In the past week or so, as I write this, the President of the United States has called a reporter “piggy,” the Governor of Minnesota “retarded,” and an entire ethnic group “garbage.” Also in the past week or so as I write, prominent U.S. legislators have suborned sedition by the U.S. Military, a Minnesota legislator (and countless other pols, pundits, and talking heads) called President Trump a Nazi, and a Texas congressperson has appeared on about 798 news shows spewing raw, rancid racism against white people, without ever being called out by her hosts.
Of course, none of this is exactly news, as it has been the persistent quality of political discourse in the U.S. for at least the last few years. Violence, insults, name-calling, and aspersions are the lingua franca of American public life.
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