With Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk and Donald Trump, Republicans’ ‘strict father’ has develop into the creepy uncle

When Tucker Carlson, the reactionary pundit fired in 2023 from Fox Information, preceded Donald Trump on the Turning Level rally in Duluth, Georgia, on Oct. 23, 2024, he roused attendees by tacitly likening Trump to a stern father and Democrats to a rebellious, “hormone-addled, 15-year-old daughter.” Carlson insisted, “there must be a degree at which Dad comes dwelling.”

After the group erupted with cheers and applause, Carlson continued:

“Dad comes dwelling and he’s pissed. Dad is pissed. He’s not vengeful. He loves his kids. Disobedient as they could be, he loves them. As a result of they’re his kids. They reside in his home. However he’s very disenchanted of their habits. And he’s going to should allow them to know.”

Initially, to a political communication scholar like me who research gender and political management, the riff sounded prefer it was formed by a political philosophy recognized by linguist George Lakoff within the Nineteen Nineties. That philosophy embraced the “strict father” mannequin of governance, wherein the federal government is akin to a stern patriarch who enforces obedience by punishment and cultivates the self-reliance crucial for folks to reside with no social security web.

Lakoff attributed this philosophy to Republican presidents like Ronald Reagan and, later, George W. Bush, in addition to to the GOP’s rank and file.

However Carlson’s strict father departed from Lakoff’s model in an essential method. In keeping with Lakoff, the strict father’s ethical authority is rooted in a private ethic of self-discipline, temperance and restraint – traits he seeks to impart to these he’s charged with defending.

Carlson’s strict father morphed into an unrestrained chief who takes pleasure within the ache of these he subordinates. As the group egged him on, Carlson function performed:

“And when Dad will get dwelling, you understand what he says? You’ve been a nasty woman. You’ve been a nasty little woman and also you’re getting a vigorous spanking, proper now. And, no, it’s not going to harm me greater than it hurts you. No, it’s not. I’m not going to lie. It’s going to harm you much more than it hurts me. And also you earned this. You’re getting a vigorous spanking since you’ve been a nasty woman.”

In Carlson’s re-telling, the MAGA Republican patriarch turns into a sadist who achieves pleasure by inflicting ache on an infantilized, feminized and susceptible Democratic opponent. It was a perversion of an already sexist concept of governance.

‘Sexism, sadism and sexualization’

In my analysis, I’ve examined how sexism, sadism and sexualization usually coalesce in mainstream political discourse geared toward ladies candidates and girls voters.

Because the 2024 presidential marketing campaign heads into the house stretch, Trump and the acolytes who encompass him have supplied racist and sexist grievances propelled by vulgarity as their closing argument.

On October 25, Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC posted an advert to the @America X account that Musk commandeered, with the warning: “America actually can’t afford a ‘C-Phrase’ within the White Home proper now.”

The advert opens with a content material advisory: “WARNING: THIS AD CONTAINS MULTIPLE INSTANCES OF THE ‘C WORD.’ VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.”

The narrator declares, “Kamala Harris is a C phrase,” as an off-screen viewers gasps. The voice continues: “You heard that proper. An enormous ole C phrase.”

The advert accuses Harris of being a “tax-hiking, regulation-loving, gun-grabbing” – then the narration pauses to disclose a cat in a Soviet army uniform in opposition to a vibrant pink background. The cat swiftly transforms into an image of Harris in a Soviet-style fur hat whereas the advert reveals that the “C phrase” is “Communist” for “Comrade Kamala.” So she’s a tax-hiking, regulation-loving, gun-grabbing … Communist.

The New York Occasions reported that, regardless of the ultimate reveal, “the setup is an apparent play on a much more vulgar time period that begins with the identical letter – an insult in opposition to ladies that is among the most obscene phrases in American English.” The advert’s depiction of Harris as a cat – a pussycat – is a decidedly unsubtle echo of the implied insult.

A historical past of insulting ladies

It’s not the primary time {that a} Trump ally has invoked “the C phrase” to insult a lady working for president.

In 2008, Trump’s buddy, affiliate and future marketing campaign strategist Roger Stone launched a PAC known as “Residents United Not Timid: a 527 Group To Educate the American Public About What Hillary Clinton Actually Is.” The essential letters had been bolded on the picture Stone emblazoned on T-shirts: “C-U-N-T.”

Fixating on ladies politicians’ non-public elements is, sadly, nothing new. I’ve written about it in books, scholarly articles, and for the favored press. However in a current stump speech in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Trump advised a narrative in regards to the measurement {of professional} golfer Arnold Palmer’s penis, ostensibly as a technique to join with viewers members in Palmer’s birthplace of Latrobe.

The anecdote was greater than an informal apart. It was a efficiency of patriarchal authority.

Trump stated, “Arnold Palmer was all man, and I say that in all due respect to ladies.” His voice then turned guttural as he insisted, “And I like ladies, however this man, this man, it is a man that was all man. This man was robust and hard.” Trump then defined, “when he took showers with the opposite professionals they got here outta there they stated ‘oh my god, that’s unbelievable.’”

Trump’s option to inject “locker room speak” into his marketing campaign discourse is a reminder of the Entry Hollywood recording that surfaced in 2016 and featured Trump bragging about “strive[ing] to f—” a married girl, “mov[ing] on her like a bitch,” and grabbing ladies “by the pussy,” with out consent.

‘You may be protected’

Trump flouts consent whether or not he’s the aggressor or the ostensible protector. In an try to enchantment to ladies voters, Trump lately added a promise to his stump speech: “You’ll now not be deserted, lonely or scared. You’ll now not be in peril … You may be protected, and I will probably be your protector.”

Predictably, that paternalistic chorus earned a lot scorn, even his personal advisers requested him to cease saying it.

Trump’s response was telling. On Oct. 30, he advised a rally viewers that he refused his workers’s suggestion, saying, “I stated, nicely, I’m gonna do it whether or not the ladies prefer it or not.”

Doing it whether or not ladies prefer it or not is MAGA Republicans’ closing argument within the 2024 marketing campaign. They’ve deserted the “strict father” and develop into the creepy uncle.