The Rise of the “Fuck You” Wing of the Democratic Party
Why the forbidden phrase is the only appropriate response to the horrors of the Trump administration
There was a time not so long ago when a single "fuck" could end a political career. Now? It's a career starter. A rallying cry. A punctuation mark on the only sane response to an insane political reality.
Take Pete Buttigieg—never known for being particularly profane. In response to the unfolding Signalgate scandal, where high-ranking Trump officials used encrypted messaging apps to subvert government oversight (again), Buttigieg didn’t mince words. “This is the highest level of fuckup imaginable,” he said plainly, setting the hearts of angry Democrats on fire.
That would have been enough to light up the Sunday shows in 2012. Today, it’s just Tuesday.
Senator Tammy Baldwin, hardly a bomb-thrower, called Fox’s Pete Hegseth a “fucking liar” in a press release and on Bluesky after he peddled yet another Trump-friendly distortion of the Signal affair. Did she apologize? Hell no. She owned it—and so did her base.
Rachel Maddow covered the Senator’s press release and didn’t shy away from the language (she said “effing” on air), giving Senator Duckworth airtime and a platform to express her outrage.
I posted a video recently after Chuck Schumer folded like an origami crane during the Continuing Resolution vote, and I said what many of us are thinking: “Fuck you, Chuck.” Not because I want to burn the party down, but because I'm tired of watching Democrats show up to a knife fight with a handshake. The fascist right is trying to tear down the rule of law, and Schumer is still worried about decorum.
This isn’t just venting. It’s a cultural shift. A line has been crossed in American political language, because a more important line was crossed first: the one separating liberal democracy from authoritarianism. The Trump administration isn’t just controversial—it’s contemptuous of the Constitution. The daily assaults on norms, rights, transparency, and truth aren’t just frustrating; they’re existential threats. And at some point, “well I disagree with that policy” just doesn’t cut it.
“Fuck you” does.
Not because it’s edgy. Not because it’s crass. But because it’s the clearest way to name the rage of a public watching the walls close in around their freedoms. It’s a middle finger to cruelty masquerading as law, to corruption in a red tie, to gaslighting so complete that even reality itself is up for debate.
It’s also a demand: Fight like you fucking mean it.
The polite center still clutches its pearls. They’re concerned about “optics,” worried about “alienating moderates.” But the people who’ve lost their health care, their voting rights, their bodily autonomy, their loved ones to COVID, their sense of safety—those people aren’t concerned about tone. They’re concerned about survival.
And survival sometimes requires profanity. Profanity as honesty. Profanity as resistance. Profanity as a rejection of complicity, compromise, and quiet cooperation with authoritarians.
So yes, we’re swearing now. Loudly. Publicly. Often.
And if that makes you uncomfortable? Good. That means you’re still paying attention.
Senator Tammy Duckworth is the one who dropped the F bomb in her press release. As a combat vet who lost her legs in battle she's more than entitled. And Buttigieg is a vet too - he was a Naval Reserves Intelligence officer for seven years and was deployed to Afghanistan for seven months. He had a top secret security clearance as he did financial counter terrorism.
Hell yeah. We're going to need to invent some even more extreme curse words to be able to adequately express our outrage at these criminals taking over our country. But "fuck you!" is a good start.