If there ever was the right time to talk about civil discourse and peaceful free speech, now is the time.
Politicians, consultants, pollsters and political hacks have made a career ― and a lot of money ― doing focus groups and polling on word choice to motivate voters for decades. A Democratic pollster told me in early 2022 they only had three issues on which to run for the upcoming mid-term congressional elections: abortion rights; Jan. 6 and Donald Trump is “a dictator like Hitler” who is an “existential threat to democracy.”
“Existential” is not a commonly used word in America today. But campaign wordsmiths found that when combined with “threat to democracy,” it worked really well to scare average voters about Trump.
Democratic campaigns discovered these words hit the human amygdala ― the part of the brain that signals fear and triggers a flight-or-fight response ― absolutely perfectly. They scared voters into voting for Democrats in the off-year congressional campaigns even though not one of them had anything to do with the real issues facing all Americans on a daily basis such as inflation, crime or the economy.
The Democratic pollster admitted that Trump would never be a monster like Hitler, nor would he ever be able to “destroy democracy” even if he wanted to ― “but so what?”
The Democrats cheated history and did far better in the elections than expected. Their use of carefully researched words gave them political victory.
Highly charged vindictive political rhetoric can sometimes trigger mentally unstable people to assassinate a U.S. president. At least a dozen attempts have been made on our nation’s commanders in chief in our nation’s history. Public figures and their campaign consultants — and every media talking head and commentator — need to remember that words matter and take responsibility for their part in fostering discord.
Politics has been infected by character assassination and truth distortions since the beginning of our Republic. Campaign operatives on both sides have long known how to use “buzzwords” and dynamite-loaded political dog whistles to motivate their voters to vote against the dastardly “other guy” so “their guy” will win.
James Callender was a pamphleteer and self-described junkyard dog who had a flair for the written and spoken word in the early days of the Republic. He led Republican attacks on Federalist President John Adams at the behest of Thomas Jefferson. Callender charged Adams was a “mentally deranged” monarchist (dictator?) who wanted to crown his son, John Quincy, as king in the White House one day (so he could destroy democracy?).
Callender called Adams, one of the key heroic figures in passing the Constitution less than a decade previous, a “hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force of a man nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.”
Methods of communication may have changed over the centuries, but the use of divisive language has not.
Callender didn’t care what he said or wrote about his political opponents ― as long as he got paid and his candidates won. He drowned in the James River in Richmond in 1803; drunk, friendless and penniless after having alienated every friend or client he ever had before.
Democrats including Joe Biden have no business calling Trump “Hitler” or a “threat to democracy” any more than Trump had when he was demeaning everyone and anyone on both sides who opposed him. It is time for all adults to turn away from Callander-esque attacks and follow the lead of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan and become positive, uplifting, inspirational statesmen-leaders we can all follow whether we fully agree with them on every issue or not.
One of the greatest things that could come out of this whole calamitous near-disaster would be if Biden and Trump would jointly address the American people to say they are going to focus solely on the merits of each issue before us as a nation and withhold salacious ad hominem attacks on each other for the rest of this campaign.
“Here’s my position on such-and-such an issue. If you like it, vote for me. If you don’t like it and don’t vote for me, that will not hurt my feelings” each candidate should say in all seriousness.
Trump may have just had the sort of close encounter with his mortality which could change his entire outlook on life, even at age 79. Forty-one million people voted against him in 2020 even though they probably agreed with him on most issues because they did not like or appreciate his boorish behavior.
If he comes out of this tragic event with the attitude of charity toward others and malice toward none for the rest of this campaign, he will have done the nation a great public service at this critical time.
