No one but the aggrieved Left takes Donald Trump seriously. Ever since his 2016 victory, they have branded him a racist bigot, misogynist, and a corrupt, lying, manipulator. There seems to be no end to the ad hominem attacks – his small hands, his weight, his hair, his gestures, his lips. From a progressive movement whose activists call out even the slightest innuendo concerning race, gender, and ethnicity, the irony of these criticisms is not lost.
Ad hominem, scurrilous, nasty, gutter language is of course not new to American politics. In the Presidential campaign of 1796 Adams supporters claimed that Jefferson’s election would result in a civil war, that he would free the slaves, and that he was an atheist. As for Adams’ supporters, they were “cut-throats who walk in rags and sleep amid filth and vermin.”
The election of 1828 was no more civil. One of the handbills also accused Jackson of being a cannibal, that after massacring over 500 Indians one evening, “the blood thirsty Jackson began again to show his cannibal propensities, by ordering his Bowman to dress a dozen of these Indian bodies for his breakfast, which he devoured without leaving even a fragment.”
Furthermore, a supporter of Adams named Charles Hammond, in an editorial in the Cincinnati Gazette, wrote (and emphasis is his), “General Jackson’s mother was a COMMON PROSTITUTE brought to this country by British soldiers. She afterwards married a MULATTO MAN, with whom she had several children, of which General JACKSON IS ONE!!!”
The election of 1884 provided another example of delightful mudslinging, this time in the form of short rhymes. When it came to light that year that Grover Cleveland had sired an illegitimate child, the Republicans created a cheer, “Ma, Ma, Where’s My Pa? Gone to the White House, Ha Ha Ha!”; but Democrats answered back with a dope rhyme of their own. “Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, The Continental Liar from the State of Maine.” [All the above references and quotes are from Philadelphia Magazine October 2012]
The nastiness did not end there.
* Whigs senselessly call 1848 presidential hopeful Lewis Cass a “pot-bellied, mutton-headed cucumber” in response to Democrats’ accusations that opposing candidate Zachary Taylor is, among other things, a crappy dresser.
* Whigs “prove” that James K. Polk was a slave trader in 1844—by quoting extensively a completely fake excerpt from a book.
* 1844 Democrats backing James K. Polk claim that Henry Clay had sex with whores and, furthermore, broke all 10 of the commandments; in lieu of evidence, they declare simply that the details are “too disgusting to appear in public print.”
* 1828, again: Jackson supporters accuse Adams of having premarital sex with his wife and being a pimp, claiming he arranged an American hooker for Czar Alexander I.
* Whigs portray incumbent (and son of a farmer) Martin Van Buren as an effete snob with a penchant for really nice perfume and strutting in front of $2,400 mirrors like a peacock [All the above bullets from Mother Jones].
Donald Trump is quintessentially American, and for better or worse, this means barfights, insults, lies, exaggerations, nasty innuendo, and braggadocio. Trump is a man of the streets of New York – an impolitic, rude, bare-knuckled place where niceties, gentility, and consideration are for losers. Threats, intimidation, and ridicule are stock in trade – anything to weaken, throw off balance, sow doubt and personal misgivings of the opponent is a time-proven weapon. George Dukakis lost his Presidential bid because he looked ridiculous sitting in a tank with a gunner’s helmet on and no one let him forget it. He was pilloried, ridiculed, laughed at, and demeaned not only because of the irony of a progressive Democrat from the most liberal state in the union touting a hard-line military stance; but because he was a wiry, short, gnarly-looking Greek in a Halloween costume. It was one thing for George W. Bush to strut down the runway of an aircraft carrier – his persona at least jibed with the image – but Dukakis? Forever the laughing stock of late-night television and political cartoons. Moreover George H.W Bush, Dukakis’s opponent was a legitimate WWII hero.
Dukakis was funny in that tank getup. Elizabeth Warren’s claim to American Indian heritage to burnish her reputation among her race-gender-ethnicity supporters was just as funny, and Trump’s ‘Pocahontas’ was one of the funniest lines in American presidential history. His one-liners are meant to bait his social justice critics. They claim that he is just an ignoramus who has no idea what will come out of his mouth; but they must never have heard Jackie Mason at Grossingers. Trump knows exactly what he is doing.
On his daughter: “I don’t think Ivanka would do that [pose for Playboy], although she does have a very nice figure. I’ve said if Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her.”
On his opponents’ capability to beat ISIS: “Some of the candidates, they went in and didn’t know the air conditioner didn’t work and sweated like dogs, and they didn’t know the room was too big because they didn’t have anybody there. How are they going to beat ISIS?”
On haters: "“Sorry losers and haters, but my IQ is one of the highest – and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure, it’s not your fault.”
On his point of difference: “I think the only difference between me and the other candidates is that I’m more honest and my women are more beautiful.”
On his 'type': "Oftentimes when I was sleeping with one of the top women in the world, I would say to myself... 'Can you believe what I am getting?
On having it all: "The point is, you can never be too greedy."
On loving tacos and Hispanics: "Happy Cinco De Mayo! "The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!" [All the above quotes from SBS]
The more Trump quips, the more the Left takes the bait, and the more his supporters love him. He not only knows his audience well, but he understands his opponents vulnerability. There is nothing more ridiculous than humorless self-righteousness. Americans grew up with no-holds-barred individualism, no safe spaces, no protective veneer, and in the joyful zeitgeist of bawdy, anything goes sexual, racial, and ethnic humor. All In The Family, a popular television program a few decades ago, was popular not because it promoted inclusivity, but because the main character joked about blacks, gays, handicapped, women, and Hispanics according to prevailing stereotypes. In other words he said what everyone was thinking but not saying. The show was a success because people could laugh at Archie Bunker’s crude comments before the arrival of the PC police state shut down free speech.
American society has always been survivalist– scrapping, scrambling, bullying, dirty fighting, and the use of every trick in the book come naturally; and the progressive insistence on ‘feelings’, ‘compassion’, and ‘inclusivity’ is nothing more than a wet blanket. We want more of Eddie Murphy ‘Raw’, D.h. Hughley, and Jackie Mason and less of gay-straight, black-white happy talk. This doesn’t mean that Americans are inveterately prejudiced; only that they want to be left alone as they always have been to sort out society and the human nature which determines it.
Trump understands this sentiment and plays to it. Enough already with self-righteousness and cant. Take the gloves off. Call a spade a spade and take the consequences. Those who demand safe spaces, safe speech, and perfect behavior and offer nostrums of ‘community’, ‘inclusivity’, and a welcome to all comers are missing the point. Only the secluded, sheltered, idealistic, and totally, irrevocably humorless naysayers refuse to find Trump funny; but in their penitential gloom, they not only miss the point but the boat. Trump’s supporters are not cardboard cutouts – backwoods, redneck ignoramuses– but serious Americans who don’t see progressivism as the end of history and the coming of a new, better age; but a corrosive, anti-democratic movement. It is a question of political philosophy, not politics.
So MSNBC, CNN, The Guardian, The Nation, and rarified social media this morning 5.27.19) have their knickers in a twist about Trump’s Biden remark. The rest of America is howling with delight.
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