I have a problem with swearing.
I usually don’t have a problem with other people swearing. It doesn’t offend me.
My problem is I swear too much, way too much.
Usually I do it when no one is around or if I’m with people I know. So far I haven’t slipped that much in public, at least that I know of. I have to admit profanity has appeared in a few of my blogs and Twitter posts along the way.
The thing about swearing is it can make you feel good or fired up, and it can give emphasis to the point you’re trying to make. A certain level of profanity is more accepted today than in the past. In select cases it even has its purpose in public discourse.
But, I can tell you what swearing doesn’t do.
It’s never made me look smarter or more well-informed. And it’s never elevated me above the subject of my ire, be that a person, policy or idea.
And when it takes you down in the mud with your opponents it does nothing but hurt you and help them.
Case in point is the Resistance, a honorable and badly needed challenge to Donald Trump, the most corrupt and incompetent president in our history, his Republican Party and their immoral agenda.
Those folks are already in the mud, or the sewer if you prefer, and when I or anyone takes our arguments or rhetoric to a profane or vulgar level we’re following them right down into the cesspool.
Roseanne Barr lost her ABC television show the other day because of a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, a former Obama administration official. Good. Her ignorance, stupidity and cruelty were on display for all the world to see, and she got what she had coming to her.
The hope here is we can now stop talking about her and focus on topics and people that are actually important.
But, then along comes comedienne Samantha Bee, who went on her television show and used a vulgarity to describe Trump’s daughter, Ivanka.
This is no defense of Ivanka Trump, who I think is a hypocrite, a joke and maybe a little bit stupid. But stooping to the level of Trump and his Trumpettes makes us look just like them in a way.
And it gives them something to throw back at us and use as a smokescreen. Barr’s tweet was beyond the pale, far worse than Bee’s, but when the other side is expert in whataboutism you don’t want to give them any ammunition to obscure the issue or lose an opportunity to differentiate yourself from them in regard to who takes the high road and who takes the low road.
In this case both Barr and Bee took the low road.
We all talk about a Blue Wave coming in November. I’m hoping as much as anyone that it happens. But, it’s not going to happen by itself.
The Resistance has been great so far, and hopefully it’ll pick up even more steam in the coming months, but there are also concerns that the Democrats will blow it by failing to come up with an effective message for the voters.
The effectiveness of that message will involve not content but also delivery that sets us apart from the morally bankrupt pack of liars and political cowards populating the GOP.
We’re better than them, but that’s not enough. We have to act better and talk better. We need to be more focused and more prepared. This is starting to sound like a pep talk but it’s really just straight talk.
If we want to be the adults in the room then we have to get in the room.
And to get in the room we have to act like the adults we claim to be.
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