Did you read the last post, the one with “Señor Trumpanzee” in the title. Tom Nichols thinks that with much of America’s politics having descended into ignorant, juvenile stunts that distract us from the existential danger facing democracy, it’s wrong to “use silly and childish expressions [because] “juvenile nicknames too easily blur the distinction between pro-democracy voters and the people they’re trying to defeat.”
“Let us recall,” he wrote, “what pro-democracy citizens are up against. Donald Trump and many of his supporters in Republican politics are, in effect, a reality show, an ongoing comedy-drama full of Main Characters and plot twists and silly caricatures of heels and heroes.” I write DWT exactly the way he’s describing that— like a sit com with characters we try to deveop— from Señor T himself to monsters, through the years like Mean Jean Schmidt, Duke Cunningham, Mark Foley, Jerry Lewis, Joe Crowley… to more recent villains like Kysten Sinema, Marjorie Traitor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Miss McConnell, MAGA Mike Johnson, Joe Manchin, Matt Gaetz, Josh Gottheimer, Ted Cruz… Here, look at this; who’s missing?
Nicholas ask his readers to “ Think of Kari Lake, with her soft-focus, super-earnest TV presence. Watch Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin hitch up his pants and offer to duke it out with a Teamster, in a dopey scene that Hollywood would have left on the cutting-room floor. Tune in to Newsmax and chuckle as Representative Tim Burchett complains that Representative Kevin McCarthy gave him an elbow in the kidneys. Smirk along with the anchors as they suggest that Representative Nancy Mace, if McCarthy funds her challengers, might reveal some dirt— wink wink, nudge nudge— on the former speaker. Trump himself is a man both menacing and ludicrous, one of the most improbable figures ever to be at the center of a cult of personality. His whining, his weird mannerisms, his obsession with personal cosmetics—all make him an easy target for jokes and nicknames. But none of this should drag us into acting like children ourselves. Trump and his supporters might be inane in many ways, but they are deadly serious about their intentions to take power and destroy democracy. Their cavorting and capering is part of who they are, but it is also bait, a temptation to distraction and an invitation to sink to their level… It’s time to ditch all the coy, immature, and too-precious language… No more GQP, no more Qevin McCarthy, no more Rethuglicans and Repuglicans. No more Drumpf. No more Orange Menace. And no more of The Former Guy, which I know is popular among even many of my friends and colleagues in the media… [F]orgo calling the current Florida governor ‘DeSatan,’ ‘DeathSantis,’ and other grade-school epithets. I get it: It’s fun and sometimes funny. But as I warned, it also signals a needless lack of seriousness about the threat to democracy:
“Instead,” he suggests, “be direct and uncompromising: ‘You’re wrong. I think you know that you’re wrong, and I think, in your heart, you know you’re making a terrible mistake.’ That’s the best you can do in a family setting. Among friends, the approach might be different: ‘You know that these conspiracy theories are not true. And Donald Trump is a fascist. You’re not. But that’s what you’re supporting.’ … [A]s much as possible, be kind, be patient, be polite— but be unyielding in what you know is right.”
My friend Jimmy agrees with him 100%. He’s not even very political but he seems offended by our comedic character development— and the caricatures from our art department makes has completely turned him off from even looking at the site. Oh, well… you can’t please everyone. I taught about the music business at McGill. He taught about Russian affairs at Dartmouth and strategy at Annapolis. I’m pretty sure he was a Republican at one time— he worked as a legislative aide to Senator John Heinz (R-PA)— and he argued that conservatives like himself should vote for Hillary, as much and they (and he) hated her, because Trump was worse and too mentally unstable to be commander in chief.
I respect his suggestion— and there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Nichols doesn’t read DWT and I suspect that neither do many ex-Republicans who taught at the U.S. Naval War College. I don’t write it for them. I’m sure, for example, Nichols would have been outraged if he had read how congressional homophobes like Mark Foley, Denny Hastert, Aaron Schock, Ed Schrock Larry Craig, David Dreier, Mitch McConnell, Jim McCrery, Phil English, Dana Rohrabcher, Lindsey Graham, Patrick McHenry… were outed by DWT year and years before they were “officially” outed. In fact Lindsey Graham and Patrick McHenry are still officially straight which means in Tom Nichols world, they are straight. So we can’t use these:
Trump voters or even Trump-adjacent voters don’t read The Economist and its excellent analysis of who poses the biggest danger to the world in 2024 (spoiler not Putin or Xi). Satire and caricature have been around since ancient times, although critics with a kind of psychological rigidity and inflexible mind sets can’t see any legitimacy in their use. Some people have difficulty understanding the difference between humor and reality and take satirical or exaggerated statements literally, and feel that these statements are a direct attack on their beliefs, especially if they’re not inside their confirmation bias. A discomfort with ambiguity or multiple interpretations, make it difficult for some people— especially with some people with a tendency towards order and conformity— to appreciate the nuanced and often ambiguous nature of satire.