Kamala Harris voluntarily swears on the sidelines of the elections

She came close to calling Donald Trump a “motherfucker”. During the televised debate with her competitor, Kamala Harris was able to correct herself at the very last moment and stopped at “mo-”. This moment went viral on social networks. Many felt that she had only said what many people were thinking.

On American television, swear words are always covered by a beep, newspapers write obscene terms only with the first letters or in a completely different way, for example “effing” instead of “fucking”. However, in the virtual and real world, things are different: bad words are on the political agenda. And it’s completely calculated, including Kamala Harris.

In 2019 again, the “New York Times” counted the “bullshit” and the “crap” (shit) in Donald Trump’s speeches. In the meantime, the opposing camp has caught up when it comes to foul language. And that’s not all: according to the British “Telegraph”, a data analysis from the Quorum software platform showed that in 2023, Democrats used the word “shit” 161 times out of would have used it only 70 times. The term “hell” is also more popular among Democrats: they mentioned it 620 times, Republicans only 472 times.

“Break down the fucking door”

This was particularly the case during the Democratic Party convention in August. The senators celebrated their policies under the slogan “get shit done”, and the right to abortion was summed up by “the freedom to be alone in deciding about my fucking body”. Kamala Harris said her mother taught her to never do things “half-heartedly.”

Already in May, while speaking to students, the vice-president had said: “Sometimes people open the door for you and leave it open,” but sometimes they would not, and then you would have to break down “the fucking door”. The audience laughed and applauded so enthusiastically that there was no need for Kamala Harris to apologize for the way she spoke.

In late June, when she was considered the most likely candidate after the withdrawal of Joe Bidenshe described in “Rolling Stone” magazine the Supreme Court’s decision to restrict the right to abortion as “fucked up” (aberrant).

Swearing makes politicians seem authentic

Of course, swear words have been used in American politics before. It is said that Lyndon B. Johnson was famous for this. But if the public noticed it, it was often because of a slip of the tongue. As in 2000, when George W. Bush called a New York Times journalist a “major league asshole” and his vice-president Dick Cheney approved this statement with: “ Yeah, he is, big time.” Both had forgotten that their microphones were still on.

The same thing happened to Joe Biden, but in a less embarrassing context: in 2010, he spoke of a “big fucking deal” after signing Obamacare. The Democratic Party was quick to react and make a virtue of necessity by printing t-shirts with the inscription “BFD”.

This is nothing new, Kamala Harris knows how to speak bluntly. But until now, she mostly did it behind the scenes. She used bad words in a targeted manner, for example towards the media. According to the “Washington Post”, she would like to appear authentic. Professor Emeritus Timothy Jay, whose major subject at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts was the psycholinguistics of swearing, said on this subject: “One who swears as a politician shows a much truer face, unlike the censored versions of the 1950s and 1960.”

Timothy Jay also claims that people with large vocabularies swear better. These people would use different types of insults and, what’s more, in “more creative” ways.

Things went less well with Hillary Clinton

However, this remains to be proven, especially since the vocabulary of American politics is most often always reduced to the same expressions. Tim Walz, for example, Harris’ vice-presidential nominee, certainly doesn’t say “motherfucker” or “shit.” True to his image as an American father, he instead uses the terms “damn” or “hell”. In response to the accusation that he had embellished his military career, he notably said: “I am damn proud to have served this country.”

Using swear words has become acceptable, regardless of gender. While in 2017, Hillary Clinton was strongly criticized for having commented on Trump’s inauguration in these words: “That was some weird shit”, we no longer want Kamala Harris. On the contrary: while Donald Trump is often considered vulgar with his numerous “bullshit”, his competitor is readily perceived as “effing tough”.

Bettina Weber is a journalist in Zurich. His articles focus on social themes. More info

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