A dozen large hay bales line a state highway in front of a farmstead in rural Will County a mile or so from Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery.
Each bale bears a large letter in orange paint and the display delivers a message about Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who just won a second term.
“Fire Pritzker,” the letters spell out. Only it doesn’t say fire, it says another four-letter word that begins with the letter F. It’s a word I cannot use in a family newspaper but apparently it’s now OK to display it along a busy highway.
I’ve also seen it in suburban yard signs and on banners waved by protesters on highway overpasses.
People going to the cemetery Friday for Veterans Day saw it. Loved ones traveling in funeral processions on their way to bury a patriot saw it. Maybe a child in a car asked a parent what it meant.
We need to talk, again, about how the level of political discourse in America has sunk to vulgar, profane levels. You can call me a snowflake and snicker about how I’m triggered and how the messengers are owning the libs.
But the midterm outcomes should send a clear message to Republican leaders and conservative media: It’s not working.
Those hay bales are one example of why the midterms were a colossal failure for the GOP. The majority of voters rejected shocking, inhumane messages directed at fellow Americans who happen to have different political views.
“This depiction of my country displeases me,” droves of moderate and independent voters seemed to say.
After the midterms disaster, I imagine elite donors and GOP leaders may gather to discuss what went wrong and what they should change to improve their chances in elections.
“I don’t get it,” someone in the room might say. “Those, ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ banners really fired up the base.”
For those who don’t know, “Let’s Go Brandon” is an inside joke about the president that also references the four-letter word from the hay bales against Joe Biden.
Normalizing public profanity is no joke. Some Republican politicians and conservative media recently mocked the attempt to assassinate the speaker of the House of Representatives. During the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, people in the crowd chanted a chilling threat directed at the vice president.
“Hang Mike Pence,” they yelled in unison.
There is a direct connection from “Let’s Go Brandon” and “Fire Pritzker” to “Hang Mike Pence.” Messaging that destroys the bounds of decency can push impressionable people into reckless behavior. One could argue that profane political speech is a harbinger of potentially violent disregard for the rule of law.
You would be mistaken if you thought I would call for authorities to visit the rural farmstead and order the occupant to remove the hay bales with the offensive message. Some readers will instinctively become defensive and assume I encourage “cancel culture” or some other nonsense.
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Heavens, no. I fully support the right to free speech.
Here’s the thing, though: Vulgar messaging fails as a political strategy because for every base voter who gets fired up, there are one or more moderate voters who say “enough is enough.”
Republicans who use hateful, bullying speech are helping Democrats win elections. I support their right to shoot themselves in the foot. If they want to use language intended to shock decent people, be my guest.
GOP strategists seem to lack a fundamental understanding of human behavior. Maybe they’re listening to too many data analysts and not enough psychologists. It’s obvious after a prolonged pandemic and violent attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of political power that many Americans are experiencing negativity fatigue.
Speech designed to shock only works once. Next time, it has to become increasingly more shocking to be effective. Before long you reach a point where only the most extreme speech has shock value.
Before you know it, mobs are setting up gallows and chanting about hanging the vice president. Then they’re making fun of an attempt to assassinate the speaker of the House, the person next in line to lead the most powerful nation in the free world.
Midterms voters rejected that version of America. They said they wanted something different, a vision that is more positive and hopeful and less dystopian and bleak.
This is free advice that the Republican Party will surely reject. Instead, GOP leaders will listen to highly paid strategists who are eager to separate elite donors from their huge sums of money. Clueless strategists will insist on doubling down on bullying speech.
“The country isn’t angry enough,” they’ll say.
The hapless mainstream national political media will continue to fail in its duty to adequately hold up a mirror to society and show where we are and where we are headed. They will keep giving equal treatment to both sides of the political spectrum. Hate speech fails as a political strategy because voter sentiment is as predictable as the law of gravity and other scientific truths. What goes up must come down. It is impossible to sustain the level of shrill, shrieking messaging about crime waves, immigrant caravans and other crises.
GOP politicians and conservative media are like the Spinal Tap musician who turned his guitar amplifier up to 11, when most only go to 10. Where do you go from 11? If you’re an elite GOP donor, you write a big check so someone can build an amp that goes to 12 and guess what? It still won’t buy them a win in 2024 or beyond.
That’s because ordinary, decent people outnumber bullies who hurl hate speech. Political profanity helped drive a record 74.2 million people to vote for President Donald Trump in 2020, but it also motivated 81.2 million people to vote against him.
That’s why I would never suggest a legal authority visit a rural farmstead along a busy highway near a veterans’ cemetery and order the removal of a disgusting, vulgar message that offends loved ones of people who fought to keep America free.
I would suggest, however, that a Republican Party representative visit the farm and kindly ask the occupant to reconsider whether the display was having its desired effect.
“It’s doing more harm than good,” the party official might say.
Ted Slowik is a columnist for the Daily Southtown.