Caesar non est supra grammaticos
Caesar is not above the grammarians.
At my most pretentious, I considered having "Caesar non est supra grammaticos" tattooed across my chest. The Latin phrase, meaning “Caesar is not above the grammarians,” serves as my lodestar. Men might use power to reshape our language and reality, but fundamental rules of English grammar will not be altered easily. Apostrophe-gate, then, should fascinate me. It does not. It is boring and stupid.
President Joe Biden made one of three statements:
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it's un-American,”
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it's un-American,” or
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters’. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it's un-American.”
Either Donald Trump’s supporters are the garbage, the garbage belongs to them, or the garbage belongs to one supporter. I think it is obvious from the next sentence, “His demonization is…” that Mr. Biden referred to a singular person’s demonization.
To be grossly generalistic, you can put half the people clawing their faces in outrage over this in a basket of people who know that, and the other half in a basket of people who never bothered to read the quote. Mr. Biden has been in public life longer than I have been alive. He has always been a notorious windbag. If he were to snap and call half the country trash, I imagine he would have continued to roast them for another few sentences, get a few more zingers in, hammer in the contempt.
Such a snide one-and-done is not characteristic of Mr. Biden. It is, however, something I encourage—please consider supporting this page by purchasing one of our “Trump is a Bitch” t-shirts.
But as they say, hit dogs holler, so Mr. Trump, the world’s whiniest bitch, and his disingenuous servants are howling.
I am perplexed by the choice to respond by dressing up as a garbage man, however—did nobody think through this metaphor? Garbagemen do not stand in solidarity with the trash. They are not known for loving trash or protecting it. They take it away in a truck and bury it for money. If that were an apt metaphor for Mr. Trump’s relationship with his voters, it would be grim.