“Be nice. Until it’s time not to be nice.”
Patrick Swayze, Road House
Oh my, everyone seems all a-Twitter about the president’s feud with the media.
“Greatest Liar, idiot, schmuck, thug, goon, unbalanced, like somebody pooping their pants,” said Joe Scarborough of “Morning Joe.”
“I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came..” tweeted Trump.
After attacks by CNN Trump posted an old video from his days promoting wrestling of him body slamming a WWE wrestler, with CNN superimposed on his opponent.
CNN cried “He’s inciting violence!” joined by any number of intellectuals, many of them Republicans, many whom I respect highly, and Jerry Springer too.
I urge everyone to take a chill pill.
The president’s behavior seems erratic, childish, and embarrassing. But those who call it disturbing have evidently forgotten presidential hijinks from Clinton to LBJ.
Remember Clinton’s behavior with interns? Remember when a couple of White House secretaries resigned because Johnson made them take dictation while he was sitting on the white porcelain throne? And remember JFK seduced a 19-year-old intern and coerced her into servicing a friend while he and others watched?
In terms of bad behavior, Trump isn’t even in their league. Yes it’s childish and petty, but it’s not the end of the Republic, it’s something else.
It’s a fight.
At the presidential level we haven’t seen a real fight in a long time. Mitt Romney fought like a sick nun. John McCain fought like he’d been paid to take a dive in the third round.
It’s not new. What’s different is that someone is fighting back now.
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was accused of inciting murder by the New York Times, and had David Letterman describe her as having the appearance of a “slutty flight attendant” and joked about her 14-year-old daughter getting “knocked up” at a baseball game.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was opposed with riots, vandalism, threats on his life and some of his political allies had their doors kicked in at midnight by heavily armed police on trumped-up charges.
Representative Paul Ryan (R- WI) was portrayed as pushing a grandmother in a wheelchair off a cliff.
Their responses ranged from stoic dignity to feeble protest.
Down here among the plebes how many have grown tired of being called racists, fascists, Nazis, etc because of opinions and concerns which they could articulate and were willing to discuss like free men in a free state?
Within the past week I’ve seen two articles. In one the author proclaimed he did not have to talk to his opponents because he’s a decent human being – and they are not. In another the writer said white, Christian, rural Americans are superstitious bigots who will never change.
Though he didn’t offer a solution to the problem of sharing a country with such, one gets a chilling suspicion of what he’s willing to consider.
One could dismiss these as solely the responsibility of the writers, but comment threads seem to show the opinions have widespread support in some quarters.
What Trump seems to have grasped on some level is that rational discourse is not an effective reply to name-calling. That the major media openly and flagrantly tilt heavily leftwards and are widely disliked by a great many people. That they will never judge him by the same standard as JFK, LBJ, or Bill Clinton.
In short, that there is nothing whatever to be lost by fighting back hard and dirty.
Lord how I wish we had a president who could fight like a gentleman and then share a drink with an opponent, as Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neil would.
How I wish we had a refined intellectual with a pragmatic working-class streak like Daniel Patrick Moynihan as president.
And how I wish so many had not lost sight of the fact that disagree is what free men do!
But here we are and here we will be for a while. Because a lot of frustrated people have discovered they like a good fight.