Amid the incessant buzz of outrage over Samantha Bee and the left’s double standard, it can be easy to overlook the quieter voices in the room – those personalities that are not shining through a television box or dominating the social mediascape. So loud and clamoring are the voices crying to be heard and demanding what they deem to be justice that such forgetfulness is almost understandable.

When we take a breath, take a long step back, take off our colored lenses, and turn off our egos for but a moment, one thing seems to stand out. Or rather, the absence of one thing.

Where is Ivanka Trump?

The president calls for Bee to be fired, as does the public through its social media megaphone. Talk shows and media moguls are rushing to put their take on the tale. But in it all, the woman who was the target of the most derogatory names in the English language that can be used toward women has been thoroughly silent.

Reportedly, Mrs. Kushner- or Ms. Trump, if you prefer – is “more angry than hurt” over Bee’s comments, but says she prefers to “stay out of ‘politics’.” Would that we could all be so composed.

To be clear, one should never condone the comments made by Bee. Words have power, and such words that she used would send any decent mother or grandmother running for the bar of soap. The hurt and indignity they bestow is equal to that of any amount of racism, and any speaker should have the human decency to tame their tongue in front of a live audience. But such words only have power if the person they target gives it to them.

A certain debate strategy can be summed up in the following phrase: “If you get emotional, you lose.”

To date, Kushner has had the decency and composure to take Bee’s insults head-on and let them roll right off her shoulder. She is said to understand that, in the grand picture, Bee’s words hold little power on their own. Take away her show, take away the media megaphone, take away the spotlight, and Bee is just another voice in a room of millions, whose words are no greater than the average Joe’s. If only we all could have the composure and confidence to act with such civility. What a world that would be.

Bee, in contrast, took a public platform and the power that comes with it and chose to speak out on a matter of public interest. Nothing wrong with that.

But she didn’t keep her head, nor tame her tongue. She abandoned reasonable discourse, and instead resorted to an atrocious ad hominem. She got emotional. She lost.

The Gazette editorial board