WHO DO you think you are, Joe Biden?
This is what I asked my 21-year-old son, after he used the same expletive the vice president of the United States offered up at the White House during the historic health care bill signing last month.
The incivility of modern political discourse made headlines after scattered outbursts of racist and homophobic slurs were directed at a few Democrats. But the more pervasive vulgarity of everyday discourse is barely remarkable.
Once, wearing flip-flops to the White House was considered disrespectful. Yet, Biden’s pronouncement that passage of the health care bill was a “big [expletive] deal’’ was widely laughed off as no big [expletive] deal. It was Joe being Joe.
But it was undignified and sends a bad message, especially to young people, about what is appropriate language.
Perhaps because a Democrat did it, the Washington establishment treated it as amusing. Shortly after the event, press secretary Robert Gibbs tweeted, “Powerful moment when the President described the people he was signing this for and for the millions back in control of their health care. . . And yes Mr. Vice President, you’re right.’’ T-shirts, by Biden critics as well as supporters, swiftly immortalized the remark.
President Obama also found it funny, according to Biden. Of course, Obama is also known for joking that when Rahm Emanuel, his notoriously profane chief of staff, lost a middle finger in an accident, it “rendered him mute.’’
Biden’s bill-signing moment is already old news, barely worthy of note, unless you open your ears and consider just how common the word and its variations have become. You are much more likely to hear the “f’’ word than the “n’’ word in a public place.
It’s not just uttered in locker rooms, army barracks, or newsrooms anymore. It echoes regularly in school yards, shopping malls, and offices. Blue- and white-collar workers toss it around. Among young people, there’s less thought given to refraining from its use in front of women or elders. That’s because women use it, too, as do elders. The most recent Boston Magazine, which profiles an 82-year-old socialite named Marilyn Riseman, merrily reports that her favorite word begins with “f.’’
It’s not the worst problem in the universe, but it’s another illustration of the growing coarseness of today’s society. Last fall, The New York Times printed a front-page story that detailed the number of times a character on TV had been called a “douche.’’ According to the Times, the trend illustrated “the latest of broadcast television’s continuing efforts to expand the boundaries of taste.’’
The political world has long been a place for street talk, but up until recently, it happened mostly behind closed doors. The phrase “expletive deleted’’ is a cultural reference that loops back to the 1970s and the Watergate scandal. When transcripts of Richard Nixon’s secret tapes were made public, “expletive deleted’’ was put into the court record whenever the president’s profanity-laced discussions with White House aides went beyond the boundaries of what was then considered good taste. When the tapes were declassified, it turned out the word “goddamned’’ accounted for most of the deletions.
Times have changed. In 2004, then-Vice President Dick Cheney blurted out the “f’’ word at Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont during a heated exchange on the Senate floor. “I think he was just having a bad day,’’ Leahy was quoted as saying. It generated negative headlines, which is not surprising given Cheney’s churlish demeanor, unpopularity with the media, and location when he said it.
But Biden wasn’t even cursing darkly at anyone; he was using the word in its sunniest sense.
The versatility of the word is one of its perverse features. It can describe a terrible moment or a terrific one, like the White House bill signing. It can be put to use as an adjective, verb, or noun. It’s so all-purpose, it spares the user the trouble of coming up with a more impressive vocabulary.
Apparently, the vice president of the United States can get away with it. A college student on a job interview might not.
Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com. 
