Tag: Covfefe

By Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Like a greedy child locked in a candy shop, the English language continues to find a bountiful supply of neologisms as a result of Trumplandia. Trumplandia churns out new words and phrases the way other administrations churned out policy white papers.

So, let’s look at some of the options.

Maybe covfefe could be extreme existential angst generated by collusion with a foreign foe and which lead to a stolen election. That would be something very useful to be able to articulate with one word right about now.

Though given it’s proximity in sound to the existing “kerfuffle,” maybe it’s a major political incident caused by a tweet. That, too is another word that would come in handy right now.

Covfefe could mean a person who is a racist, misogynist, bigot. Someone you don’t really want to be associated with, but, because of politics you are. That would also be a good word to have handy these days.

Given how about 30% of the population is completely clueless about why Donald Trump should be impeached, maybe a covfefe is a person who continues believe something long after its been shown to be wrong. In a similar vain, maybe a covfefe is a media hermit, you lives within his or her Right win echo chamber and only leaves to buy milk on the weekends.

Another suggestion is it’s a new curse word. I am of the opinion that MAGA should be a curse word. It kind of sounds like one and maybe when Trump does something that really pisses us off we can shout Maga! Covfefe! We can shout these words in mixed company and in front of children without risk of offending anyone. Though, I have to admit, that maga at this point probably should offend a few people. America is already great, or was until Donald Trump came around.

Or lastly maybe it’s just an open word we have to place into conversation when Trumplandia does something so outrageous that we are at a lost for words. I know I definitely feel that way a lot these days and it maybe instead of just standing there gap mouthed and bugged eye, I can throw in the word “covfefe” and move on.

By Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

Twitter is, well, atwitter with the latest screw up on Twtter on the part of Donald Trump. Since Trump’s phone apparently doesn’t have spell check, he tried — we think — to say “coverage” in a tweet and it came out “covfefe.”

This led to any number of different funny hot takes by the chattering class on Twitter. Which is all well and good — I enjoy a good crack about Trump being an idiot as much as the next guy — but there comes a point when we have to stop “falloning” and start to address the serious issues caused by Trump being, well, Trump.

To me, “to fallon” has two meanings. The first, most obvious meaning is to try to make a monster like Donald Trump warm and cuddly by making him a lovable fun character. But there is a second, more urgent meaning as well: to get so wrapped up in making fun of Trump that you lose sight of how dangerous he is.

So, there comes a point when the time between when we make fun of something stupid done by Trump and we wake up to this horror grows significantly shorter. It seems to me that the issue right now is comedy is how civil society is dealing in a most immediate manner with Trump. We’re still getting used to the end of the “No Drama Obama” era and the struggle to process that is coming out in comedy.

But I’d like to think eventually we’ll wake up and things will take a significantly more serious edge. We’ll stop laughing and start engaging. Maybe more serious forms of entertainment, like a good movie that serves as a metaphor for Trumplandia, or a great protest song will come out.

And on an even more serious note, maybe if we quit falloning, more center-Left people would run for office. Or try to cross the political divide and figure out what the fuck is wrong with people who are now comfortably in the mental country of Trumplandia. I still haven’t figured that out, and I’d like to think it’s even possible to do so. If we don’t figure out Trumplandia now, we’re all pretty much doomed.

We absolutely have to stop falloning sooner rather than later because this is all deadly serious. The entire post-WWII global liberal order is beginning to unravel before our eyes and if we don’t start to engage politically, we risk laughing ourselves into oblivion.

So, laugh while you can. I don’t know when things will begin to change. Maybe what I suggest is just too difficult right now. Maybe the changing of the guard is just to profound for our collective psyche to comprehend in any way other than comedy. But I have to have hope.

If we don’t do something soon, eight years will have elapsed and while we were laughing, Trump will have ruined the country and maybe even the world. Then we really will have to find some one to make America great again.