President Donald Trump has unleashed a torrent of vileness against U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D- Texas, for calling Texas Gov. Greg Abbott “Governor Hot Wheels.”
Whether you like what Crockett said or not, Trump and his allies have ceded all authority to criticize anyone else for name-calling. Trump himself is a master offender on this count, and his followers never call him out.
There is indisputable evidence here of a double standard.
Rodney Kennedy
On the one hand, Trump has made a career out of constant cruel, vicious, demeaning personal attacks against all his alleged enemies. On the other hand, Trump and MAGA get their righteous indignation aroused when they are criticized or called names.
Due to Trump, politics has become more insulting. The advent of this tragic turn in our political cultural traces straight to him. He has poisoned the well of political rhetoric.
In the eight years prior to Trump’s first term as president, we witnessed one of the most eloquent presidents in history, a leader whose conduct was above reproach and who was thoughtful, deliberate and compassionate. The contrast between Barack Obama — also a victim of Trump’s name calling — and Trump could not be more mind boggling.
The master of personal insults, Trump has changed the rules of the political game.
We have gone from venues of mutual respect and decorum to a Friday night crowd at the local bar. Rhetorical scholar Craig R. Smith labels Trump’s rhetoric as “bar talk” — things you normally would hear only “after a few drinks in the privacy of an underlit bar.”
“She’s a lowlife, and she’s a very low-IQ person.”
In response to Crockett’s comment about Abbott — which she claims was about his busing migrants out of state and not about the wheelchair he uses — Trump said of Crockett: “She’s a lowlife, and she’s a very low-IQ person.”
That continues his longstanding pattern.
Trump has boasted, bragged, threatened and profanely attacked anyone in his way. His pugnacious bar talk extends to putdowns, disparaging remarks, insults, demeaning and profane language. Words used by Trump have added new layers of negative, divisive, harsh, belligerent, and violent imagery.
Trump has made a media game out of giving nicknames to his opponents. He tests nicknames in the media until he finds ones that stick in the public’s mind: “Sleepy Joe,” “Cheatin’ Obama,” “Ron DeSanctimonious,” “Little Marco,” “Low Energy Jeb,” “Birdbrain Nikki Haley,” “Lyin’ Ted Cruz,” and “Laffin’ Kamala Harris.”
Trump especially enjoys insults directed at women. He claimed New York Times columnist Gail Collins has “the face of a dog.” He famously branded actress Rosie O’Donnell a “fat pig” and referred to Stormy Daniels as “horse face.”
Ridiculing her claim to have Cherokee blood, Trump referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas.” His comments about Megan Kelly’s anatomy were X-rated. He said Kelly was a “bimbo.”
“Trump especially enjoys insults directed at women.”
His daily rhetoric qualifies as rhetorical perversion. Sexist, white supremacist language always has a tinge of sexual perversity attached.
He excuses his insults of women: “What I say, it’s fun, its’ kidding. We have a good time. What I say is what I say.”
Another marker of Trump’s “low life” rhetoric is his penchant for calling people “stupid.” Tasteless, tactless and ill-mannered people call other people stupid. If Trump had a mother who sent him to bed for calling someone “stupid,” he might have turned out to be a better man.
He has called Rep. Maxine Waters of California a person of “low I.Q.” He used the same term for actor Robert DeNiro. He called Karl Rove, former George W. Bush adviser, “stupid” five times. Bloomberg’s Tim O’Brien has earned the label three times. Three times Trump called Don Lemon “unintelligent.”
Trump even called Obama stupid: “Nobody can be so stupid and nobody can make deals like this guy is making.”
In 2015, Donald Trump mocks a disabled reporter. (Screencap from NBC News)
Perhaps Trump’s most despicable act was mocking Washington Post reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis, a condition that limits the movement of joints and is particularly noticeable in his right arm and hand.
During a rally speech before he ever was elected president, Trump broke his composure, and with his eyes bulging, his voice strained, his arms locked at the elbows, and his hands flapping, he oscillated his body back and forth while he impersonated the “nice reporter”: “Now, the poor guy, you’ve got to see this guy: ‘Uhh, I don’t know what I said. Uhh, I don’t remember.’ He’s going like, ‘I don’t remember. Maybe that’s what I said.'”
One cannot imagine any other president saying such things in public. As many have pointed out, that should have been the end of Trump’s candidacy, but it was not. His base reveled in his mockery.
But when any Democratic or Republican opponent attempts to match Trump’s viciousness, he and his entourage express outrage at anyone who dares to say what they deem ugly things about others.
In the new linguistic world order created by Trump, Crockett’s remark is a mild bit of comedy. It hardly registers as cruel, vicious or ugly. And unlike Trump, she claims she meant something different.
“Trump insists the ‘old rules’ of respect and mutuality apply only to Democrats and his opponents.”
We may all mutter, “I wish she hadn’t said that,” but it’s hardly a huge insult.
Trump insists the “old rules” of respect and mutuality apply only to Democrats and his opponents. He is not held accountable for his vulgar and vicious language. Why? Because Trump’s loyal supporters relish his attacks on the hated Democrats. They enjoy his crude and cruel humor. They laugh and applaud and shout, “We love Trump.”
Well, these hypocrites need to shut up because they’ve lost all opportunity to speak morally about this.
Hypocrisy may be the most despicable sin of the righteous. Those who know to do right and instead do wrong face the greater accountability. Jesus made it clear he was the enemy of all hypocrisy. In Matthew 7:5, he set the tone for his opposition: “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.”
Jesus also called hypocrites children of hell, filled with “hypocrisy and lawlessness,” “snakes” and a “brood of vipers.”
If you’re going to criticize Rep. Crockett, fine. But before you earn the right to do that, you better criticize Trump for language far more offensive.
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