The rising tide of vulgarity

Not long ago, it fell to conservatives such as Bill Bennett, Ralph Reed, Tony Perkins, and Mike Huckabee to denounce vulgarity wherever they saw it. And while these men don’t publicly condone Trump’s language, they essentially roll their eyes at anyone who makes much of a fuss. And among the rank and file on Twitter, Facebook, etc., there’s fierce competition to be as vulgar as possible, or to be as vigorous as possible in defending presidential vulgarity.

Of course, the president is not only changing standards — he’s the product of them. Over the last decade or so, a whole cottage industry of young anti-left sensationalists has embraced the romantic slogan Épater la bourgeoisie! Their crudeness isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.

The rising vulgar tide is typically justified either by the need to seem authentic or as genuflection to the sacred right to fight political correctness. Never mind that not everything that is politically incorrect is therefore correct. (William F. Buckley was not PC, but he had the best manners of anyone I ever met.)