So I was reprimanded tonight by a FB friend for referring to DJT as the SCPOTUS and I’m thinking there might be something to changing the rhetoric worthwhile considering. Their comment to me:
—“I can’t have a conversation with someone who chooses to say SCPOTUS. that’s where I rest my case. The last time I checked Trump IS the POTUS. He won the election. you may not like it or accept it but there is no “SC.” And because you and others choose to speak like this I have nothing more to discuss. There is no conversation to be had. No quotes. No exchange of views. And the reality is that that kind of thinking is not winning elections. It just alienating more people.”—
The one thing I can say I don’t agree with in there is —“And the reality is that that kind of thinking is not winning elections”— because to some degree it did win an election. DJT made insulting denigrating, misogynistic, racist, xenophobic, demeaning pejorative rhetoric the norm and it inspired and supercharged his base and it also didn’t really stop any of the Republicans who found that type of language revolting from voting for him.
But I am critical of the Hillary-crats who insult and call Bernie “irrelevant” and I am critical of the ideological sanctimonious Bernie-or-Bust-ers too. I’ m critical of the people who post the bullshit nonsense from sites like PartisanReport as being just shy of being left wing Alex Jones type content because I consider it counter-productive.
But on the other hand as I have also recently said I agree with Brian Cox and Thomas Jefferson where they have said respectivly:
—“The problem with today’s world is that everyone believes they have the right to express their opinion AND have others listen to it. The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense!”— B.C.
And …
—“Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions.”— T.J.
I will probably never ever refer to DJT as President T… because I think that denigrates and insults the office and the 46 Presidents that came before him but I think a change in rhetoric might be worth considering. As Michelle Obama famously said: “When they go low, we go high”
Although that is not so easy when you hear rhetoric from DJT like Crooked Hillary, Crazy Bernie, Lyin’ Ted, Little Marco, ‘Low Energy’ Jeb, and Pocohantas and you know it works (and there are scientific hypotheses supporting why it works).
While I think changing the rhetoric might help in the effort to sway the centrists away from their support of Trump I think that is a losing strategy. HRC courted the centrist middle and they voted for Trump anyway and that a reactionary move back to the right anyway.
Then again will the pejorative labels inspire and bring out the Progressive grassroots. I don’t think so. I think, or at least I like to think that they respond to real ideas and real policy and while the flaming pejorative rhetoric may appeal to some unlike the right it’s not something that supercharges them.
Anyway, I think this all calls for some more thinking on my part, maybe on all our parts….