Keller @ Large: Donald Trump's Vulgar Talk Nothing New In Politics
BOSTON (CBS) -- This will be a first for me when it comes to quoting Sen. Rand Paul, the Republican presidential candidate, but I thought he said something interesting yesterday in response to the latest cavalcade of insults from Donald Trump.
"Because you can shout and call people names and call someone stupid or call someone fat, is that really what we're going to make the decision on for who is going to be our nominee?" wondered Paul. "I don't think vulgarity equates to insight."
True enough. But let's not pretend vulgarity doesn't compete with insight for fans.
Sen. Paul used a fitting but complex adjective to describe Trumpism – "vulgarity."
You may think of that as indecent or obscene language or behavior, and that certainly does describe Trump's comments about Megyn Kelly and many other women before her. "Vulgar" is also defined as crude and coarse, which also fits Trump.
But "vulgar" can also mean something common, current or popular, spoken in the language of the unrefined street. And the truth is, political language in America has never strayed far from the gutter, if not in the form of the schoolyard insults Trump favors, then in the pandering and bullying of its dialogue.
Trump is a hit with that 20 percent or so of those polled who just flat-out like vulgar talk, because of their anger at his targets or because this is the way they talk too. In a multi-candidate field, this is enough for first place.
Sen. Paul needn't worry too much about Trump becoming the nominee. But let's not pretend that being a jerk is any sort of political aberration.
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