Word Police mourn as GOP demonizes another adjective
PUBLISHED IN THE JUNE 30 EDITION
Posted: Wednesday, July 6, 2016 2:11 pm
Even we Word Police can learn a trick or two when the new wave of political assassination ads hits the airwaves every other year.
The season is in full swing, as anyone within hearing distance of a functioning television or radio knows. And sure enough, a previously good and decent adjective already has been soiled.
I first heard it last week in an ad from a candidate named Josh Hawley, who is running for the Republican nomination for Missouri attorney general. He is a 39-year-old lawyer, a Lexington (Mo.) native who attended Stanford and Yale Law School, and now teaches law at the University of Missouri-Columbia Law School. Obviously, he is a smart dude.
He is running against fellow elephant Kurt Schaefer, a state senator from Columbia who used to be a Democrat.
That would be sin enough for the GOP faithful, but Hawley has stretched the envelope even more. In his ad, he accuses Schaefer of being…. ready for it?.... a moderate!
Oh, no, don’t call me moderate!
To show he’s a man of truth, Hawley then runs several video clips of an unrepentant Schaefer describing himself as “moderate.”
At the end of the ad, Hawley asks voters if they want to elect and trust a “moderate.”
“I don’t think so,” he says, smilingly shaking his head.
This is new ground, even in Missourah.
As usual, the Word Police like to rely on the dictionary to put this kind of behavior into some kind of objective perspective. Here’s what Webster’s New World says about “moderate.”
■ Within reasonable limits; avoiding excesses or extremes; temperate or restrained.
■ Mild, calm, gentle, not violent.
■ Of average or medium quality, amount, scope, range.
For God’s sake, we can’t elect someone who is reasonable, calm and restrained!
It was many years ago, possibly during the reign of the sainted President Ronald Reagan, that the Republicans made the word “liberal” a dirty word. It was a great, successful campaign, to the extent that it forced Democrats to start calling themselves “progressives.”
With that task long accomplished, now some of the new GOP candidates have begun the assault on the word, “moderate.”
The Word Police have also detected another new linguistic twist for 2016 – the sudden prominence of the phrase, “constitutional conservative.”
As noted here before, in Adspeak, “conservative” translates into “blessed or holy,” while liberal means “devil-like.”
It’s not too hard to figure the roots of “constitutional conservative,” which seemingly every Republican candidate on TV or radio now claims to be.
It’s a delayed reaction to the Tea Party movement. You don’t hear as much about the Tea Party anymore, but embracing the Constitution was one of its main pillars. So maybe its people are trying out new phrases to keep their ideas out there.
All I know is, from the perspective of a Word Policeman, the Republicans are approaching the edge of the Language Cliff. If moderate is no longer safe, how long will being merely “conservative” pass muster? We’re already seeing the start of it with “constitutional conservative.” It’s a qualifier that implies that plain old vanilla conservative is no longer good enough.
What’s next?
It’s hard to know where the focus-group people will take the GOP next, testing people in one-way mirror rooms to gauge their reaction to new campaign rhetoric. But we can take a guess or two.
Here’s one: “Judeo-Christian conservative.” This one says, “no damn Muslims” without actually saying it, which is generally a plus among right-wingers, but it could be a mixed bag in redneck country, where the “Judeo” part might just raise eyebrows the wrong direction.
Better edit that one down to “Christian conservative,” though that doesn’t come down on all those Mexicans just waiting to invade and overtake the U.S. of A. They’re Catholic, mostly, though a lot of hard-shell, fundamentalist Christians don’t believe Catholics are really Christians.
Still, that’s a lot of undercurrents to explain in a one- or two-word phrase. Might want to steer clear after all.
How about “post-Ferguson conservative?” It doesn’t mean anything specific any more than “constitutional conservative” or “Missouri values” do, but it does send a message.
Any time Republicans can work Ferguson into the conversation, they do. It conjures up racial fear and the image of Democratic governor Jay Nixon bumbling and stammering away any future political career he might have had, and on network television!
It could become shorthand for Democratic incompetence.
Yep, I think “post-Ferguson conservative” might have legs.
Well, that’s about it from this round of the Word Police. We’ll keep watching – at least in small doses as long as we can stand it – and report back on any new trends that surface between now and Election Day.
And, by golly, we’ll do it hyper conservatively.
