Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Trump is the lewd American male
Trump is the lewd American male
Jul 4, 2026 5:07 AM

The implosion of Donald Trump’s campaign is a reminder that at the end of the day, character matters more than professional success or mitments. At the beginning of the second presidential debate Donald apologized again for the ments recorded during a private discussion with Billy Bush in 2005 in which he boasted of romantically pursuing married women and groping others. In his apology, he referred to that discussion as regular “locker room talk.” In other words, Trump believes he is just a normal locker room guy. If lewdness is normative, America is in deep trouble. But should we besurprised?

What I found especiallyinteresting was the attempt to contextualize ments as something we might expect from younger men but not from older men. For example, during the October 8 edition of The News Hour on PBS, Roger Simon, Chief Political Columnist for mented that ments emanate from “frat boy culture” before adding, “but he’s no longer a frat boy.” Simon may have uncovered the root of the problem. Young men do see moral virtue celebrated as a young man’s norm.

For example, teenage and college male fraternity life has been depicted in the exact terms that Trump used in movies as old as Animal House (1978) or Porky’s (1981), and even as recent as the series of Neighbors films starring Zac Efron, in 2014 and 2016 respectively. This “frat boy” culture was evident in the political scandals of President Bill Clinton and Congressman Anthony Wiener.

The absence of any celebration of moral virtue for young men has long been a problem in “frat boy” culture. In 1996, A. Ayres Boswell and Joan Z. Spade published the landmark article, “Fraternities and Collegiate Rape Culture: Why Are Some Fraternities More Dangerous Places for Women?” in the journal Gender and Society. In the article, Boswell and Spade summarize what we have known for decades about much of university Greek life—namely, that fraternities turn a blind-eye to rape, encourage sexual assault in group settings, consume higher doses of alcohol and drugs, and place a higher value on social life in general. In fact, for many the practice of sexual aggression is learned behavior in Greek college life in ways absent prior to enrolling in college. These trends have been repeatedly confirmed in research data. According to Department of Education data analyzed by NPR, the number of ‘forcible rapes’ reported at four-year colleges increased 49 percent between 2008 and 2012 and continues to rise. In other words, we are currently in the midst of a campus sexual assault crisis.

Why has this happened? Because America has all but abandoned the celebration and promotion of moral virtue and character in raising boys to men in the public square. Character forming organizations like the Boy Scouts, for example, no longer pass the “cool” test after 9th grade. To make matters worse, today’s future male leaders are far less likely to receive regular, sustained, life-long moral formation in the church than their fathers and grandfathers. Instead, it seems that athletic, academic, and financial success are the real cardinal virtues we point men to. As a result, we should expect to have more and more financially successful men who have the moral character of men like Donald Trump.

