WASHINGTON — It’s no secret that since the red MAGA hats regained power in Washington, Democrats have been cursing a blue streak.

Reporters have noticed, as have late-night TV hosts. Democrats are announcing congressional campaigns to “unf--- the country,” and because their party needs to “grow a f---ing spine.” On social media, Ways and Means Democrats responded to the White House’s reaction to tariff news with this: “To f--- around is human, to find out is divine.”

After a House Judiciary Committee vote Wednesday, California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell took to Instagram to decry it in no uncensored terms. “That’s a dictatorship. It’s a f---ing dictatorship when you allow a president to deport your own constituents,” he said.

Democrats have even started seasoning press releases with salty language. “Boyle Calls Bullshit on Republican Budget Lies,” was the subject line of an email from House Budget ranking member Brendan F. Boyle of Pennsylvania. And he wasn’t the first to pepper a written statement — normally a milquetoast medium — with a soupçon of swearing. When Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth demanded Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth resign over Signalgate, she called him “a f*cking liar.” (She toned it down with a well-placed asterisk, but the other bleep-outs are mine.)

While there hasn’t been an edict from upon high to talk down in the gutters, it’s no coincidence that Democrats are cursing more in 2025. Swearing is powerful, linguistically speaking. The vulgar trend comes as strategists warn the party has lost touch with the common man, that its leading politicians come off as too polished when unvarnished authenticity is the political currency of the day, and as Democrats themselves are still smarting from the 2024 election and mad as hell at the unprecedented actions taken thus far by Donald Trump’s administration.

Whenever you discuss language, it’s important to be precise, even (and especially) when you’re talking about some f—ing bulls—. A curse or a swear is a word that violates a societal taboo, usually religious, sexual or scatological in nature. But it differs from a slur, which is directed at a specific group, race or nationality.

“If you’re using a slur, in general you’re using it to be offensive,” said Jesse Sheidlower, a former editor-at-large of the Oxford English Dictionary and author of “The F-Word,” while a swear might just burst out when you spill your coffee.

To paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart, you know a curse when you hear one. What we consider beyond the pale changes all the time. Swears about a person’s parentage, “bastard in particular, or whoreson if you go back to Shakespeare,” Sheidlower said, hardly draw a tsk-tsk these days.

Part of the barnyard language boom on Capitol Hill could be that we’re all simply a bit coarser now. “Political decorum is in a different state than it was in the past, on both sides,” Sheidlower said.

And there may be an observer effect. “Some of this is people cursing more; some of this is being reported more,” Sheidlower said. “We know people have cursed going back ages, but it wasn’t reported because of journalistic norms.”

In D.C.’s halls of power, Lyndon B. Johnson’s sewer mouth was legendary, but in the pages of The Washington Post, his beloved “bulls---” was bowdlerized into “bull.” The American public only began to appreciate how R-rated a president could be when the Watergate hearings uncovered Richard Nixon’s secret White House tapes, and the curse-filled transcripts made [expletive deleted] an everyday phrase.

Risks and rewards

For Democrats looking to purge their angst over the recent election and appeal to the working-class voters they lost to Trump, an influx of f---s may seem like just the thing.

There’s a reason why we curse when we stub our toe or lift something heavy. “It has a cathartic effect on the person cursing,” said David Clementson, a University of Georgia professor who has studied reactions to emotionally charged language. So, some of the swearing may just be verbal self-care for Democrats.

“You can withstand more pain if you’re cursing,” as Sheidlower put it. “That works emotionally, too.”

Swearing can also build trust, making listeners feel like it’s a foul-mouthed friend talking to them at the bar, rather than a stuffed suit parroting talking points on a stage. Trump’s own potty mouth may help explain why 42 percent of Pew Research Center survey respondents see him as honest, despite what fact-checkers say.

“One of the many things that helped Trump over and over again is that when he uses high-intensity language, people believe it because it comes off as sincere — they think he really means it,” Clementson said. “No one is like, ‘Oh, that’s just a put on. He doesn’t really talk that way behind closed doors.’ It’s like the opposite, if anything — you know he’s always dropping f-bombs.”

But trying to emulate Trump’s bombastic style is risky, Clementson said. “The rule of thumb with obscene language like that is it’s going to backfire,” he said. “Reason being, people find it less credible.”

Sailor talk can help a politician connect with an audience if they’re already in the same boat, Clementson said, but it “alienates more persuadable elements” outside the base. According to another Pew Research survey, 66 percent of U.S. adults say it’s rarely or never acceptable to visibly display swear words (like on a T-shirt), while 65% say it’s similarly rude to curse in public.

Still, risks are exactly what some strategists are urging Democrats to take, especially on social platforms and other media where authenticity is paramount. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas has offered one model with her self-described “potty mouth,” delighting some but not others.

The trick may be pulling off a moment of connection or catharsis without the cringe. For those who don’t normally curse, it can sound awfully awkward when they start, Clementson said. An f-bomb from an otherwise reserved representative might be tough to land, as Maxine E. Dexter of Oregon discovered after her comments at a rally in February went viral.

“I don’t swear in public very well,” Dexter said, before going on to prove that point emphatically: “But we have to f--- Trump!”

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