The Coarsening Dialog of Discourse- How Low Can It Go?

The coarsening dialog of discourse in the body politic within the United States is speeding towards rock bottom. Yet it begs the question still, “Just how low can it go?”

We all know about Kathy Griffin and her photo showing a decapitated Donald Trump and the invective she hurls at the President on a regular basis, all the while blaming Trump and his family for the demise of her career.

We all know about Chelsea Handler who doubled down on her mockery and her insults directed towards First Lady Melania Trump, upbraiding Mrs. Trump for her accent despite the fact that the President’s wife is fluent in five languages.

We all know about Michelle Wolf who unabashedly hurled personal insults at White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, during this year’s White House Correspondents Dinner. Wolf was rewarded for her efforts by getting her own show on Netflix, thanks to newly appointed board members Barack and Michelle Obama, who gained their new appointments in exchange for campaign contributions by the network’s chief programming officer Ted Sarandos. It was Sarandos who Obama also appointed as ambassador to the Bahamas, so the ties between the two go way back.

And most recently Samantha Bee, another so-called comedian, referred to the President’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, as a “feckless c***(rhymes with ‘hunt’)” on her late-night television show. Sadly, many Hollywood liberals are circling the wagons around Bee, including actress Sally Field who, at one time, played a nun on a popular 1960’s sitcom.

There are many more examples of low blows directed at the President and his family, going places and to degrees never before seen in the ever-coarsening course of our nation’s discourse. Given the fact that comedian and actress Roseanne Barr- no stranger herself to “f-bombs” and coarse language- lost her highly popular reboot of “Rosanne” on ABC, following her ill-considered tweet about Obama’s one-time senior advisor and mentor, Valerie Jarrett, it also has revealed the double standard of outrage that exists today. A liberal, or an otherwise anti-Trump-er can say anything and get away with it, but not a conservative or anyone who supports the President…in a word, sickening.

Yet, the disgusting diatribe which exists today goes well beyond the hills of Hollywood, and even extends now to candidates running for elective office.

Take for instance Virginia’s tenth congressional district. It comprises the northernmost tip of the Old Dominion. Containing Clarke, Frederick and Loudon counties, along with the independent cities of Manassas and Manassas Park, it also includes portions of Fairfax and Prince William counties and even touches Washington, DC to the west. Presently represented by moderate Republican Barbara Comstock (R-VA). two others are vying for Comstock’s seat. One, a Democrat, is Dan Helmer and the other is an independent, Nathan Larson.

Larson, who served a year in federal prison for sending an e-mail detailing plans to kill then-President-elect Barack Obama in 2008, is…get this…an open advocate for pedophilia one who has even launched several websites allowing pedophiles to discuss child rape, having once bragged about choking and raping his ex-wife. Following their divorce, she committed suicide. If not for former Governor Terry McAuliffe’s (D-VA) decision to restore voting and candidacy rights to convicted felons in 2016, Larson would otherwise be prohibited from running for office in the first place- yet another parting “gift” to the Commonwealth from Bill Clinton’s one-time presidential campaign manager and chairman of the DNC.

For his own part Democrat Dan Helmer, an Iraqi war veteran, has launched a recent television ad which states:

“In 2001, this man (showing a picture of Osama Bin Laden) was the world’s greatest threat to democracy. In 2018, the world’s greatest threat to democracy lives in the White House (showing a picture of the White House).”

In Virginia’s tenth congressional district, such are the voters’ alternatives to the incumbent Republican…one, an admitted pervert and the other, a demagogue given towards making a ludicrous comparison of a duly-elected President Trump to Osama Bin Ladin.

How low can it all go…?

God only knows, and He ain’t happy, either…

 

-Drew Nickell, 1 June 2018

© 2018 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.
author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”
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