The theory goes that if you put a frog in a pot of water and slowly turn up the flame, the frog will not notice it is being boiled to death. This is exactly what is happening to free speech in our country, and President Trump’s greatest service to America might be the example of his belligerent refusal to stay in the pot.
While appearing at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania Saturday night, Trump called Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd a “sleepy-eyed son of a bitch.”
Like most of what Trump does, there was a method to the madness.
The president, who has already announced his intent to run for a second term in 2020, knows that he must again pull off the hat trick of winning the rust belt states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
On Thursday, Todd had Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers, on his MSNBC show to discuss Trump’s new steel tariffs — an interview that apparently did not sit well with steelworkers in Pennsylvania.
And so, with six simple words (“sleepy-eyed son of a bitch”) Trump told this important constituency that he is on their side, that it is them against the condescending elitists, that it is Delta House against the Omega snobs. In other words, calling Todd a SOB is great politics. Using the language of the steelworker is even better politics. And this, to me, is the most important thing… the boiling frog thing…
Over the weekend I watched a double feature of The Bad News Bears (1976) and The Longest Yard (1974), two classic, edgy, crude, hilarious, brilliant sports comedies from the ’70s filled with characters who still feel real and more laughs than you can count. Neither of these movies could be made today. If you want proof of that, check out the generic, watered-down remakes.
The originals are deliciously, beautifully, perfectly FREE. After sitting in the boiling pot of political correctness for 20 years, watching them is like watching the Berlin Wall come down. It is almost impossible to believe our entertainment industry was once this FREE — free to express itself, free to make inappropriate jokes, free to show people as they truly are — instead of how the Ruling Class has decided we are supposed to be.
Even though both films are politically incorrect and would trigger America’s new breed of daffodils and snowflakes — those who are only happy when they are beside themselves — none of it is mean-spirited or comes from a malevolent place. These are underdog stories with racially diverse casts; everyday people who talk and behave like us and overcome their shallow differences (like skin color) to take on the establishment.
In the forty years since the release of these movies, everything has changed. At the hands of self-appointed elites, the boundaries around free speech and expression have continued to shrink. The government is not censoring us, but with their scarlet letters and their relentless crusades to make individuals who dare color outside the lines toxic and unemployable, the left and the media sure are.
Watch the original Longest Yard and Bad News Bears and then try to wrap your mind around the fact that it is no longer appropriate to say “bossy” or “illegal alien.”
Moreover, our hideous media is even attempting to turn criticism against the media into something that is off-limits, into something that is un-American and “dangerous for democracy.” Powerful elites manufacturing rules that make it inappropriate to criticize powerful elites. How un-American is that?
The fascism of political correctness, of speech codes, of unelected elites telling us what is and is not “appropriate” has become — at least for me — stifling and increasingly intolerable. Sadly, this poll shows that if the young do indeed remain dumb, it will only get worse.
And that is why, when, in a fit of freedom, Trump shakes off the chains of what the media have decided is The Way A President Is Supposed To Behave and publicly calls out one of their most sacred of cows as a “son of a bitch,” normal people cheer. But that cheer goes deeper than just the name calling or Trump reminding us that he is on our side. We cheer because he is emancipating all of us from the PC shackles.
Nothing makes America greater than unencumbered speech, most especially speech aimed at powerful elites. These are exactly the kind of people who need to be brought down a notch or two, and our president is setting a wonderful example in reminding us of that.
Personally, I would not call Todd a SOB, but my feelings are not the point.
The point is freedom — good old fashioned American freedom and defiance, the freedom to disagree, to offend, to say what you believe without living in fear of being excommunicated as a heretic from the public square by the squares, the prigs, the Puritans, the close-minded scolds.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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