As long as excelling in moral virtue is disconnected from what it means to be successful in the marketplace and politics, America’s teens and college students will continue to disappoint us when they assume positions of influence and authority. Markets and moral virtue cannot exist apart from one another. In fact, “frat boy culture” should see everything happening to Donald Trump—the man that he is, the attributes that he displays, his arrogant narcissism—and seek radical change. Our country needs future leaders who we can be proud of fortheir upstanding moral character.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Rev. Sirico: Catholics vs. Gov. Walker?
On CatholicVote.org, Kathryn Jean Lopez interviews Rev. Robert A. Sirico about various bishops’ statements concerning the budget battles and labor union protests in Wisconsin: Kathryn Jean Lopez: The archbishop of Milwaukee issued a letter a few days ago on the rights of workers, noting that “hard times do not nullify the moral obligation each of us has to respect the legitimate rights of workers.” Does that mean he is on the side of Democratic lawmakers who are hiding out on...
Unions and Catholic Social Teaching
The issue of labor unions has recently been a cause of much heated debate. Throughout the United States, there are many states facing budget shortfalls and are trying to rejuvenate struggling economies. State expenses are being slashed, and union benefits are just one of many expenditures on the cutting block for many states. Recent events in Wisconsin have caused many people to engage in the debate of union benefits, and many more are still left wondering where to stand on...
Voluntary Association and Union Politics
In light of the recent events in Wisconsin and the statement published by the state’s Catholic bishops, we’re republishing this 2005 article from the Acton Commentary archives: Voluntary Association and Union Politics By Charles W. Baird The 50th anniversary celebration of the AFL-CIO in Chicago has been marred by internecine strife. The Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have broken away from the Federation, reducing its membership by 25 percent. At least three other unions – UNITE-HERE (textile...
The Social Agenda on Unions
For those who are searching for more opinions on the Catholic social teaching in regards to unions and the current events in Wisconsin, the Social Agenda, put together by the Acton Institute, is a great resource. The Social Agenda covers a wide range of topics, including unions, and, is a collection of central statements of the Roman Pontiffs from papal encyclicals, apostolic letters, and Conciliar documents. Within the Social Agenda the right to unionize is recognized: 281. All these rights,...
Free Universal Health Care is Expensive, Tricky
Despite a promise of plete and fair coverage of health care for everyone for free,” the Greek state-controlled system is broken and corrupt, the Athens daily reports. Predictably, Greeks have taken it upon themselves to build a private health care sector: Despite hikes in Greece’s health spending between 2000 to 2008 being among the highest of all OECD countries, this has not been matched by growing life expectancy rates, the report added. Turning to the hospital system, corruption has grown...
Acton’s ‘The Call of the Entrepreneur’ premieres in Italian Diocese of La Spezia
The original Article Who’s Responding: “The Call of the Entrepreneur” in La Spezia was written by Francesco Bellotti for the Italian newspaper “Avvenire” (translation and editorial contributions from Michael Severance): Kishore Jayabalan responds to questions in the industrial city of La Spezia “The Christian entrepreneur is not the person who goes about wealth creation all week and then leaves a nice offering at church on Sunday. Rather, he is exemplified by the type of person who gives the best of...
Catholics and Unions: Framing the Debate
The Catholic Herald, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Madison, Wis., recently published a column by Dr. Constance Nielsen on the principles held by the Catholic Church concerning unions. Dr. Nielsen provides a very insightful outlook on how Catholics can view the current debate occurring in Wisconsin over union rights: In this context it is good to recall John Paul’s warning against too strong of a connection between the work of Unions and the political arena. Though Unions enter...
Public Radio Claims Hide Actual Costs
I’m blogging a recent piece I did for NRO on National Public Radio funding but first a quick note on the net neutrality debate. House Speaker John Boehner told a meeting of the National Religious Broadcasters association, meeting in Nashville over the weekend, that “the last thing we need, in my view, is the FCC serving as Internet traffic controller, and potentially running roughshod over local broadcasters who have been serving munities with free content for decades.” Amen. See my...
Rev. Sirico: Church Changes How it Deals with Organized Labor
Rev. Robert A. Sirico is interviewed by Joan Frawley Desmond, a reporter for National Catholic Register, in today’s paper: Father Robert Sirico, president of the Acton Institute, a free-market think tank, suggested that the bishops’ response to the union protests marked a new era of episcopal leadership and a more nuanced understanding of economic realities in the United States. He noted that both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI had sought to reorient an overly politicized approach to...
Rev. Sirico cited in ‘Wisconsin Dispute Exposes Catholic Split On Unions’
Rev. Robert A. Sirico, president and co-founder of the Acton Institute, is quoted in a Religion News Service story on the Wisconsin budget and union battles. The wire service story was picked up by, among others, the Huffington Post and Christian Century: Wisconsin dispute exposes Catholic split on unions Feb 28, 2011 by Piet Levy (RNS) The fierce budget battle in Wisconsin that’s pitting unions against Republican Gov. Scott Walker has also pitted the state’s top Roman Catholic bishops against...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved