about, the most told first (matched by our tools, so a link can be wrong)

πŸ—£οΈ In so many words

the words that carry it

πŸ’¬ the tellers' own words: β€œi'm only reaching across the aisle to punch people in the face” β€œIt's time to reach across the aisle so they can catch these hands” β€œthe only reason to reach across the aisle is to punch the spineless complicit enablers in the face”

🧢 Its claims

what's been told in this shape, in our words, by who told it: newest first in each; a claim's dots are the shows it came up on, in their lean's color (point at them for their names)

Retold online 1

claims many people posted in their own words

  • 2026-11-05 β€œDemocrats should reach across the aisle only to physically assault Republicans.”

M1585 Β· first seen 2026-11-05 Β· what this is Β· how the index works