In a scene from the 1993 thriller “Falling Down,” Robert Duvall’s character, soon-to-be-retired LAPD Sergeant Martin Prendergast, was told by his captain, William Yardley, “I never liked you. You know why? You don’t curse. I don’t trust a man who doesn’t curse. … Real men curse.”
Captain Yardley may have been on to something. According to a recent study conducted at the University of Cambridge, the more you curse, the more honest you are.
“There are two ways of looking at it. You might think if someone is swearing a lot, this is a negative social behavior,” study co-author David Stillwell told the London Daily Mail. “On the other hand, they are not filtering their language so they are probably also not putting their stories … through similar filters which might turn them into untruths.”
American political consultants clearly read the study, because C-SPAN is starting to sound like a loading dock.
Earlier this month at a health care forum in San Francisco, California’s junior U.S. senator, Kamala Harris, said, “Like this guy, this congressman, you might as well say, ‘People don’t starve because they don’t have food.’ What the f**k is that?”
Later on, Harris was about to swear a second time, but bit her tongue and drew laughs from the audience.
She’s not the only one who has a potty mouth. During a discussion of law enforcement and community issues, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez recently said, “If you don’t have the trust of the community as a police officer, then you ain’t got s**t,” and he told a New Jersey Working Families Alliance event in March that Republicans “don’t give a s**t about people.”
If you’re wondering how spontaneous Perez’s cursing was, by the end of the week the shop at Democrats.org was selling “Democrats give a s**t about people” T-shirts.
No word on how long it will take for them to come out with the commemorative pins.
In March, California Congressman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, tweeted: “Mr. President: If there was a wiretap at Trump Tower, that means a fed judge found probable cause of crime which means you are in deep s**t.”
In a recent interview with New York magazine, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said: “If we’re not helping people, we should go the f**k home.”
“Andrew Dice” Gillibrand went on to add a few more f-bombs on how she didn’t know how to pass a bill when she started in the Senate, and how she recalled anxiety dreams she was having where she forgot to order Girl Scout cookies from a pal.
In her defense, I can see how the thought of missing out on a year’s supply of Thin Mints might lead to an expletive-laced tirade.
Clearly, the consultant class has told Democrats to be profane, with the assumption that it will help them sound more authentic to the blue-collar white voters who abandoned them in droves last November, and also demonstrate that elected Democrats hate President Donald Trump just as much as their base does.
Even more tellingly, it proves that Democrats are still clueless as to why they lost the election.
Trump did not win the election because voters were in love with his vulgarian behavior; he won in spite of it.
The New York billionaire won the election because both major political parties insisted on supporting free trade, endless wars and open borders, expressly against the wishes of the American people. Trump was the only candidate willing the challenge the Washington, D.C., elite consensus.
And no amount of swearing will change that reality.
John Phillips is a CNN political commentator and can be heard weekdays at 3 p.m. on “The Drive Home with Jillian Barberie and John Phillips” on KABC/AM 790.