The Rise of the F-Bomb Caucus

‘One man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric.” So wrote Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan in 1971.

Long before that, our Founding Fathers knew the value of profanity. In 1732, Benjamin Franklin, disguised behind his alter ego “Poor Richard,” published his first almanack for the workingman. Sprinkled among the homespun wisdom was the occasional salty barb. “The greatest monarch on the proudest throne is obliged to sit upon his own arse,” he wrote. In another edition, he warned, “Force sh**s upon reason’s back.”