California Governor Gavin Newsom and his foul-mouthed spokesman, Izzy Gardon, are showing the country just how low modern political discourse can sink. When Gardon responded to a routine press inquiry with “Respectfully, f–k off,” he didn’t just answer a question — he announced that civility is officially out of fashion on the left.
Democrats now seem locked in a competition to see who can drop the most f-bombs in public. Voters, meanwhile, get a front-row seat to what looks more like a barroom rant than political leadership.
The outburst came after Newsom’s controversial comments at an Atlanta event, where he told a Black interviewer, “I’m like you … I’m no better than you. I’m a 960 SAT guy … literally a 960 SAT guy. You’ve never seen me read a speech because I cannot read a speech.” The remarks were widely denounced as racist, and Newsom quickly claimed he was only referring to his struggle with dyslexia.
That explanation didn’t age well. His line, “I’m like you … I’m no better than you,” sounded less like empathy and more like an assumption about the audience’s intelligence. Naturally, reporters asked for proof of his disability and his claim that he “cannot read.” Gardon’s response? Not evidence — just profanity.
Newsom himself piled on with a vulgar attack against Sean Hannity of Fox News, who had criticized the Atlanta comments. On X, Newsom ended his rant with: “Spare me your fake f—ing outrage.” Nothing says “serious leader” quite like a string of four-letter words.
There was a time when politicians at least pretended to maintain standards. Presidents like Lyndon Johnson might have been salty behind closed doors, but they understood that public language mattered. Even military figures such as George Patton were known for colorful speech, yet politics itself was supposed to be different. Leaders were once expected to model restraint and decorum.
Now, profanity appears to be a badge of honor on the left — proof that you’re “authentic” or “angry enough.” If you’re polite, you’re apparently not passionate. The result is a politics addicted to rage, where shouting replaces substance and decency is treated as weakness.
As Mark Twain once joked, “Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.” Today, for too many politicians, profanity has become the prayer — a ritual for those seeking power through outrage.
The belief seems to be that if you want to be sworn in as governor or senator, you’d better start swearing now. But Americans deserve better than leaders who confuse vulgarity with virtue. Real strength is shown not by who can curse the loudest, but by who can lead with clarity, confidence, and respect — and that’s still the standard worth defending.
