Perhaps the most popular way of conveying one’s authenticity these days is by swearing.
In the Senate, a body where the ethos of decorum and deliberation were once lauded, Democrats recently launched a social media campaign allegedly aimed at keeping President Donald Trump honest, called: “S*** That Ain’t True.” You know, because that’s how voters talk.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), a darling of the progressive Left, drops the F-word at a higher frequency than a ’90s gangster rapper. You might even be under the impression that she clawed her way up from the mean streets of St. Louis when, in reality, the congresswoman grew up attending a pricey private school in a tony neighborhood.
The other day, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, the favorite of editors at Vanity Fair, spoke at a Texas rally against GOP redistricting. “These motherf***ers,” he told the cheering crowd, “are panicking.” In 2019, ABC News had to warn Democratic candidates, including O’Rourke, not to curse during their primary debate. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), soon to be in leadership, noted in Gex fashion that the “stock market is down but at least everything is more expensive, and services are getting s***tier.” Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-OR) preemptively admitted she didn’t “swear in public very well” before letting everyone know that “we have to f*** Trump.”
It’s almost as if someone got a memo.
Democrats will tell you they refuse to be polite anymore because democracy is on the precipice. Isn’t it always? The performative profanity is based on the myth, popular within every party, that decorum is a sign that you’re not “fighting.” What better way to show everyone that you’re truly angry about stuff than throwing around a few F-bombs?
Now, I’m certainly no prude on the expletive front. Every appearance I get through without swearing is a small personal victory. There are excellent uses for bad language in private conversation, comedy, in literature and art, and in truly righteous anger. But as David Mamet, who weaved the F-word into dialogue better than perhaps anyone, attests, once a useful weapon, cursing has become a “dull blade.” It’s not merely the overuse. It’s the contrived nature of these public displays. It’s a lazy shortcut that reflects the rapid dumbing down of our political discourse.
This swearing is a byproduct of a party obsessed with authenticity. “In the wake of Trump, it’s really important for us to understand that authenticity is the coin of the realm, that voters can smell insincerity more acutely than ever before,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) warns.
I’m not sure there’s anything as inauthentic as meditating on your own “authenticity.” Say what you will about Trump — his life might have very little in common with an average person, but it’s extraordinarily doubtful he’s ever once sat down to ponder genuineness. Trump isn’t a lifelong politician who has spent his time crafting messages, fixated on wording and framing and “narratives” to appeal to complete strangers. It’s the profession that neutered whatever personality existed. Murphy, for instance, has been in politics since his early 20s and doesn’t seem to have held a job outside of government in his adult life. Everything he says is engineered for mass consumption.
Need it be said, one of the key ingredients to “authenticity” is being oneself. And yet entire parties will do an about-face whenever a shiny new candidate appears, aping their aesthetics, philosophy, and tone. Most Republicans have, in one way or another, adopted Trump’s tenor. Few are successful. Among Democrats, the newest shiny person is socialist Zohran Mamdani, poised to win the mayorship of New York.
The Left is far too impressed by his abilities. For one thing, Mamdani is running against a gaggle of unlikable, corrupt establishment candidates such as Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams. For another, Mamdani, also a child of privilege, simply parrots the talking points of the octogenarian, red diaper baby Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). This might sound empathetic to the concerns of New York progressives who congregate in areas with overpriced housing in one of the densest cities in the world, but the notion that it would translate in working-class areas is wishcasting, at best.
Other than the Jew-baiting terrorist rhetoric he defends, Mamdani isn’t far off ideologically from former leftist New York Mayor Bill De Blasio, who no one has ever accused of being an embodiment of charisma. Mamdani’s schtick has been used by Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who’s from the same city, for years. The far Left is ascendant in big progressive urban cities. It’s why state Sen. Omar Fateh won the Democratic mayoral nomination in Minneapolis and Katie Wilson is making noise in Seattle.
The thing is, Democrats already run the places where these earnest “democratic” socialists are popular. Why is Mamdani the template for the new Democrat and not, say, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who fashions herself a “passionate pragmatist” Democrat and is likely to be elected governor of Virginia? Because Mamdani appeals to the notion of authenticity favored by political journalists and strategists who live in places such as Washington and New York.
To be fair to Democrats, it’s no easy task being genuine when you’re impelled to balance normie rhetoric without upsetting the unhinged hypersensitivities of the leftist activist. You don’t get more “authentic,” for example, than progressive Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), whose normie view on the evils of Palestinian terrorism puts him at odds with his party. Now, the same people who defended Fetterman when he could barely speak as a candidate claim that his mental faculties are slipping. His approval among Democrats has now plummeted.
Yet it is Mamdani, not Fetterman, who many on the left believe will bring young men and the white working class back into the fold. I’m skeptical. The last time Democrats tried to appeal explicitly to men, they tapped Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) as their vice presidential nominee. Alas, the “folksy governor of Minnesota” who had “folksy demeanor” and “folksy manner” and “folksy appeal” and a “folksy … informal vibe” and “folksy relatability” with “folksy plain-spoken and sharp-tongued approach,” did nothing to change the trajectory of young men leaving Democrats because most genuinely folksy people aren’t complete idiots. All those quotes, incidentally, were taken from legacy media outlet coverage in 2024.
Democrats have reportedly spent millions studying bro-speak. The Left is looking for its own Joe Rogan or Theo Von, podcasters who organically found fame in a democratized media environment, mostly by not obsessing over politics. Neither of those personalities strikes me as Republican. Though neither, one suspects, would get into a lather over an attractive woman in a jean commercial or champion the idea that sex is a malleable construct.
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Of course, in the end, authenticity is highly overrated, anyway. There’s no doubt that Trump possesses a unique, personal connection to millions of people that engenders quite a bit of loyalty. It helps. But it’s not as if the president is universally beloved. By most historical measures, he’s not particularly popular on a personal level. Perhaps voters just like Trump because he champions issues and positions that they value — law and order, working-class and traditional family concerns, unabashed patriotism, and a reaction to growing “wokeism,” and so on.
Maybe Democrats aren’t weighed down by an authenticity problem. Maybe they’re just suffering from a bats*** crazy agenda.