Author Archives: suratsweet

Glossary: an anatomy of key memes, euphemisms, sneers, and innuendos in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, March 27-April 3, 2014

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abdication: any regulatory retreat by the Obama administration on an issue important to the GOP. Even though government and regulation are routinely demonized, they sometimes come in handy–most recently when it comes to internet registration.

“affordable housing”:  now always put in fright quotes, to denote the hypocrisy and nefariousness of anyone  supporting such a position. The “affordable housing crowd” is of course still being blamed for the financial meltdown.

broadened opportunity: prosperity for the few, by reducing opportunity for the many. See also, “upward mobility”).

creative destructionism: outsourcing, corporate takeovers, globalization.

crowd: any Dem interest group, however broadly defined. Not exactly a mob–more like a suspect group, with parochial self interests. A good recent example is  “the affordable housing crowd” (see above).

devolution: an oldie-but-a-goodie from the Thatcher era. The kissin’ cousin of privatization, its latest avatar is one of the centerpieces of the latest Ryan budget (aka, the race to adversity): devolving all safety net programs to the states, in the form of a lump sum payment. (David Cameron is also trying this one on for size in Britain).

disrespecting the citizens:apparently, according to Charles Koch, any form of government regulation. Government regulation, in the Koch Brothers’ universe, is nothing but a form of “collectivization,” always a pejorative term. In simple Kochean terms, “more government equals less liberty”. Why bother, then, to have any government at all?

effective safety net: as in the latest Paul Ryan budget, the only acceptable funding levels for social services presume draconian cuts in current budgets. “Effectiveness,” like its cousin, “efficiency,” is not defined by human well-being but by how little the government ends up doing or providing.

elites:educated, critical thinkers. (Thanks for that definition to Mike Lofgren, in his book “The Party Is Over”).

expeditions:semantically related to “fishing trip”, these are Dem forays into policy issues or initiatives, always with a hidden agenda.

fidelity to the law: what Obama, as Imperial President, is said to lack.

improving access to college: turning colleges and universities into voc tech institutes.

introducing competition and innovation into Medicare:a key element of the new Ryan budget. “Competition” in this case of course means privatization.”Innovation” (sometimes called “modernization”) in this case of course means new ways to get seniors off the federal budget. “Competition and innovation” together are the black hole at the center of the GOP political economy: they suck every human service into their vortex, never to be seen again as federal expenditures.

markets and merit: the only definition of, and way to, any concept of prosperity and well-being. Only made possible by “competition” and “choice” (though this is NOT a “pro-choice” position).

modernizing health care:  privatizing and deregulating.

one-sixth of the economy: an epithet, or mantra, for the Affordable Care Act. Most commonly used in the phrase “trying to transform one-sixth of the economy”, as if the very idea of trying to do so is laughable.

real world president: obviously not the space alien incumbent we have in the White House. of course, the last “real world” President we had got us involved in two “real” unwinable wars in the Middle East and supported po0licies that directly lead to a “real” financial meltdown.

restoring the value of work: assumes right off the bat that “some” Americans (Paul Ryan can tell you which ones), are lazy freeloaders and need to be “restored” to the American Dream.

state power: in the Tea Party world, it’s almost always better to let the “laboratories of democracy” decide national issues, except when it isn’t. For example, the Republican mantra of making it possible to sell insurance across state lines, thus taking insurance regulation out of the hands of the state. Of course, when you think about it, if the states can’t do and the feds shouldn’t do it, then maybe there won’t be any regulation at all! A pure experiment in Social Darwinism!

a straightforward matter of statutory construction: any legal position held by the GOP/Tea Party.

upward mobility: Ok for those who’ve got it. Made ever more impossible by Tea Party economic policies.

worker flexibility: if corporations are people, my friend, why not let Walmart run the Department of Labor? Then we’ll see just how “flexible” and Gumby-like US workers can be.

Glossary: an anatomy of key memes, euphemisms, sneers, and innuendos in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, March 21-26, 2014

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Bambi: Obama, over matched by Putin. Aka, wimp, eunuch, Neville Chamberlain, a “shrinking violet”.

cakes for gay weddings:just the start of Obama’s state-sponsored coercion and terrorism aimed at the religious right.

culture of license:what elite America has been fighting since the Mayflower; the essential licentiousness that threatens to undo American resolve and hard work. Also linked to the hippies in the 1960s; part of the general theory that the advent of the birth control pill hijacked rock-ribbed Republican America. We are now said to be entirely given over to “the political-sexual whims of those who hold power”.

hordes:never a good thing–always has a kind if “barbarians at the gates” feel to it. The latest manifestation is Paul Ryan’s obsession with hordes of black youth just hanging around, aka “a culture of license”.

innovation and entrepreneurship: the animal spirits of capitalism. Terms reserved for the kinds of business and industries the GOP approves of. When it comes to alternative energy startups for example, the “innovation” becomes “hoodwinking” and “entrepreneurship” becomes “crony capitalism,” and a “boondoggle”.

