It’s one thing if a politician swears in private, or a person swears among friends (yours truly is not a prude in that department), or if some blogs decide to write in unfettered prose that isn’t “newspaper standards.” But there is a certain minimum dignity..decorum…class that we expect from our politicians when they speak in public. You haven’t heard to many of them who get up and gratuitously load a public speech with F bombs.
Now we have: his name is Donald Trump.
It shows someone can have a lot of money but, in the end, lack c-l-a-s-s-. But, then, with Trump’s raising the birth certificate issue, claiming success and being “honored” when Obama reaveled it and now on a new narrative suggesting Obama was an affirmative action student…what else DID we expect? Or can we expect? So this isn’t really surprising:
“We build a school, we build a road, they blow up the school, we build another school, we build another road they blow them up, we build again, in the meantime we can’t get a f***ing school in Brooklyn,” Trump says.
To the audiences approval, while talking oil.
“We have nobody in Washington that sits back and said, you’re not going to raise that f****ing price,” he says.
And finally, while speaking about taxing Chinese goods.
“Listen you mother f***ers we’re going to tax you 25 percent,” Trump says.
And he expects Americans to let him sit in the Oval Office?Or, perhaps, as he would call it: “The f****** Oval Office.”
And it turns out Trump didn’t impress some. And noooooooo I’m not talking about a Demcrat. Noooooooo I’m not talking about an independent (who Republicans will call a Democrat if they are Trump fans and he dares to be critical of Trump).
While polls have trump in a very early lead for the Republican race, a few at the event think his mouth could use a cleaning up.
“I think he needs to work on that a little bit,” local Republican, David Gibbs says.
QUESTION: If (as many expect) Trump is just doing this as a big, fat publicity stunt, will politicians and the media smile and laugh it off? Or will some folks feel they will never watch his shows again, never buy any of the made-in-China products sold under his name and hawked via huge photos of him in malls, and not vote for those who seemed to be encouraging and enabling him? Will there be a serious boycott due to a)his behavior while he said he would run b)his decision not to run? (I’m one of those who think he just might run.)
Just imagine if Donald had been in office during our history, during moments when political speeches moved hearts and minds:
Abraham Trump: “Four score and seven f****** years ago. Our f****** fathers brought forth on this f****** continent….”
John Fitzgerald Trump: “Ask not what your f****** country can do for you, you motherf*****s, ask what you can do for your f****** country.”
Ronald Trump: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that f****** wall!”
Lincoln, JFK and Reagan had class when they spoke in public — a sign that when you were in office or seriously running for it you respected the public or country by speaking at your best.
On the other hand, that speech probably was Trump at his best.
UPDATE: A classic comment on from the Daily Kos’ post:
Sort of amusing to watch, in the sense that it’s not every day that you see a crowd of Republicans cheer on a guy who has a line of clothing manufactured in China talk about how he’s going to impose taxes while simultaneously cursing like a sailor.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.