To the editor:
President Trump’s Easter Sunday F-bomb set a new low in his public utterances. Of course, he began poorly, given the Access Hollywood tape that should have sealed his political doom, but in the end did not prevent his election in 2016. His latest assault on good taste is not so likely to go away politically, unless the shooting war he has initiated permits him to change the subject (as Hillary’s emails did in 2016). He’s barred from running again, but this verbal bombing could—and should—have an impact (along with other graver miscues such as the literal, rather than figurative, bombing of Iran) on this year’s midterm elections. How people react to the presidential F-bomb in the moment is a window on American culture. Trump’s base will blow it off (“hate the sin, love the sinner”). Comedians and humorists, on the other hand, will have a field day. Andy Borowitz, for example, writes that the profanity could not have been written by Trump himself because it’s too grammatical. Fair point. For Savoyards, the profanity brings to mind a scene from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “HMS Pinafore.” When Captain Corcoran learns of “common sailor” Rafe Rackstraw’s love for the captain’s daughter Josephine, he experiences a crescendo of outrage:
In uttering a reprobation
To any British tar,
I try to speak with moderation,
But you have gone too far.
I’m very sorry to disparage
A humble foremast lad,
But to seek your captain’s child in marriage,
Why, damme, it’s too bad!
(Enter Sir Joseph Porter KCB, First Lord of the Admiralty:)
Sir Joseph.
My pain and my distress,
I find it is not easy to express;
My amazement, my surprise,
You may learn from the expression of my eyes!
Captain.
My lord—one word—the facts are not before you,
The word was injudicious, I allow.
But hear my explanation, I implore you,
And you will be indignant too, I vow!
Sir Joseph.
I will hear of no defence,
Attempt none if you’re sensible.
That word of evil sense,
Is wholly indefensible.
Go, ribald, get you hence
To your cabin with celerity.
This is the consequence
Of ill-advised asperity!
(Exit Captain, disgraced, followed by Josephine.)
All.
This is the consequence,
Of ill-advised asperity!
Sir Joseph.
For I’ll teach you all, ere long,
To refrain from language strong,
For I haven’t any sympathy for ill-bred taunts!
We know, of course, that it all turns out well in the end. Captain Corcoran and Rafe exchange social places, and Rafe and Josephine are wed (as are Captain Corcoran and Little Buttercup). Presumably, ex-Captain Corcoran can now swear like a sailor to his heart’s delight. We, on the other hand, still have nearly three years to await our Commander-in-Chief’s next “ill-advised asperity”—and his disregard of not only the common decency that ought to be a hallmark of the nation’s highest office, but of every other American value.
Eugene R. Fidell
Stockbridge
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