Language is a way to convey what we think, feel, want…what we know.
When language is used to communicate the things that are really important, it serves us well.
When we use language to debase, defame and distort, it not only doesn’t serve us well, but it also acts as an agent of destruction.
For some time, the left has been using the basest of curse words to attack Donald Trump.
Okay, he’s got thick skin and gives back to those who see to go after him in that way. Great!
So, what we have is an exchange of curse words and insults that only serves to spew hate toward one another.
Democrat leaders once put out videos that attacked Trump and Republicans in general using the s-word and f-bombs.
We’re talking about people who were at one time respected leaders in the political establishment now sounding like junior high school kids at an after-school fight.
And who did the crass rhetoric help? No one.
It certainly lowered the standards of discourse in this country and put us further apart from making any progress or finding solutions to any problems as a society.
Recently, Susie Lee, Nevada’s representative from the third congressional posted a virulent attack on the president using one f-bomb after another.
She says that she uses the word a lot these days.
This woman was not only elected to legislate affairs of state but indirectly to serve as a role model for future generations of legislators.
She bills herself as bipartisan.
That means she is supposed to be appealing to both sides of the aisle and that means acting as a role model for young people who come from families with different political points of view.
In using this kind of language, she has debased herself and she’s debased her value as a unifying political leader.
There is no question that she should be turned out of office come the next election. She’s not worthy to serve the people in Nevada’s third congressional district.
There will be those who think that if they point out that President Trump has used such language it would somehow mitigate Susie Lee’s filthy mouth.
A letter to editor in the Review-Journal writes that the “current occupant of the White House doesn’t know how to be anything other than vulgar and unhinged in his tweets.”
Others have pointed out that former presidents on both sides of the aisle of have used this kind of language in private.
That’s absolutely true. The language was used in private, not in public.
It’s also true that from time to time some of these former presidents did slip and used an epithet here or there.
Not defending it. But it’s important to note that it was infrequent, and it wasn’t used to continually shock people.
So, of the presidents, including Donald Trump, who have used these words in a moment of angst, we wince and wish they wouldn’t have used them in public.
But when a political party, when our own congressional representative purposely uses vile language and defends it because they don’t like the president and the things he’s trying to accomplish, they come across as childish and it’s hard to have any respect for them.
The definition of comity, not comedy, is having mutual recognition of laws and customs for their mutual benefit and includes courtesy and considerate behavior toward others.
This is how previous administrations of both political parties were able to get along enough to accomplish tasks that were meant to benefit our nation as a whole.
It’s not enough to say you’re justified to use vulgar divisive language because the other side uses it.
Susie Lee’s language is like a sword, not an olive branch. She should be turned out of office, and we should all pause to think about what we’re saying and how we say it.
