political correctness

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An Id Too Far

The scariest part of Donald Trump is how much we want to be like him.

The National Review christened Donald Trump the “Id” of America last summer, a diagnosis that has proven prescient as well as shrewd. (http://www.nationalreview.com/article/422116/donald-trump-and-american-id-kevin-d-williamson). In the past five months Trump has waxed outrageous, surviving a bluntness rarely allowed in Presidential campaigning. Tough talk resonates in the current debate.
I realized this morning that the “Id” is on the loose in America, especially when political columnists lead with the headline “How Stupid is Iowa?” Timothy Egan would not have inscribed those words publicly before Trump immortalized them, but once circulating in the public domain, they can be repeated without accepting full responsibility for them. Because, after all, you’re merely quoting.
The phenomenon of appropriating without owning the language is common in public discourse. Trump, himself is a master of appropriation. For months he has insisted that he is interested in Ted Cruz’s birth legitimacy to be President, not because he cares, mind you, but because the Washington Post raised the issue. So Trump can be slimy, as well as blunt. (Note to self: The scariest part of Donald Trump is how much I want to be like him.)
But appropriating Donald Trump means letting your id romp in your front yard. Voters have enjoyed this romp, because it is so different from politics as usual. We can talk about people we don’t like in public, not just in the seclusion of our kitchens or texting our friends. Donald Trump has legitimized contempt and open disgust in the name of disrupting “political correctness.”
There is more to it than political correctness, however. “Respect” and “compassion” come to mind. “Political correctness” is when you tolerate groups of people for political gain. “Respect” is when you allow others the human dignity they deserve. Iowans don’t deserve to be called “stupid,” even if we are tired of their opinions mattering more than ours. They did adopt the highly democratic process known as “caucusing” and made political discussion as important as corn in an agricultural state. So we should not be using “stupid” to describe Iowans, regardless of their irritating presence on the front page every day. They are simply enjoying their quadrenniel six months of fame.
The edgy words in our public discourse is a sign of an id too far. If we speak like Donald Trump, we become Donald Trump. Perhaps a third of America is happy to be associated with his brashness, but the rest of us should be ashamed and try not to live down to his level of contempt. It is like getting caught up in hate-speak among people whom you want to like. You let your moral defenses down a little, and suddenly you are using language you were shunning yesterday.
So let’s not pretend we are just liberating ourselves from “political correctness” or paraphrasing someone else’s language. Our political bile is probably getting stirred up by the language served up by those who can dish it out, but we don’t have to let our ids out to play.

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Bully with a Pulpit

It is true that bullies play the victim card better than anyone else. We have seen Donald Trump bully Jeb Bush and John Kasich for their lack of swagger and then whimper that the media does not credit his poll numbers, which before this week, had been impressive. Wednesday night we saw Ted Cruz loudly complain that the media had stacked the questions against Republicans at the debate after treating the Democrats with great deference at their debate. “This is not a cage match,” he proclaimed.

If the debate was not a cage match, more the pity for Cruz. He excels at bare-fisted combat. That’s how he abruptly rose to power as a first-term U.S. Senator. Parrying a question about the federal debt limit, he went after the CNBC panel for their adversarial questions of the candidates and then offered to address the question after expending his time on the rant. It is easy to attack the media in a public debate, because if the media defends itself it yields to the charges of partisanship. The panelists have to absorb the punches and keep the debate moving. So attacking the media is both bullying and playing the victim at the same time.

The whole maneuver was staged to be spontaneous, but clearly a calculated move to take the high ground against an opponent who couldn’t fight back. Cruz had carefully noted the questions to each of the panelists and turned them into
travesties, as he launched into his tirade: “Donald Trump, are you a comic-book villain? Ben Carson, can you do math? John Kasich, will you insult two people over there? Marco Rubio, why don’t you resign? Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen?”
If Donald Trump had ventured that strategy, Cruz would probably have taunted him, “Hey Donald, if you don’t like the heat, stay out of the kitchen!” But it was Cruz’s turn to play the victim.

There is something unseemly about accepting an invitation to debate then trashing the host at the first opportunity. Not only was it an offense to hospitality, it was a deliberate provocation of the carnivorous audience that approved of any rough handling of the media. It was political theatre designed to lionize a bully. The crowd hooted their approval.

The bully survives on short-term approval. Even the New York Times rated Cruz’s performance as victorious the next day, but the Times is the media and has to take a punch. The polls will also boost Cruz, because he looked powerful, beating the Republican whipping boy on national television.

But the bully will eventually attack the wrong victim and be disgraced and rejected. That is the inevitable fate of Ted Cruz. He is probably smart enough to know it himself. But he will keep sucker-punching until someone feints and exposes his brutality, and he will claim he has been maligned or fallen victim to “political correctness.” That’s another term bullies like. When they are caught being merciless or insensitive, they cry “political correctness” and slink away.

Watch for it in the next round of Republican cage-fighting.