Ed Wasserman is a 52-year resident of Iowa and a professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at The University of Iowa. The views expressed in his piece are his own and do not in any way reflect those of his employer.
Donald Trump has often been credited with being a supremely slick sloganeer. Indeed, who among us is unfamiliar with such memorable monikers as: Little Marco Rubio, Ron DeSanctimonious (DeSantis), Lyin’ Ted Cruz, Nikki “Birdbrain” Haley, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, “Shifty” Adam Schiff, “Wacky” Jacky Rosen, and Laffin’ Kamala Harris? All of these scornful sobriquets concisely convey Trump’s deep disdain for his many political rivals.
Yet, long before Trump, another Republican office-bearer garnered high marks for his cutting political invective. Spiro T. Agnew served as the 39th Vice President of the United States from January 20, 1969 to October 10, 1973, when he was forced to resign after pleading ‘no contest’ to a felony charge of tax evasion.
Expertly aided by White House speechwriters Pat Buchanan and William Safire, Agnew delivered a series of strident speeches in 1969 and 1970 attacking the Nixon administration’s many enemies, both perceived and real.
Agnew heaped particular abuse on student and faculty protesters of the Vietnam War: “A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.” He also spoke with scathing ridicule about members of the mainstream media: “A tiny and closed fraternity of privileged men, elected by no one, and enjoying a monopoly sanctioned and licensed by government.”
Finally, Agnew lambasted critics of conservative policies and politicians: “In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism. They have formed their own 4-H Club—the ‘hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.’”
Of all these snippy insults, the “nattering nabobs of negativism” has been the most enduring. It immediately came to mind while I was listening to Donald Trump’s interminable, meandering, and falsehood-filled press conference on August 8. His over-the-top portrayal of the state of our union was relentlessly dystopian.
Here is a sampling of Trump’s litany of complaints: “Now you have millions and millions of dead people, and you have people dying financially because they can’t buy bacon, they can’t buy food, they can’t buy groceries. We could be on the throes of a depression, not recession, a depression. You could end up in a depression of the 1929 variety. Our country right now is in the most dangerous position it’s been in. Our country has become a crime-ridden mess. We are in great danger of being in World War III.”
So, let’s connect Trump and his numerous grumbles with Agnew’s well-known alliterative trio. Nattering = talking continuously for a long time without any particular purpose. Check. Nabob = a person of conspicuous wealth or prominence. Check. Negativism = an attitude of mind marked by skepticism especially about nearly everything affirmed by others. Check.
Bingo! We have a winner! If Olympic awards were to be given to an unsurpassed example of a nattering nabob of negativism, then Donald J. Trump would surely merit the Gold Medal.
Editor’s note from Laura Belin: Here is the full video from Trump’s August 8 press conference.
Here is the full video from Trump’s August 15 press conference.
Official portraits of Vice President Spiro Agnew and President Donald Trump are in the public domain and available via Wikimedia Commons.