Hey – now there’s a possibility.
PUBLISHED IN THE JUNE 30 EDITION
Posted: Wednesday, July 6, 2016 2:11 pm
Even we Word Police can learn a trick or two when the new wave of political assassination ads hits the airwaves every other year.
The season is in full swing, as anyone within hearing distance of a functioning television or radio knows. And sure enough, a previously good and decent adjective already has been soiled.
I first heard it last week in an ad from a candidate named Josh Hawley, who is running for the Republican nomination for Missouri attorney general. He is a 39-year-old lawyer, a Lexington (Mo.) native who attended Stanford and Yale Law School, and now teaches law at the University of Missouri-Columbia Law School. Obviously, he is a smart dude.
He is running against fellow elephant Kurt Schaefer, a state senator from Columbia who used to be a Democrat.
That would be sin enough for the GOP faithful, but Hawley has stretched the envelope even more. In his ad, he accuses Schaefer of being…. ready for it?.... a moderate!
Oh, no, don’t call me moderate!
To show he’s a man of truth, Hawley then runs several video clips of an unrepentant Schaefer describing himself as “moderate.”
At the end of the ad, Hawley asks voters if they want to elect and trust a “moderate.”
“I don’t think so,” he says, smilingly shaking his head.
This is new ground, even in Missourah.
As usual, the Word Police like to rely on the dictionary to put this kind of behavior into some kind of objective perspective. Here’s what Webster’s New World says about “moderate.”
■ Within reasonable limits; avoiding excesses or extremes; temperate or restrained.
■ Mild, calm, gentle, not violent.
■ Of average or medium quality, amount, scope, range.
For God’s sake, we can’t elect someone who is reasonable, calm and restrained!
It was many years ago, possibly during the reign of the sainted President Ronald Reagan, that the Republicans made the word “liberal” a dirty word. It was a great, successful campaign, to the extent that it forced Democrats to start calling themselves “progressives.”
With that task long accomplished, now some of the new GOP candidates have begun the assault on the word, “moderate.”
The Word Police have also detected another new linguistic twist for 2016 – the sudden prominence of the phrase, “constitutional conservative.”
As noted here before, in Adspeak, “conservative” translates into “blessed or holy,” while liberal means “devil-like.”
It’s not too hard to figure the roots of “constitutional conservative,” which seemingly every Republican candidate on TV or radio now claims to be.
It’s a delayed reaction to the Tea Party movement. You don’t hear as much about the Tea Party anymore, but embracing the Constitution was one of its main pillars. So maybe its people are trying out new phrases to keep their ideas out there.
All I know is, from the perspective of a Word Policeman, the Republicans are approaching the edge of the Language Cliff. If moderate is no longer safe, how long will being merely “conservative” pass muster? We’re already seeing the start of it with “constitutional conservative.” It’s a qualifier that implies that plain old vanilla conservative is no longer good enough.
What’s next?
It’s hard to know where the focus-group people will take the GOP next, testing people in one-way mirror rooms to gauge their reaction to new campaign rhetoric. But we can take a guess or two.
Here’s one: “Judeo-Christian conservative.” This one says, “no damn Muslims” without actually saying it, which is generally a plus among right-wingers, but it could be a mixed bag in redneck country, where the “Judeo” part might just raise eyebrows the wrong direction.
Better edit that one down to “Christian conservative,” though that doesn’t come down on all those Mexicans just waiting to invade and overtake the U.S. of A. They’re Catholic, mostly, though a lot of hard-shell, fundamentalist Christians don’t believe Catholics are really Christians.
Still, that’s a lot of undercurrents to explain in a one- or two-word phrase. Might want to steer clear after all.
How about “post-Ferguson conservative?” It doesn’t mean anything specific any more than “constitutional conservative” or “Missouri values” do, but it does send a message.
Any time Republicans can work Ferguson into the conversation, they do. It conjures up racial fear and the image of Democratic governor Jay Nixon bumbling and stammering away any future political career he might have had, and on network television!
It could become shorthand for Democratic incompetence.
Yep, I think “post-Ferguson conservative” might have legs.
Well, that’s about it from this round of the Word Police. We’ll keep watching – at least in small doses as long as we can stand it – and report back on any new trends that surface between now and Election Day.
And, by golly, we’ll do it hyper conservatively.
Hey – now there’s a possibility.
