Much has been written about the coarsening of our society. Actions and images that would once have been thought beyond the pale are now so ubiquitous as to be unremarkable. The tastefully rendered airbrushed breasts of Playboy eventually gave way to wisps of pubic hair followed by imagery that might be considered over the top for gynecological textbooks. How quaint were the days when the common slang term for intercourse couldn’t be printed or uttered as “F-bomb.” Even the phrase “swears like a sailor” is seldom heard because our Democrat/socialist/communist (D/s/c) politicians have coopted its utility:

Graphic: Washington Free Beacon Screenshot

Teddy Roosevelt once said, “profanity is the parlance of the fool.” Democrats appear to be increasingly finding relief from both reality and sanity in profanity. Democratic members have been complaining that left-wing groups have been targeting them to be more aggressive and “fight harder” in the face of the fast-paced actions of President Donald Trump. Their response appears to be ratcheting up “rage rhetoric” with profanity and violent language. Last week, Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.) captured the new norm by yelling at a rally that “I don’t swear in public very well, but we have to f**k Trump. Please don’t tell my children that I just did that.”

Few are better at rage rhetoric than Senator Chuck Schumer, he who tried to demonstrate he was just like us by putting cheese on raw hamburger patties on a BBQ grill. It doesn’t help that he so often looks demon-possessed.

Graphic: The Hill Screenshot

Who can forget Schumer’s threats against Supreme Court justices, which were dutifully followed by a summer of protests at the homes of justices, barely protected by federal officers who were not allowed to arrest the protesters breaking a very specific federal law aimed at preventing exactly that kind of intimidation. They were able to catch an assassin, likely inspired by Schumer, before he could kill Justice Kavanaugh and his family. 

The rise of rage rhetoric is a measure of how politicians are now surrendering to the most extreme voices in their party. It is a matter of simple survival. These politicians believe that they cannot stay in office if they allow anyone to move to the left of their positions. To maintain their power, they are willing to join the mob before it turns on them.

We saw the same pandering with members embracing the violent group Antifa. Former Democratic National Committee deputy chair Keith Ellison, now the Minnesota attorney general, once said Antifa would “strike fear in the heart” of Trump.

One’s rhetorical arsenal is best used carefully. On its use of force continuum, reason and logic are the least offensive weapons. Abandoning them, escalation to screaming, veiled threats, blatant threats and obscenities is inevitable. Once one goes nuclear, it’s hard to go back and impossible to retreat all the way back to reason and logic. Of course, those driven to go nuclear probably know, but can’t admit even to themselves, reason and logic were never their strengths.

What would compel supposedly normal people to go rhetorically nuclear, even if they understand that kind of flaming rhetoric can drive their followers to assassination of their political enemies? 

It begins with self-delusion, with the unshakeable belief they’re among the elite, the morally and intellectually superior whose persons and policies are non-falsifiable. They’re perfect and can’t possibly be wrong. This inevitably leads to debilitating cognitive dissonance when their policies inevitably fail and they must resort to ludicrous gaslighting to deflect and cover those failures. This can drive the weak-minded and elderly to nonsense:

Graphic: Fox Screenshot

In that descent, infection with Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) can, if not promptly treated, be intellectually fatal.

Once a politician crosses the nuclear threshold, their equally TDS afflicted followers, who can never be satisfied only temporarily mollified, will never allow them to back down. Their arguments become more and more irrational, their use of obscenities and threats escalates, and screaming fueled by uncontrolled rage consumes them.

To be sure, the rare mild epithet uttered by a politician who rarely raises their voice and who remains at the reason and logic side of the rhetorical continuum can be an effective device that seizes and holds an audience’s attention. Such uncommon forays up the spectrum allow the user to easily slide back down.

But consider the plight of the D/s/c politician who has not only gone nuclear, but who has slid beyond into madness, madness born of the failure of Kamala Harris and the reelection of Donald Trump. Already suffering from terminal TDS, diminished by age, they fall back on the stereotypical cadences of B movie black preachers majestically screaming: “moo, moo, moo."

All that’s left is for them to be put out to pasture.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.