Posted on 05/03/2011 7:01:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The following comments were made in a public speech last week by a man considering running for president of the United States.
On gas prices: “We have nobody in Washington that sits back and says, ‘You’re not going to raise that f***ing price.’”
On what he would say as president to China: “Listen, you mother f***ers, we’re going to tax you 25 percent.”
On Iraq: “We build a school, we build a road, they blow up the school, we build another school, we build another road, they blow them up, we build again. In the meantime we can’t get a f***ing school in Brooklyn.”
The man is Donald Trump. And the words render him unfit to be a presidential candidate, let alone president. They also evidence a need for some Republican-party soul-searching as to how a group of Republican women could laugh and cheer at such language coming from a would-be presidential candidate.
On a number of occasions I have written that the use of expletives in public discourse has been a characteristic of the Left. Public cursing is not an issue to the intellectual and artistic Left. They shrug off criticism of such language as antiquated and elitist — not to mention hypocritical, given that prominent conservatives such as Dick Cheney and George W. Bush were caught using such language.
But there is a world of difference between using an expletive in private and using one in a public speech. For those who do not see the difference, think of the difference between relieving oneself in private and relieving oneself in public. It usually takes a university education and a Leftist worldview not to see the enormous moral distinction between public and private cursing. One affects society; one does not.
I hereby plead guilty to occasionally using an expletive when angry about something particularly vile or, for that matter, in a punch line to an off-color joke — in private to my wife or to friends. Likewise, while I find the vast amount of gratuitous cursing in movies injurious to society, I do not find all such cursing offensive. The use of the F-word in a powerful private moment in the Academy Award–winning film The King’s Speech was appropriate and genuinely humorous.
In general, however, the use of such words — whether in public or as a matter of general usage in private — is degrading to the user, to the listener, and to society.
As a father, I even banned use of the word “sucks” in general conversation in my home. I am certain that the use of that word at sporting events, such as when thousands of fans scream it at an opposing player or at the entire opposing team, has contributed to — and is a sign of — the coarsening of American life. That home teams routinely use the stadium organ to goad fans into chanting the word is only further proof of this coarsening. When I was a child, stadiums allowed smoking but not cursing. Today smoking is unheard of, but cursing is ubiquitous. A visit to an athletic event may be marginally healthier for the body today. But it is can also be far more injurious to the soul.
Last week, Donald Trump may have made his one contribution to American history. His recent speech was the first of a person seeking the presidential nomination of a major party to use such language.
Had he used the F-word once and apologized, I would not have written this column. But, and this important, he used it once, and upon seeing the enthusiastic reaction, felt encouraged to use it again and again.
The audience’s reaction is even more important — and more distressing — than Trump’s use of the word. Had there been booing, or had someone who invited him arisen to ask that he not use such language, or had some of the women walked out, the good name of the Republican party and of conservative values would have been preserved. But if Republican women — and I emphasize both the party and the gender — find the use of the F-word by a potential presidential candidate amusing, America is more coarsened than I had imagined.
If we cannot count on Republicans and conservatives to maintain standards of public decency and civility, to whom shall we look?
The argument that Trump told it as it is, that he’s one guy who isn’t afraid to call a spade a spade, is nonsense. Any fool can curse in public. Just like real comedians elicit laughter without the F-word, real politicians and real leaders inspire people and tell tough truths without that word. Somehow Lincoln inspired America without cursing, and Winston Churchill would not have been more effective had he said, “F*** Germany.”
It wasn’t just the use of the word that disqualified Trump as a serious candidate for president of the United States. So did the points he was trying to make with it. For example, our gas prices are not high because America didn’t order anyone to lower them. They are high because the value of the dollar has been debased by President Obama’s monetary and fiscal policies, and because the president and the Democrats won’t allow us to drill for the oil we have in abundance on and offshore.
Leading Republicans need to announce that there is no place in the Republican party for profane public speech. You cannot stand for small government without standing for big people.
— Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist.
He has made it clear on many occasions that he is talking about the oil cartels, the ones who depend for protection on the U.S. military. That is why he believes we have a right to demand stable pricing. Many refineries are operating at a loss.
As someone who was never famous once said, “who gives a rats arse” what the NRO has to say on any given subject!
The Check Pants GOP wants to throw another election for Obama just like in 2008. This is why they want Trump out of there.
They know Trump could get elected.
After all Trump just forced the hand of Obama on the COLB and the OBL. Both done within days of each other. This of course after Trump was pounding Obama on it and Obama’s poll numbers were tanking.
We gotta hang together, or...else...
Very true. There can be no retreat; any retreat will be a retreat into slavery.
Trump did obama a favor by dragging as many Conservatives as he could to the birth issue and NOW he wants out.
The minute he started throwing the F bombs around he knew it would result in people moving away from him.
