Dirty political talk is as old as politics itself. On the same day that Pete Buttigieg asked American voters to choose “a better politics,” former President Donald Trump boasted that he thrives on the political dark side.
Pete Buttigieg Asked the United States to Choose Dignity
 |
| Pete Buttigieg |
During his August 21, 2024 Democratic National Convention speech, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg asked the United States of America to upgrade its political talk. He said, “I just don’t believe that America today is in the market for darkness.” Instead, it is time, he told us, to take politics seriously. Positive politics, he explained, invite us to make positive national choices:
“Yes, politics at its worst can be ugly, crushing, demeaning, but it doesn’t have to be. At its best, politics can be empowering, uplifting. It can even be a kind of soul craft.”Buttigieg asked voters to decide what tone they want their political leaders to use. Now, in my experience, most people say that they prefer dignified political discussion. Nevertheless, their values and actions don’t seem to connect; in real life, the nastiest candidates often get more votes. Buttigieg begged us to take a stand: darkness or light? He emphasized that choice:
“So, this November, we get to choose. We get to choose our president. We get to choose our policies, but most of all, we will choose a better politics. A politics that calls us to our better selves and offers us a better every day.”Buttigieg asked his audience to think about how politics can improve our lives. He reminded us that we do not vote in November to choose the winner of a reality show contest. Instead, we are choosing what kind of lives we choose to live:
“I don’t presume to know what it’s like in your kitchen, but I know, as sure as I am standing here, that everything in it, the bills you pay at that table, the shape of the family that sits there, the fears and the dreams that you talk about late into the night there, all of it compels us to demand more from our politics than a rerun of some TV wrestling death match.”
The October 15, 2019 Democratic Primary Debate: Superficiality Ruled the Stage
Buttigieg’s message: we should choose positive politics because we want to live better lives.
Alas, not everyone agrees.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump scorned uplifting politics at a North Carolina campaign rally that same day. Trump announced that he would henceforth call the Democratic nominee “Comrade Kamala.” In fact, to the crowd’s cheers, Trump loudly reviewed his name-calling skill:
“[Kamala Harris] ruined San Francisco, she ruined California. And if she gets in, our country doesn’t have a chance. This calamity is on Comrade Kamala Harris’s shoulders. I think her name will be Comrade because I think that’s the most accurate name. I’ve been looking for a name. People are saying, “Sir, don’t do it.” You know all my names, they’ve all worked. They’ve all been very successful, and I really didn’t find one with her. “Sir, she’s a woman.” I said, “So is Hillary Clinton, I called her Crooked Hillary.” Nobody complained about that, right? Right? Mr. Governor, nobody complained about that. No, I called her Crooked Hillary. I called people names. I call Crazy Nancy Pelosi crazy because she is, she’s nuts.” [italics added]“I called people names,” Trump literally boasted. The nickname “Comrade Kamala” joined the ongoing Republican movement to brand her as, not just a liberal, but a literal communist. Trump also talked about how astute he was to call former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi “Crazy Nancy.” He repeated the nickname “Crooked Hillary” as if name-calling were a major life accomplishment. He didn’t mention “Lying, Lying Ted [Cruz]?” or “Little Marco [Rubio]” in this speech, but he could have. Are we voting for a president – or a playground bully?
Indeed, Trump griped that his advisors told him to stop calling people names. To his rally crowd’s delight, he said that he was going to fire the advisors. He sneered:
“‘Please, sir, don’t get personal, talk about policy.’ Let me ask you about that. We’re going to do a free poll. Here are the two questions: should I get personal, should I not get personal? Ready? Should I get personal? Should I not get personal? I don’t know, my advisors are fired. No. We’d rather keep it on policy, but sometimes it’s hard when you’re attacked from all ends.”Needless to say, Trump’s cheering crowd did not make the positive choice.
Trump’s only defense was that his crude tactics succeeded: if we imagine that he was taking up Buttigieg’s challenge, Trump asked the voters – in so many words – to vote for crudeness. Trump didn’t just go to the dark side; he bragged about it: “You know all my names, they’ve all worked.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the 2024 Democratic National Convention
Trump's "Jekyll and Hyde" Convention Speech Promised Fierce Leadership
A Contrast: Two Political Styles?
Now, Buttigieg aside, I’m not going to pretend that Democrats are always nice. Still, in the realm of dirty politics, the American people do seem to face a choice. Buttigieg asked the voters to choose positive politics, while Trump crows about his name-calling skill.
Or, in a larger sense, Buttigieg is calling on everyone to run a more civilized campaign, to discuss issues and character rather than to trade mindless insults. Let us not forget that Trump was right, in a sense: name-calling helped him win against Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Politics has never been a nice game. Buttigieg does, however, make a point – does he not? Do we really want to elect whichever candidate is most skilled at calling people names? Is the White House to be the adult home of third-grade bullies? Will America’s adversaries back down if the President of the United States calls their leaders crude names?
Of course, Democrats do routinely criticize Donald Trump. Is there a difference? I suggest that there often is.
First, although Democrats can sink low, they rarely create juvenile nicknames for the Republican candidate. Although Trump invents infantile insults like “Comrade Kamala” or “Low-IQ Maxine Waters,” Democrats generally just call him “Donald Trump” or “Trump.” Lately, the Democrats sometimes call Trump “weird,” which seems like a step in the wrong direction.
Second, the Democrats’ attacks against Trump more often arise from his actions and political views, rarely focusing on his personal habits. For example, in this speech, Buttigieg called Trump a “convicted criminal,” which is, at least, factual.
Given the high stakes, combined with the United States’ week defamation laws, it may be too much to expect our politicians to engage in civilized discourse. Sadly, Trump said it best – he calls people names because it wins votes. Surely, however, we voters can heed Buttigieg’s plea and expect politicians to do a little better. Surely, we voters can find it within ourselves to reject a candidate who makes name-calling his proudest public speaking technique.
by William D. Harpine
A word of thanks. My gratitude to rev.com, a commercial transcript service, for producing verbatim transcripts of these speeches. These are more valuable than the speakers' prepared texts, which do not always reflect what the speaker actually says.
Copyright © 2024 by William D. Harpine
Image of Pete Buttigieg: Department of Transportation photo, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Image of Donald Trump: official White House photo, public domain
No comments:
Post a Comment