Keep It Classy: Hey, Pres Trump, Conservatives … Don’t Copy Gavin Newsom, Leftists

I recently spoke with a hard-working guy who spends a substantial chunk of each work-week in a blue-collar environment which, I assume, is ripe with the customary profanity of the day. Even so, listening to a recent edition of The Shawn Ryan Show, he was struck by the abusive swearing the decidedly non-blue-collar governor of California employed in his guest appearance. He found particularly off-putting obsessive insertions of “g*ddam” in his expansive perorations. This was the same back-and-forth in which the fifty-seven-year-old Golden State pol also scurrilously spiced things up with a saucy “Motherf*cker!”

In case you haven’t noticed, “f-bombs” and other choice expletives are proliferating rampantly. In the wake of the unanticipated cancellation of CBS’s The Late Show, for instance, talk hosts Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert both unleashed “Go f*ck yourself” during the July 21st broadcasts of their respective programs. The former added a splash of blasphemy as he and the facsimile of a church choir crooned the phrase repeatedly at American institutions buckling to Donald Trump; the latter, predictably, targeted Trump himself. Over on Instagram, their colleague ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel launched a “F*ck You” at Colbert’s network.

Further to this, there’s little need to dwell overlong on Hunter Biden’s sewer-tongued interview with Andrew Gallagher on Channel 5. Suffice it to say, the former President’s fifty-five-year-old son compulsively, profanely skewered everyone whom he judged insufficiently supportive of his beleaguered father. Like a dime-store spoof of a Scorcese film, unnumbered f-bombs featured … a lot.

Hunter vulgarly trashed Trump too … zero surprise there. There’s actually some muttering around Leftist circles that this lowbrow approach is precisely the crassly militant vibe Democrats in general need to adopt against “47”, his MAGA minions and the broader GOP.

Now I’ll reach for the sacred Name … but in the best sense: God save us.

Radio host Glenn Beck mentioned the other day he believes the Republican President is trafficking in the “f-word” in order to appeal to the youthful male electorate. Though DJT’s salty rhetoric has drawn attention aforetimes, I’ve only noticed him publicly dropping that particular obscenity once of late (one time too many). That said, from Team Trump? It’s suddenly allusions to stercore tauri that are becoming commonplace:

Regarding the infamous — likely bogus –Trump/Epstein birthday card, the comparatively circumspect J. D. Vance posted on Twitter (forever ensconced in the written record!): “Forgive my language but this story is complete and utter bullsh*t”. The Vice-President cedes in his prefatory apology he probably shouldn’t use the curse word … and then does so anyway.

In responding to the rumpus over American Eagle’s just-released Sydney Sweeny ads (“Nazi!”, “Fascist!”, “Racist!”), White House communications manager Steven Cheung carped they’re evidence of “[c]ancel culture run amok”; and “Americans” are “tired of this bullsh*t.” His analysis is probably spot on. But … “nonsense”, “twaddle”, “hysteria” wouldn’t have done the trick?

Then there’s the Oval Office occupant himself: To scores of CEOs and business leaders gathered at a mid-July White House Faith Office Event, Trump griped, ““Indicted five times, impeached two times, all bullsh*t, right?”

Granted, his pique is understandable. But, honestly, is that choice of verbiage appropriate considering his audience? Considering his position?

I caught a conservative opinionater a week or so ago — don’t recall specifically who — remarking such rank jabber is “low class”. Yeah — that’ll work. Or how about: Unprofessional, boorish, crude, slovenly and shabby too?

And in the case of the fellow living at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave and those who are part of his staff? It’s unpresidential to boot. I know it’s become de rigueur for some of my fellow right-wingers, denizens of MAGA, even not a few Bible-toting Christian Trump supporters to roll their eyes when that critique is floated. But “presidential” vs. its unappealing alternative? That is a thing — one time not that long ago, a thing most serious adults would acknowledge; would value.

Fact: When national figures, especially political and governmental leaders, wallow in the verbal cesspool they are seeding social corruption into our civilization — and seeds by definition flourish, spread, multiply. I don’t consider it beyond the pale to insist the most prominent American on the planet — the Leader of the Free World — and those who officially or semi-officially represent him take soberly their high-profile utterances; that the rest of us demand they set an example that doesn’t pollute America’s children; that doesn’t heap fuel on the already aggressive coarsening of the culture.

I’d levy that same demand on all our politicians, all our government types (Looking at you Reps. Nancy Mace(R), Jasmine Crocket(D), Maxine Dexter(D) Sen. John Fetterman(D); and the Democrats’ late-winter “sh*t that ain’t true” campaign.). They’ve been bequeathed a consequential measure of power; a civic trust. Is it unfathomable that we ask them not to engage in the lazy verbal dregs you’d expect among a gaggle of drunken, hormone-infested thirteen-year-old boys?

And the pro-Trump myrmidon’s of conservative media? I’d extend the clean-up-your-act challenge to many of them as well. Reinvigorated DJT-enthusiast Ann Coulter besmirched an otherwise insightful August 7th piece on the Hiroshima bombing with a “F*ck the New York Times”. Shocking? Okay. Useful? Hardly.

I can hear the exasperated retort: Oh, come on! What’s the big deal? They’re only words! (Or, perhaps, just as plausibly nowadays: Oh, come the #!@$ on! What’s the big #!@$%!# deal? They’re only #!@$%!# words!

Well, if it’s determined this filth is no “big deal”, knocking it off shouldn’t be that difficult, right? Excising it from our mutual communications shouldn’t carry any detrimental repercussions for our favorite potty-mouthed pol’s policy goals or career aspirations … Right?

A group comprised of chief executives, legislators and appointed bureaucrats implementing laws and measures which, to varying degrees, control the rest of us ought to be able to manage a bit of basic self-control themselves.

“If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. (James 3:2/NKJV)

News Flash! Passion, energy, resolution even justifiable anger can be potently expressed without rolling in the muck. Really … it’s possible.

I want to grab the trash-talkers by their lapels: Grow up! Ditch the scabrous blather. Aim purposefully to speak bold truth with a tone of unapologetic dignity and decency which others can emulate … rather than piling on more of the worst conduct currently defiling the Republic.

To Trump & Co. let me say: Are you truly opposed to Gavin Newsom, to smutty Leftists, to fetid-mouthed spokesmen of secularist progressivism’s political and cultural eco-system? How about not imitating their ways, their style, their vulgarity then?

Be the “better men”. Don’t stir up needless, counter-productive distractions to so many of the superior ideas you have on offer. In the process, beyond tending to the nuts-and-bolts of government, you might actually inspire Americans to be a better people … and America, once again, a better nation.