He’s not going to run, his work for obama is done and he wants to go back to his crappy ‘reality’ show.
I’m not saying he’s serious, and I’m not saying I’d vote for him in the primary. But.... evidently in large scale business negotiations (for instance with the Chinese) yelling, bluster, and profanity are so common as to be the order of the day. Otherwise you’d be viewed as a wimp.
Nah....Trump will announce his candidacy....as a Democrat running against Obama in the primary. I doubt the Democrats would be conducting a discussion like this at all, so Trump will fit in there just fine.
Plus, think of the fun he’ll be having in the primary debates. Think how many Democrat voters will be agreeing with him every step of the way, especially when they find out some of his past positions.
I wonder how many of his supporters in here would vote Dem if Trump was the Dem nominee in the end? Any at all? Most of them? It would be interesting to know.
The sissyboy RINO’s at NRO desperately want to change the subject away from the issues that Trump is raising.
I don’t care that he used the words so much - certainly most of us are mad enough to do the same - but they can now be used by the left (who ironically aren’t offended) as sound bites against Trump should he run.
Shows poor judgment or no intention to run.
Prager better not read the Nixon transcripts. Or hang out with Marines. A lot of people swear, just how it works.
RE: Prager better not read the Nixon transcripts. Or hang out with Marines. A lot of people swear, just how it works.
Prager knows about the Nixon tapes. That’s why he said this in the article :
“There is a world of difference between using an expletive in private and using one in a public speech. For those who do not see the difference, think of the difference between relieving oneself in private and relieving oneself in public.”
“Think how many Democrat voters will be agreeing with him every step of the way, especially when they find out some of his past positions.”
Military on the Mexican border
Wants ObamaCare repealed
Pro-Life
Pro-Israel
Wants to take the economic fight to the Chinese
Iraq’s oil
Already forced Obama to show the Birth Certificate
Lower tax rates
Against gun control
Against raising the debt ceiling
Fill administration positions with competent people not political appointees.
Will undo Obama World Apology Tour
Wants the rest of the world to fear us
Pro-traditional marriage
Christian
No 911 Mosque, too insensitive
Drill ANWAR
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
Never held elected office
Loves America
Knows better than to introduce a Win The Future (WTF) slogan
And, my favorite in-your-face,
Pi$$es off Karl Rove
Nixon wasn’t really in private was he, not only were other people in the room and he had the room bugged.
Yup, that’s our choice. F-bombs or Bob Dole.
By “past positions” I meant that he was once a Democrat himself, and donated freely to Democrat politicians.
As for your list, that’s my point. I know a lot of people who vote Democrat routinely, but are hunters, Christians, pro-marriage, think the country’s debt is out of control, are in favor of more jobs, love America, etc.
Trump would appeal to a lot of middle of the road Democrats in a Democrat primary. The looney left, no, but a lot of the rest would at least consider him, especially after the way the economy’s performed under Obama and his minions.
As for his winning the Republican slot, forget that dream. He didn’t have a chance even before he unloaded his “F-bomb” speech. Politically, He IS a clown. The comb-over alone should tell you that. Besides, we don’t need our own narcissist.
The media gave us Bob Dole and John McCain. They’d love to also saddle us with Donald Trump. Not going to happen though. But it would be fun if he turned the tables on them and ran as a Democrat. Love to see the first polls on that one.
You think the media is pushing Trump to run?
I disagree with his opinion this time, as well as his argument.
This business of language is complex and unsettled. The O.E.D. lists the word. Exposure to the word for the last 50 years, in increasing frequency at all social levels should NOT have allowed that word in the Official Dictionary of the English Language.
The Urban Dictionary exists for that purpose for us sheltered types who have a genuine need to know how phrase "Tea Bagger" morphed from a term in use by perverts, to a term of derision against the Taxed Enough Already activist movement.
In the heat of outrage it is understandable how an ubiquitous word might be almost appropriate. I believe absolutely that this is a word much used and abused in Washington DC and other capitals routinely, at all levels.
Disqualification for office? Not necessarily. Lying relentlessly is more insulting to the spirit.
There are acts much more obscene than this word which we are forced to accept daily from the current holder of that highest office.
That we personally do not revert to use of the word is commendable. To give it more weight than it deserves is sophistry at its best.
Yes.
I would consider it an improvement.
So many tend to confound the means with the ends.
Presently, diplomacy demands that we support our enemies financially without question.
Let them criticize our language, so long as they fear us.
The zenith of diplomacy, the UN, has been in the pocket of the sandmaggots for years. A few F bombs would be preferable to the many N-bombs that could follow.
What a silly question!
Evryone knows "WTF" stands for "Win The Future."
The Annointed one said so.
Do you always have your mind in the gutter?
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