The Death of Civility and Courtesy was Put on Prominent Display at Biden's 2023 State of the Union Address & Marks a Dangerous Precedent.

Can Trumps toxic legacy of profanity, name calling and vulgarianism, which Republicans have passionately embraced, actually be reversed?

Trump has made courtesy and civility a thing of the past.

As Americans, we have an obligation to change that!

One of the ways that Donald Trump changed America, in his disastrous four years in office, was that he made it okay to use foul language in modern American politics. He made it okay to call people filthy names, to mock anyone who disagreed with him on any number of serious or unimportant subjects.

Trump made it okay to bully journalists at press conferences, to judge women based on his warped values regarding physical appearance, when he himself long ago lost any good looks he may have ever had.

Trump lowered the bar for civilized and courteous discourse by a lot in America and it seems to have become the New Normal in Washington.

The dumbing down of America has been going on for decades, helped along evenly by radical leftists and radical conservatives, for they are more similar in their methods of attack than dissimilar and both promote censorship.

Trump has helped this dumbing down process in memorable leaps and bounds in one horrific verbal display or attack after another.

No wonder so many Americans complained of feeling “exhausted” by Trump’s antics, namely his horrible language, (nearing the end of his first and only term as president) as those antics were never ending and always ugly and unpleasant.

I wonder if national politics will ever recover from the virus of Donald Trump. I often wonder if his plebeian, coarse communication style, and the way he’s degraded American politics with his vulgar persona, which his cult-like militant followers seem to have internalized, will ever be erased.

As for myself, I know I was not the only American who was sickened by watching the Republicans, as they yelled, screamed, booed and basically behaved in the manner befitting a group of cranky toddlers with wet diapers and empty tummies. This occurred of course, during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address, February 7th, 2023.

“The repeated outbursts that interrupted the State of the Union address encapsulated the ethos of the new Republican majority, which styles itself after former President Donald J. Trump.”

“If that had been in the British House of Commons, it would have stopped at the word ‘liar,’” said Sean Haughey, a lecturer in political science at the University of Liverpool. “The speaker would have immediately intervened, giving the person the opportunity to withdraw their remark, and if they refused, escorted them out.”

None of that happened here in American though but it would have been good if it had. What happened February 7th was a disgrace!

The Republicans collective conduct was an embarrassment, a national humiliation. It was indicative of the breakdown of how politics are done in America, post Donald Trump, with his clueless parade of criminal, miscreant and predator followers and associates—most of whom are currently serving prison sentences.

The rules of conduct are only corrected by the Speaker of the House, whose role it is to enforce them. But Kevin McCarthy took no action to control his wild and irate fellow Republicans, remaining silent while they made a mockery of American politics and their own President.

Despite the horribly immature manner that the Republicans in Congress behaved that day, President Biden showed a true understanding of strategy. When he dangled the carrot, the Republicans responded like an infuriated Bugs Bunny might, by behaving like a bunch of starving pigs, grunting, making noise and going on the offensive.

While witnessing all of this, still, I was disappointed that Biden did not make it clear that silence and respect would be expected by all in attendance. I could tell he was amused by the outbursts, and that he would do nothing to prevent the Republicans loud jeering and juvenile yelling and screaming.

“Some of what is likely to make Democrats comfortable is the pluck he showed — the willingness and ability to spar with Republicans and depict them not as normal, but extreme.”

However, I know of Portland State University Professors who can control and silence a disrespectful crowd in literally two minutes flat, using some very clever psychological techniques. A part of me really wished that Biden knew how to do that, but perhaps he did have the better strategy.

During the repeated outbursts by bellowing Republicans, there was no enforcement by speaker of the house, Kevin McCarthy, to silence them, or demand that they behave like adults and not spoiled, willful children. The speaker of the house seemed more than willing to tolerate the “childish games” that his fellow Republicans were playing, rather than encourage them to behave in a professional, respectful or rational manner.

Ultimately, the display made the Republicans look like a bunch of salivating animals, grunting at a pig trough and fighting for scraps of bread. Americans nationwide, got to see first hand how radicalized, dangerous and un-American Republicans have become.

Then there were the memorable antics of one Marjorie Taylor Greene, a “handsome” barely literate, middle-aged, 48-year-old, who is obsessed with weight lifting, wearing low-rise “teenager jeans” and is a devout Q-Anon radical, who entertains the idea of absurd conspiracy theories which have no basis in reality as we know it.

Greene believes in paranoid delusions like the existence of a Deep State, and other comical things such as Hillary Clinton operating a “Pedophile ring from the basement of a Pizza Parlor.” She is a loud, profane, gun-toting, unstable, abusive and uneducated militant conservative with poor speaking skills and atrocious manners. She spouts off about family values, and the importance of tradition, but then turns around and conducts herself like an incoherent streetwalker, clutching a Big Gulp and drunkenly singing to herself, while tripping into the gutter.

Greene calls herself a “college graduate” but seems regularly challenged by 6th grade English grammar and has a virtually nonexistent comprehension of basic 4th grade level American history.

The woman can can barely string two sentences together without profanity, hyperbole, improper grammar or emotional vitriol. Greene was seen at the State of the Union Address, yelling and behaving like a playground bully, bellowing “Liar!” repeatedly to President Joe Biden as he tried to make his speech. At one point she jumped out of her seat, made hand gestures and was seen giggling and talking to herself.

Clearly, not a stable woman.

Not only does Greene chase traumatized teens down city streets, yelling at them about being “cowards,” but she has also stated that former President Barack Obama should be hanged, that Trans people have “unnatural fantasies” and on one memorable occasion, when she was railing on and on about Nancy Pelosi, accusing her of having spies watching members of congress, Greene made reference to “the Gazpacho police,” confusing the word Gestapo with Gazpacho.

Gazpacho, of course means cold soup—a great metaphor for Marjorie Taylor Greene’s brain matter.

Conclusion:

What this new trend in aggressive and uncivilized discourse means for American politics and what it can mean to the future of democracy and the future of our country, is an increase in political violence.

When we have more militant conservatives, like Marjorie Taylor Greene behaving in emotionally unstable and unpredictable ways, people who create their own version of what they think American law is, and what a Patriot is, we have a recipe for disaster!

The continued aggression of unstable people makes them even more emboldened and flamboyant. They wrongly presume that with each aggressive act, they can get away with more and more inappropriate or illegal behavior. That is the nature of the beast.

Give a risk taker an inch and they will push for a mile.

So, what is next for these kinds of militant, radical Republicans? A repeat of the reprehensible and illegal behavior which occurred January 6th of 2021? These are questions the powers that be, in Washington and elsewhere need to be asking.

What will be the next situation be like when Republicans don’t like the result of a particular vote, or perhaps if they don’t like something the President is addressing, such as how Republicans want to take social security benefits away from the elderly and the disabled?

What will this loss of professional conduct, courtesy and decorum take us to? What new low will we reach, as Americans, because Republicans have learned that if they don’t like something they can simply behave like animals, throw a tantrum and yell and scream?

How will this toxic behavior impact American politics and the rule of law?

These are questions all Americans and all of media need to be asking, right now!

~Theresa Griffin Kennedy