Donald Trump: Elevating Public Discourse

If you have been listening to the establishment talking heads in the past few days, you would believe that Donald Trump has been responsible for the destruction of American political discourse.

Take Meghan McCain. Her weeknight America Now program and its parade of weak-kneed “conservatives” have been hammering Trump and his “bully” persona since the beginning of the primary season. It has gotten worse in the last few weeks. When Trump’s Chicago event was canceled because of cultural-Marxist thug protesters, it was Trump’s fault. A kinder, gentler conservative — like, say, Lindsey Graham — would be able to reason with these dissidents and get them to change their minds. Right. See Obama. This approach has worked well with Obama and other left-wing ideologues, don’t you think?

If we only knew our history.

Our legislature is the tamest in the world. That is not a bad thing, but it has not always been that way. Some early legislative debates ended in fisticuffs, and dueling was always an option. Ask Andrew Jackson, who carried a bullet in his shoulder from Congressman Thomas Hart Benton. Some brawls carried over into the lobby or in areas outside of the Congress. Benton also famously goaded one Mississippi congressman into pulling a pistol on him on the Senate floor. And who can forget Strom Thurmond trying to pick a fight in his 90s?

Joe Wilson’s “You lie!” seems quaint and the shock disingenuous—Nancy Pelosi muttering “Who said that,” with a look of horror on her face. It would be better to have a real raucous parliamentary debate where insults are hurled than this faux civility that blankets Washington today.

The Right has suffered the most for it.

This is not to suggest violence is the answer. Far from it. But it is not usually the Right that is violent. The Left has been leading the charge for violent action since the French Revolution in 1789. Off with their heads, and destroy their culture and “privilege.”

They even attack their own. It was liberal Dan Rather who was punched in the gut at the 1968 Democratic convention and not by a conservative party member. Politics is not for the weak, either physically or mentally. Parents, keep your delicate flowers at home. Fights were commonplace during the alcohol-fueled public voting campaigns of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. If you didn’t support the right guy, his minions would punch you in the face.

In contrast, the Right has often killed with kindness. No one on the Right wants to be accused of being a resolute partisan. It seems they don’t have the moral high ground, so instead they compromise, capitulate, play nice… and lose. Trump has changed that, which is why he is becoming a target. He has “manly firmness,” as Jefferson said in the Declaration of Independence. He is blunt, positive, and plain-spoken. This is refreshing, and people are realizing that the “silent majority” doesn’t need to be silent and it is still the majority. The politically correct cultural Marxists on both sides can’t stand it.

But it must be asked, what has Trump said that is so “racist” or “dangerous”? Nothing, as far as I can tell. History again has better examples of both monikers. Perhaps one other reason Trump is doing so well is because both terms are losing their punch. They have been used so often in the last twenty years, but particularly in the last eight, that people are becoming immune to the insult.  Everything is racist, even if it’s not. We have made calling a criminal a criminal a racist epithet. This is truly Orwellian doublespeak.

The real “dangerous” people have always been and still are those on the Left, and they are losing their grip. That is why they rush the stage and why they threaten minority Trump supporters with violence or with “Uncle Tom” insults.

Conform or take a beating. You will be assimilated.

Trump has not degraded public discourse. He has elevated it. Perhaps making “America great again” is nothing more than making American public discourse free again. It hasn’t been for a very long time.