Think he’s the first to hand out vicious epithets to his opponents? Just ask “Tricky Dick,” “the Beast of Buffalo” and “Rutherfraud.”
“Political discourse in the United States is characterized by high productivity of coining nicknames for US Presidents,” writes Dr. Anna Gladkova, who wrote a 2002 paper on the practice. She counts 430 nicknames for (at the time) 43 American presidents
.. The problem is, Democrats today don’t appear to possess the requisite adolescent glee necessary to finding just the right few words that will stick like napalm and burn, burn, burn.
.. Back in 1800, Federalists loved to refer to Thomas Jefferson as “Generalissimo Jefferson,” underscoring the fact that beneath that Republican veneer beat the heart of an aristocrat. Andrew Jackson dubbed Henry Clay “The Judas of the West” for his supposed “corrupt bargain” in handing over the 1824 election to John Q. Adams.
.. “Granny” Harrison fit William Henry Harrison pretty well—the latter was 68 when he bested Martin Van Buren in 1840 (“Martin Van Ruin,” as he was known, for presiding over the Panic of 1837). That’s younger than all three major candidates today, of course, although Harrison would die only a month after taking office, leaving things to “His Accidency,” the much-reviled John Tyler.
.. In the age of Twitter, just as in the age of Pony Express, a good nasty nickname counts for a lot, and the Democrats need to work on this. Gladkova’s paper can help. She lists five categories into which pejorative presidential nicknames typically fall—including “Undeserved Leader” (His Accidency, His Fraudulency); “Politicians Influenced by Others” (William Howard Taft’s surname, according to his detractors, was an acronym for “Takes Advice From Teddy” Roosevelt, his former boss); and “Person Not Able to Fulfill Promises.”
To this, I would even add another category: “Person Who Is Crazy As A Loon.” Political campaigns have historically done quite well in painting opponents as nuts. During the William McKinley-William Jennings Bryan contest in 1896, the McKinley-supporting New York Times published an interesting little article entitled, “Is Mr. Bryan Crazy?” The paper then interviewed several prominent “alienists” (that’s what they called psychiatrists in those days) who claimed that Bryan suffered from megalomania (delusions of grandeur); paranoia querulent (complaining too much); and querulent logorrhea (talking about complaining too much). In 1964, LBJ’s advisers agreed that the way to defeat Barry Goldwater was to portray him as “unstable, impulsive, reckless.”
A National Descent Into Trump’s Pants
A gobsmacking day of intraparty pie-throwing ended with Donald J. Trump, from the stage of the Fox Theater in Detroit, assuring the American public that the size of his male appendage was just fine. “I guarantee you,” he said, “there’s no problem.”
There was a time when I might have been stunned. There was a time when Mr. Trump kept his anatomical allusions to post-debate interviews, when he referred to the moderator Megyn Kelly — who was tough on him at his last debate on Fox, in August — as having “blood coming out of her wherever.”
I might have been shocked, once, at this whole debate — the hooting audience, the barking candidates, the NSFW content — but those days are over.
.. They attacked him for lies; he answered with size.
.. Mr. Romney’s speech was high-minded and flowing, quoting presidents and philosophers. Mr. Trump throws sentences like punches. Sentences that repeat. For emphasis, they repeat. Mr. Romney disparages Mr. Trump’s integrity. Mr. Trump visualizes Mr. Romney as, literally, beneath him. Romney: You lack gravitas, sir! Trump: I got your gravitas right here!
.. But Mr. Romney was at least partly arguing for standards that Mr. Trump’s supporters reject. Over and over, they tell reporters, “He’s just saying what everyone thinks” and “He says what’s on his mind” — which are not the same thing as “He always tells the truth” or “He never contradicts himself.”
Donald Trump Mocks A Disabled New York Times Reporter
Last week, Donald Trump claimed that “thousands and thousands” of people in Jersey City turned out to celebrate the dropping of the World Trade Center towers by al Qaeda. Presumably they were Muslims, but his is New Jersey we are talking about so who knows.
.. As he spoke, Trump launched into an impression which involved gyrating his arms wildly and imitating the unusual angle at which Kovaleski’s hand sometimes rests.
Donald Trump Escalates Rhetoric Before South Carolina Primary
“Overwhelmingly, most Republicans disagree with his criticisms of George W. Bush, but most Republicans also don’t want to debate” Mr. Bush’s legacy, said Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist who was a top adviser to Mr. Bush’s 2004 campaign.
Most people share Mr. Trump’s view that the war was a mistake, Mr. Schmidt added, and in a state heavy with military members, many families have grown weary of repeated deployments.
.. But when he had a dust-up with Mr. Bush during the final debate in New Hampshire and the audience booed Mr. Trump, he made the most of it, saying they were against him because they were major donors and he could not be controlled.
He has since used that line repeatedly on the campaign trail, even singling out Mr. Bush’s finance chairman, the billionaire Woody Johnson, as an example of the type of donor who is working against Mr. Trump — never mind that Mr. Trump and Mr. Johnson are actually friends.
.. That coarsening of the language in the campaign, Mr. Schmidt argued, reflects the toxic culture of social media, and such behavior is no longer considered as much of a risk.
.. “Accusing President Bush of lying about the war adds to the hard cap of Trump’s ceiling,” said Rob Stutzman, a California-based Republican strategist and a supporter of Jeb Bush. “But I don’t think it matters until this is a two-man or three-man race.”