How Talking Trash Can Save The World

If You Like A Better Society, Give Me A Hell Yeah

Do You Smell What The Fett Is Cookin’?

Recently there have been several verbal barbs thrown out by Democratic members of Congress that have caught my attention.

• Sen. John Fetterman, responding to Republicans making a fuss about a slight change to the outdated Senate dress code: “If those jagoffs in the House stop trying to shut our government down, and fully support Ukraine, then I will save democracy by wearing a suit on the Senate floor next week.”

• Rep Maxwell Frost, talking about the House Oversight Committee: “The Oversight Committee is supposed to be doing serious work, but the Republicans in charge only want to do oversight of Washington, D.C., false accusations into the President, & Hunter Biden's dick pic. Legislating is a joke to the GOP Oversight. But I came here to work.”

• Gov. Josh Shapiro, responding to criticism of automatic voter registration: “I am not going to respond to Stephen Miller. That guy’s a dope who can’t tell the truth.”

I find this sort of thing frankly delightful. As I have often mentioned, we live in a political culture that is a frightening parallel to the world of professional wrestling. This is a world of conflict, confrontation, and extremely short attention spans.

In wrestling, the point of the whole thing really isn’t the athletic competition. Certainly people tune in to watch the fighting, the stunts, and the high-flying action in the ring. But even the most talented and in-shape ring performer is not going to last long in the business of wrestling if they don’t have something to keep the audience engaged, building up the storyline that makes the outcome of a fight meaningful. For the majority of wrestlers, this means they must be able to “cut a promo,” which is the section of wrestling where a performer holds court in the ring, speaking to the audience to explain why he or she is the best they are at what they do, and why their opponent is hot garbage.

It is in that moment where Stone Cold Steve Austin explains “the bottom line,” where Dwayne “The Rock Johnson” says “it doesn’t matter” what his opponents think, where “Macho Man” Randy Savage details the “madness” that drives him and Mike “The Miz” Mizanin reveals that he is “awesome.” In real time, based on their reactions — and boy do they have reactions — wrestlers know if they’re getting “over” with the crowd and whether their arguments are making any traction (and can translate into t-shirt sales).

These are all vital elements to have in politics as well and it is long past time for Democrats and liberals to get into the arena.

The right is much more oriented around a soundbite culture and if anything, they have become slaves to it, turning congressional hearings into pre-packaged segments for distribution on Fox News. But just because Republicans have overdosed on a tactic doesn’t mean it can’t still be worthwhile and effective.

For too long, Democrats have embraced wonkery and positioned themselves above the fray. This mindset believes that at its core, people want earnest policy discussions and respect for traditional norms and rhetoric. For people who see the world this way, trash talk in a venue like Congress is dragging culture down to its lowest common denominator, taking us all down into the muck and mud. They would rather Democrats keep their heads held high, ceding the low road to the right — it’s where they belong, right?

This is naive and destructive. For better or worse we live in the world as it is, not as we wish it could be. Politics is not in a rarefied place in American life, beyond the sandpaper-rough edges of dialogue that exists in practically every other realm of our collective existence. Politics is a fight, and it has always been a fight. The founders of the United States did not descend from Mount Olympus, lighting the way to enlightened dialogue. Rather, they were often dirty and drunk, owned human beings, fought bitterly both among themselves and against the British monarchy, and set the pattern of always being at each others throats.

As the ideological movement most aligned with advocacy for the people and not the powerful, liberalism should embrace all peaceful weapons at hand to advance its cause. Certainly Democrats shouldn’t just randomly talk trash about Republicans and the right with weird, random insults but if the idea is to position themselves as advocates for the interests of the people they should do it in a heartbeat.

In the examples I cited above, Fetterman was pushing against a Republican shutdown of the government, Frost was advocating for true government oversight, and Shapiro was speaking in favor of expanding the most bedrock principle of democracy: voting. Their trash talk serves a higher purpose. It communicates in populist language that cuts through the media filter in a way a well-meaning policy paper or traditional congressional speech never would.

When terms like “jagoff,” “dick pic,” and “dopes” attract the attention of people who might otherwise be unengaged with politics, it tells them that these elected officials are fighting for them. Come election time, it can help to be the difference maker between a non-voter and someone who gets out to the polls because they like how the young congressman from Florida made a great point about what the government should stop wasting its time on (pursuing the president through his son).

This filter-cutting also works to maintain the engagement of people who are already paying attention to politics. Instead of invoking despair and apathy with another round of Democrats ignoring the fight, it tells grassroots supporters that their vote resonated, that when they chose Sen. Fetterman over his supermarket shopper carpetbagger opponent, he delivered the fight that he promised on the campaign trail.

I would argue that the benefits of these sorts of arguments far outweigh the negatives. The universe of people at this point who are going to reach for a fainting couch over a few verbal bombs is negligible. We live in a world where Donald Trump was elected president once and got dangerously close to being elected another time around. The ship has sailed.

Successful Democrats have already shown that this type of thing works perfectly fine for them. President Barack Obama is one of the best on the mic, and one of President Joe Biden’s best moments during his winning campaign came when he told Trump, “will you shut up, man?”

This shouldn’t just be a one-off or just at the presidential level. It should be all encompassing because its one of the best ways to make it clear these elected leaders are fighting for their constituents and are unwilling to back down to thugs backed by corporate money and right-wing extremism and hate. It’s easy and simple and long overdue.

Strategic smack talking cuts through the airwaves, reaches non-voters, engages existing voters, and positions the opposition as villains, dopes, and losers. This adds to engagement of the public and brings out support for even more candidates who can make a similar case while pushing for the legislation needed to improve society.

That’s how you save the world.

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— Oliver

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