Triumvirate, Latvia, and Antigone. Three words that seem unrelated, but share one quality: at one point in my life, I have absolutely butchered the pronunciation of all of them. The fact that I once read Latvia as “La-TIVA” or pronounced triumvirate as “tree-um-vart-tay” keeps me staring at my dorm ceiling at night. All this to say, I have empathy for mispronouncers—until I scroll through the news and see weaponized incompetence in the form of mispronouncing political opponents’ names.

Something just irks me, deep down, when I see candidates in an election intentionally mispronouncing one another’s names. Especially in the context of presidential elections, it’s unavoidable to hear your opponent’s name over and over again, and yet the pronunciation is still butchered. President Donald Trump spent half of the last election referring to Kamala Harris as “Ka-mala.” I suppose mispronouncing your female opponent is marginally better than calling her nasty or piggy, but surely someone who considers himself the ideal leader for the country wouldn’t stumble over something as easy as his opponent’s name.

Or consider the New York City mayoral election, where voters live in one of the most diverse cities in the United States, yet some ignored the correct pronunciation of “Zohran Mamdani” in favor of bemoaning the impending Sharia law Mamdani was allegedly ushering in. Mamdani spelling out his name in a viral TikTok audio—“The name is Mamdani, M-A-M-D-A-N-I”—is, to me, a demonstration of how deeply the mispronunciation “Man-dani” permeated the last election.

But why is this so important? Why do I feel compelled to write all of this? First and foremost, the practice of intentional name mispronunciation is disrespectful. The word “toxic” gets a workout online, but it’s definitely one I would use to describe the landscape of American politics now. When I had to watch old presidential debates for an assignment, I couldn’t believe how nice the candidates were to one another—how cordial their interactions were, how they wished one another well while politely disagreeing.

Twenty years later, on both sides of the political aisle, animosity runs rampant and bleeds into disrespect. There is less and less criticism of a candidate’s actions or policies and more energy directed toward tearing them limb-from-limb with insults. I don’t believe it is a valid criticism of someone to butcher the pronunciation of their name. I think it’s a method of belittlement that targets those with non-Western last names and attempts to demean them before they can even get their platform and policies out of their mouth. Our standards for what makes a good or qualified politician have plummeted and warped, and I want to use this behavioral pattern as a way of demonstrating that.

In addition to this, for a nation that claims to be the greatest, the most educated, the most righteous, we cannot hinge on stupidity. If you claim to adhere to the Bible, as many politicians do (which there is nothing wrong with, to clarify)—a text featuring figures with names such as Nebuchadnezzar, Ezekiel, and Achitophel—then you can pronounce the names of your opponents. Hiding behind microaggressions rather than valid criticisms of your opponent’s policies will only get you so far. Hate doesn’t make us great, and in the words of Harry Styles, “Treat people with kindness.”