Today, Joan Walsh becomes the latest writer to discuss the rise of the hashtag #cuckservative - a phrase that they credit to Donald Trump, who has used the phrase recently as a way to brandish conservatives who sell out. Her excellent article, which is viewable here, discusses the rise of the term and in her view the racist & sexist overtones. I respect Joan for her effort on this, but after reading her piece I realize that so many are only getting just the tip of the iceberg as to the meaning and use of this term by conservatives. What Joan Walsh misses is that #cuckservative isn't a Donald Trump phrase.. and while it has it's roots in some ways in the sexual fetish of cuckoldry, it goes back far further and has more serious problems. Be Aware: Below the squiggly will be some discussion of VERY NSFW content, potential triggers and others in order to get to the root of what Joan Walsh is discussing. While no porn will be placed here, this will be a frank discussion of the implication being made by Donald Trump.
Joan Walsh at Salon.Com digs right into the issue - but without the backstory, she can only get so far. http://www.salon.com/2015/08/03/the_gop_crack_up_continues_the_raging_civil_war_over_the_disgusting_%E2%80%9Ccuckservative%E2%80%9D_slur/
Then “cuckservative” started showing up in my Twitter mentions last week, after I suggested Donald Trump supporters might not be the brightest bulbs. As I clicked around, I came to a shocking conclusion: I’ve been uncharacteristically downplaying the amount of racism and misogyny powering the right today. The spread of the epithet “cuckservative” is a sign that the crudest psycho-sexual insecurity animates the far right. “Cuckservative,” you see, is short for a cuckolded conservative. It’s not about a Republican whose wife is cheating on him, but one whose country is being taken away from him, and who’s too cowardly to do anything about it.
We tend to treat things as new the moment it becomes a twitter hashtag. But the use of sexual metaphors and content to define Republicans who are not with the core contingent isn't something that is new; it has been used amongst republican and conservative groups to bash each other or those who are not the purist form of conservative for some time.
The first time I came across the usage of sexual terms to define other people, elected and hardened conservative Republicans didn't invoke the term Cuckservative. It was far more direct than that. In 2005, several Kansas Republicans began a debate and called it "The Slippery Slope to Sodom" a discussion they held in many places as well as online through a newsletter series. Legislators and activists participated in this frank and sometimes accusatory discussion. Republicans who were not with the right wing on continued prosecution or boycotts of LGBT media were viewed or referred to as "whores". This later transitioned to "Sodom Supporters", a term which lasted in several conservative back and forths in Kansas as well as Missouri which I still hear now and again (as recently as the statehouse this year).
Now, conservatives have moved onto "Cuckservative". In the end, it is the use of sexual debasement to go after opposition that has existed for a VERY long time.. just never quite as out in the open. Easy google will give you a pretty good idea of what cuckolding is; Republicans, however, take this metaphor to a very specific, very dark place. Cuckolding, which has homes on places like Reddit, numerous pornographic website and content is a general sexual fetish which can be easily defined: a husband and wife (or gf/bf) engage in a sexual act in which one partner (the wife) engages in sex in front of a partner that includes in its course the humiliation of their primary partner (spouse or bf). Like most fetishes, practitioners - men and women - have contended that such an act in itself is for their enjoyment and their business. But for the Republicans using the term #cuckservative, they are doing so out of a place that mirrors what represents the more darker shades of any fetish.
Republicans who have used this new term are the same Republicans who used phrases like 'Sodomite supporter" "whores". In that vein, they are now using #cuckservative not just based on the defined sexual act, but for the much darker racial tones that prevail in the rise of pornography that is sold online. Conservatives instead invoke the much more pornographic rather than dictionary view of the fetish. This turns Cuckoldry into a situation that is presented in two big ways: (1) A black man has sex with a white woman who is married to belittle the white man (humiliation terms).. but in the ultimate of fetishes, (2) some carry it further, noting that they are trying to get pregnant through this act. Republicans, clearly deep in the knowledge of the porn world, have no problem calling out every element of this deeply fetishized sexual fantasy.
These right-wing crazies on twitter seemingly call to question the elements of the Republican party for embracing the idea of supporting persons of color by making illusions through sexual terms.
Interestingly, the twitter user above counts amongst his followers several Kansas State electeds, including Senator Garrett Love. This is no surprise as much of the sexualization, the joking use of rape and phobias have long found root within the conservative wing of the party to identify those who oppose them. Conservatives themselves, though, no worry about letting their freak flag fly. http://ace.mu.nu/archives/358061.php
The word "#cuckservative" is being used as a banner-of-convenience by a conglomeration of several types of people, who range from what I'd call mere nativists to actual, hard-core, Nazi-flag-in-their-twitter profile white supremacists. Now, some using this term "#cuckservative" assure me that not all of the people using the term are white supremacists. I believe them, on general heuristic principle: I mean, collecting under any flag will be a whole host of different people, with a wide range of motives, some of them unobjectionable, some of them erroneous but not what you'd call condemnable, and some simply odious.
Ace of Spades, a long standing conservative website addresses this issue heads on. I will admit, I found as a humorous chance during research that another popular term - Queen of Spades - is significant within the cuckolding community as a way for cuckolding wives to advertise they are seeking a black male partner by wearing on their body the ace of spades. Just an odd coincidence. Still, conservates find themselves debating each other using sexual terms that not only involve a VERY specific fetish, but also a great deal of inner knowledge about the workings of the porn community, or at least a supposed claimed knowledge.
While some conservatives have welcomed the phrase and use - as you see at the top, others continue to take it farther and farther down the rabbit hole, invoking a continued creepier and more hateful tone:
As long as Republicans debate their sexual freak flag in public and their innermost workings of how this relationship works with conspiracies and terms, and Donald Trump and his allies use the term, I'm betting many will be content to just sit back and have a drink. As others have used cuckold based memes to mock the "cuckservative" craze, this one in particular made me laugh in response to a Republican calling out other members by the term...
12:21 PM PT: In case you wondered how close this gets...
