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.
I actually find this more offensive than the use of the F word. For someone who made a substantial fortune in a free market economy, he doesn't understand economics very well.
I wonder how he would feel if someone in Washington told him "You're not going to raise that ******* rent/hotel rate/door charge/whatever" at any of his real estate or casino holdings.
Someone should educate the Trumpster about why there were gasoline lines in the 70s even though there was plenty of gas to be had.
you are full of it. an american president who can’t even control his speech will be treated like that nutcase in Iran, or worse than Chavez. is that what you want?
you might think that bloviating talks that would get a seventh grader’s mouth washed out with soap are appropriate for international diplomacy, but most adult voters would disagree, and he would never get elected.
which is yet another reason to be rid of him
like john f’in kerry????
And just where has our pansy, apologetic, international diplomacy gotten us? Even when the taxpayers shell out tens of billions of hard earned dollars to other countries they still spit on us. Trump has stated they laugh at us and he is right. Lets play hardball for a change with the welfare of America and Americans our primary objective.
Of course.
You’re so smart.
Who do you support, BTW? If you don’t mind sharing?
Yup, he had already fallen pretty low in my eyes, now he’s clean off the board.
If you think OPEC and the other oil cartels, or even China, have anything to do with free markets, you're delusional.
Freedom of speech
swearing like an abusive teenage thug is’t playing tough, it’s just bloviating. and embarassing.
would you want a president who you’d be reluctant to take your kid to hear?
it doesn’t take much to be better than what we have, but trump isn’t our guy - he isn’t even conservative?
He did it intentionally to create an excuse for not running.
Rumor had it Cain was going to officially announce on Monday....obviously delayed (wisely) due to the bin Laden take-down sucking up all the newsroom oxygen for this week.
He was never on the board, as far as I’m concerned.
i would tend to support bachmann, or christie. i would support a real conservative not some RINO who gives more money to democrats than republicans, who supports abortion, opposes the second ammendment, and thinks he can bully other nations by sounding like a street thug.
and if you can’t see past the posturing, you’e just his kinda guy!
Ross Perot had a lot of support because he was a tough businessman, etc., before people saw him as a nutcase.
I would give Donald Trump a little slack. He has not formally declared that he is a candidate for President. He was not on a Fox news show or other MSM real time broadcast. He was elsewhere. Let us see where he goes from here before we declare him fit or unfit candidate for the Office of the President of the United States.
I have not heard him do this in any other speech, so what is the big deal? We have a country to save hear and he knows how to do it!
It’s more than BS. Conservatives had better get over the “we’re the nice guys”, polite, turn the other cheek frame of mind and come into the real world as it exists today.
What is important are actions and political intent, not an executive hair, pressed suit image (even though he has that image). We are and have been in a war with the democrat party for the preservation of the Constitution and the Republic and playing nice using Marquise of Queensbury Rules is not going to win it.
While I don’t necessarily condone nor use profanity in public you’d all better figure out that real people do! Sorry, that ship sailed years ago. My Marine Corps drill instructor used it liberally 40 years ago to great effect. The fellow officers I served with in the AF used profanity at some time or the other and you can bet the troops in Afganistan and the Seal Team that took out OBL do too. That disqualifies a lot of good people.
I don’t want an “image” for president, that’s what we got with der Fuehrer. I want someone who will support and defend the Constitution; who will get the economy back on track and will do away with all of the crap imposed on our country by the socialist democrat party. I WANT someone who will call them liars to their face; call them a horses ass when it applies and to do it in public and who is not afraid to say we will waterboard terrorists and unilaterally take out our enemies when it becomes necessary and with extreme prejudice.
If you want a Mr. Nice Guy then campaign for someone like Lindsey Graham or the next Bush in line. Just remember how well that really worked for us in the past.
FUBO & FAD
Apparently, you are so sensitive that strong language obscures your ability to understand the message. Because there are people like you, it was a mistake for Trump to use the language he did. I doubt it will happen again. However, there are many who are not so easily "scandalized" who could easily see that it was not just Trump's language that was strong, it was also his message. This is why they like Trump.
Interestingly, on last nights Fox Business Networks Nightly Scoreboard, an unabashedly conservative program, a viewer poll showed a perfect split on how people felt about Trumps speech.
Perot is no nutcase.
He was 100% right. Ahead of his time. That “giant sucking sound” has grown to a tornado which demolished America’s industrial base.
Perot is the guy who personally hired a commando squad to rescue his own employees from an islamic revolution.
We could do a lot worse than Perot. Perot was right.
It's not up to you to disqualify candidates. Let us voters decide that. FYI I've never been a Trump supporter. You Betcha.
RJS1950
Semper Fidelis, Marine!
GOD Bless Ta!
Dick G
*****
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