Donald Trump has unveiled his new disparaging nickname for Democrats:
“I came up with a new name. I don’t know if I should, the president said, during a rambling hour-long interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity to discuss his historic meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.
“Dumocrats,” Trump said with a flourish, explaining that the name was because “they’re dumb.”
Trump has also continued to label his opponents “low-IQ individuals.”
-from the Independent, Thursday 14 May 2026
I don’t have anything new to say about why it is dehumanizing to use sweeping language about intelligence to critique others. Still, it is worth underscoring that we could have respectful disagreements about actual policies rather than baseless attacks on measures like intelligence, which somehow have become a stand in for status.
We don’t need to demean our opponents in order to disagree. We can even insist on our common belovedness (per my musings above) and still vehemently challenge policy positions and visions of the good life.
I wish our leaders would pave the way. (And I’m grateful to those who have—David French points out one such leader in South Carolina here.) But if they don’t, that doesn’t mean that we can’t.
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