Daily Herald opinion: A dangerous ‘frankness’: Confusing offensive speech with leadership is a threat to our society
Despite his assertion following the killing of Charlie Kirk in September that it is “long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree,” there is not even faint hope that President Donald Trump will ever regulate his rhetoric on his own.
The more pertinent question — although it, too, seemingly remote — is whether his supporters and his adversaries alike, will come to see the damage he is doing to the fabric of our democracy with his untethered “frankness,” to quote his White House spokeswoman, and demand a more constructive tone in our public utterances.
We have been pleading for years for him, for all our public leaders and for all of us as individuals to show more dignity and civility in public conversations, and through all that time, we have watched with dismay as the situation has gotten worse instead of better. There are plenty of reasons, societal and otherwise, for the decline we are witnessing, but the role of the president of the United States must be ranked among the most serious — and utterly condemned.
It may be argued that a group of Democratic congressmen invited trouble when they issued a Facebook post this week reminding service men and women, “You can refuse illegal orders.” But President Trump’s inordinate response did nothing to diminish the issue of their concern and much to inflame it further.
“SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” he declared in one Truth Social post, before sharing another person’s post that said, “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD!!”
How, one naturally wonders, does such language “confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree”? Especially coming from someone who encouraged an angry mob to attack and overrun the U.S. Capitol — some carrying signs calling for the hanging of his own vice president? Especially considering that under international law and U.S. military policy, the congressmen he is decrying are, however self-serving, technically correct?
How does one respect the values of a president who says of the brutal murder and dismemberment of a journalist that “things happen,” as Trump did during his meeting last week with the Saudi crown prince who the CIA says ordered the killing?
Asked on Thursday about Trump hissing “Quiet, piggy” in response to a reporter’s question about Jeffrey Epstein, spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt welcomed “the frankness and the openness that you get from President Trump” and credited it as “one of the many reasons that the American people reelected this president.”
If her political instincts are correct, they only demonstrate our point. For if the American people can overlook name calling and barely disguised death threats toward political adversaries from the most influential political pulpit in the country, a dangerous tolerance for the offensive has deeply infiltrated the texture our society. And if they can accept it from this president, they can accept it from the next one, whatever his or her party. And if they can accept it from presidents, they can only expect more of the same from congressmen, state legislators, county officials, village board members and each other.
It will continue to seep ever further into our everyday dialogue and interactions, making it impossible to achieve the tolerance and compromise upon which successful democracy depends.
We charge at the windmills of the president’s speech with a certain sense of quixotic desperation. We know that he is not likely to moderate his “frankness,” is even proud of it. But we know that many others of us — hopefully most of us — recognize its impropriety, its offensiveness and its ultimate danger. Whether to supporters of the president’s policies or folks yearning for very different operations of our government, we plead again. Condemn offensive language. Renounce schoolyard bullying and name calling. Embrace reason and civility.
Respect, as President Trump himself said last September, “the values of free speech, citizenship, the rule of law and the patriotic devotion and love of God.”