Trump, not swearing, hurts

The May 24 letter about Democrats using obscene language presents another perfect example of the difference between Republicans and Democrats. The letter writer never gave a specific example of a Democrat having a potty mouth, but I don’t doubt that there are some good ones.

Democrats may sometimes use bad words to make their point, but in the long term, nobody gets hurt by bad words. A teacher once told me that sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can never hurt you.

People do get hurt, though, when the president colludes with Russians to affect U.S. elections; when he proposes a health plan that will cost millions of people their health insurance; when he proposes a budget that will cut or end important social services, while simultaneously giving huge tax breaks to his ultra-wealthy buddies and dramatically increasing military spending.

People get hurt when the president is caught on tape bragging about grabbing women by the vagina without permission, when he publicly mocks a disabled person and when he disrespects every veteran who has ever been a prisoner of war. They get hurt when he encourages discrimination based on race or religion. The list keeps getting longer every day. These are the kind of things that Democrats find obscene — things that matter.

This story was originally published June 21, 2017 at 6:26 PM with the headline "Trump, not swearing, hurts."