“Mama said” ranks next to “Jesus says” for a country boy who grew up among honeysuckle and high-pitched Southern voices.
These days, I sense “Mama said” and “Jesus says” are losing credibility.
“Mama said” once provided social stability (good manners, decorum, tradition). “Jesus says” produced a rock-solid ethical foundation along with strong churches and a shared story of love.
Rodney Kennedy
Social media has dismantled this structure.
Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist, remarks on the spread of social media: “These platforms were almost perfectly designed to bring out our most moralistic and least reflective selves. The volume of outrage was shocking.”
In an effort at reducing the complexities of our current political mess to ordinary life, I thought about Mama. Mama grew up dirt poor but managed to finish the ninth grade. This apparent lack of intellectual bona fides never put a damper on any of her opinions.
The reason I thought of Mama was something President Donald Trump said about President Joe Biden: “He is a criminal and should be in jail. A major lowlife and failure. An ugly peron, both inside and out! I beat him badly and love watching him squirm now.”
Mama reminds me of Lee Smith’s mama in her short story, Tongues of Fire: “Mama’s two specialities were Rising to the Occasion and Rising Above It All, whatever ‘it’ happened to be. Mama believed that if you can’t say something nice, say nothing at all.”
Trump seems to be the “anti-Mama.” He specializes in ugly, offensive, violent rhetoric. I have learned from my MAGA friends that nothing Trump says affects them.
Roderick P. Hart studied Trump supporters in Trump and Us: What He Says and Why People Listen:
“Every time Trump opens his mouth it helps him,” said veteran Anthony Holston. “I like that he’s got balls and he’s willing to take a chance. Not taking a chance hasn’t worked too well.”
“He’s a mouthy New Yorker,” says Lenny Massumino of West Virginia, “and if you know anybody from New York, they all got a line of bullshit. That’s the way they are.”
“Whether he has made America greater is debatable, but he has made us uglier, meaner, less civil.”
“He grew up in the construction business and went to military school,” said Billy Shreve of Frederick, Maryland; describing underdeveloped nations as shithole countries is “just common language. The snowflakes aren’t used to it.”
“Trump is arrogant and crass, I’ll give you that,” says former coal miner John Beatty, and “women don’t like him much, other than the ones that sleep with him. I won’t call him a bigot, but he’s not too far from it. But I believe the way he thinks can do what has to be done.”
“The fact that Donald Trump is very blunt about it,” says online contributor Carlos Rodriguez, “is not a surprise, this is just Trump being Trump.”
Echoing poet Maya Angelou, Eric Johnson of Woodstock, Georgia, waxes philosophical: “People will always forget about what you say, forget what you do, but never forget how you make them feel.”
Johnson then goes all-out in defense of the president: “We said we needed a bulldog, someone who’s going to fight for us, and he’s our hired hand. It’s kind of messy. He might make a mistake and hit the wrong person but I know he doesn’t intend harm. You know exactly what (Trump’s) thinking. You don’t have to wonder what’s going on.”
Trump has towered over all other politicians as he has embraced the toxic, mean-spirited, cut-throat, ugliness of social media. He has been the human Twitter (now X): impulsive, simplistic, incivil. Whether he has made America greater is debatable, but he has made us uglier, meaner, less civil.
Jesus still has a faithful remnant insisting that his words are the only foundation that lasts. Meanwhile, Mama has asked God to send her back to earth. The need for “’say nothing at all” lessons has arrived.
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer in New York state. He is the author of 11 books, including his latest, Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit.