GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. - Two leaders were acting like anything but this week, and it all began with former Vice President Joe Biden.
On Tuesday Biden told a crowd of college Democrats at the University of Miami, well, here is what he said.
“When a guy who ended up becoming our national leader said I can grab a woman anywhere and she likes it, and then said, "I made a mista -- didn't make a mistake." They asked me would I like to debate this gentleman, and I said, "No, if we were in high school, I'd take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him."
That statement was then met by the leader of the free world, President Donald Trump, tweeting this response saying.
"Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault. He doesn't know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way. Don’t threaten people Joe!"
So, two grown men, in their 70's, opting for violence.
Does this feed into a culture that tells boys and men that violence, is the ultimate form of masculinity? It might, according to Andrew Reiner, a lecturer at Towson University who is working on a book on this topic and how we raise boys in our culture.
“It’s part of your DNA in terms of being an American male. It’s that we still buy into a notion of American masculine identity that still views this kind of behavior as tough and in this culture tough is good,” Reiner said.
Think of what the exchange between Biden teaches boys, all of us, about leadership.
That when all else fails in the world of discourse and debate, men must go to physical altercations or threaten to do so?