mandate for social justice:non-existent in the US Constitution, yet wrongly assumed to be a fundamental driving force in government, at least in Obamaland. The rallyoing cry of “the noble deserving”. (see below)

the noble deserving:always used ironically to describe the “takers,” the sanctified poor who, as beneficiaries of redistribution policies, are to blame for the financial/housing bubble, Benghazi, Crimea, and probably even Flight 370.

overweening:mandatory modifier for “state”; in Obamaland,  all government actions and policies are by definition smug, presumptuous, arrogant, and excessive.

 property rights: the bedrock American rights. Always said to be “freedom-advancing”.

prosperity by trade and contract: what the government exists to guarantee. The business of America is business.

the supposedly benevolent state:maybe they’ll just start using “supposedly” instead of air quotes to establish irony.

willful:(see also “overweening,” above): any principled stand or policy of the Obama administration. The alternative to being “willful” is capitulation, aka, “putting aside partisan political bickering”.

 

Glossary: an anatomy of key memes, euphemisms, sneers, and innuendos in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, March 16-20, 2014

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analysis paralysis: Obama as Hamlet–unable to act, lost in the labyrinths of his thoughts and ideals. (see also, “humiliation”).

civilization standards–always in decline. “Norms and habits” are said to be in a “moral decline”. (see also: “tearing down mores”).

eradication of biological parenthood: the ultimate outcome and agenda of gay rights.

humiliation: the result of “analysis paralysis”.

the poor are better off than ever: every day in every way being poor gets better and better.

real world solutions: (aka, “common sense solutions”). For women, NOT equal pay for equal work, day care, or reproductive health. Apparently the only “real” world is the market. Anyone who complains about its outcomes is a “whiner”.

revanchism: one of several archaic terms taken out of the Cold War archives and dusted off to beat Obama over the head about Putin and the Ukraine, joining such other oldies-but-goodies as satrap, atavistic, and vassal state.

tearing down mores: the Obama administration’s ultimate affect and agenda. Moral catastrophe looms.

thugs: spelled EPA, IRS.

tyrant: Obama, though he might be a sissy instead.

unchecked: a mandatory modifier for any “power” exercised by the Obama administration. (see also “tyrant” and “thug”)

Glossary: an anatomy of key memes, euphemisms, sneers, and innuendos in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, March 9-15, 2014

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corporate career success: aka, “giving up your womb”

culture of work: Paul Ryan’s code language for “lazy black folks”. (see below: “inner city,” “human society”, “middle class” and “real conversation about race”.

decisive: another of the qualities Obama is said to be lacking. His indecisiveness “emboldens”(see below)  the Russians, Syrians, Iranians and jihadis. (see also “muscular foreign policy” and “projecting strength”)

emboldened: the overall effect of any “feckless” Obama foreign policy on any opf the “bad guys” opposed to that policy.

feminism: in the approaching “empowered world” of “women only”, this “perfumed jargon” of relationship-building, collaboration, and encouragement will supplant the rhetoric of competition, thus fatally weakening America.

freedom of choice: it turns out that abortion rights’ activists are not arguing for a woman’s right to choose how she controls her own body, but, rather are “Satan-loving worshipers of the savage culture of death”.

human society: entirely made up by people with jobs, according to Peggy Noonan’s March 14 WSJ column.

inner city: yet another Paul Ryan euphemism for “lazy black folks”.

Keystone:  every further day it goes without approval is Obama’s way of “conducting economic warfare against the United States,” and constitutes a “blockade” of US natural gas exports.

middle class: Santorum calls this term a form of “class-envy, leftist language”

muscular foreign policy: the imperative for Obama to “man-up” in foreign policy by 1) intervening militarily in Syria, 2) intervening militarily in Iraq, 3) intervening militarily in Cuba, Venezuela or, 4) opening up all US land and water to oil and natural gas production to drive down the price of energy as a way of punishing Russia. (see also, “projecting strength”)

muzzle: a verb that should only be used to describe Democratic attempts to end or dismiss a policy discussion. Free speech, for example, is always “muzzled” by Democrats (especially the IRS).

projecting strength:  non-consequential but symbolic foreign policy bluster and bullying–what Obama fails at. (see also “muscular foreign policy,” above)

“a real conversation about race”: topics include: how and why Afro-Americans are lazy and have no habits of work, thrift, or self-discipline; how Republicans are the real progressives and liberals the real racists, and how entitlement is no substitute for accomplishment. (see also “human society,” above). Underlying sentiment to always keep in mind: “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them other people’s money.” (Rick Santorum)

regulatory assault: any government regulation or policy.

“stop being poor”: essentially, Paul Ryan’s nostrum to end poverty in America.

Glossary: an anatomy of key memes, euphemisms, sneers, and innuendos in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, March 2-8, 2014

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bullying: what Obama does when he “plays” various moral cards: the “race card,” the “class warfare” card, the “inequality” card. Morality is thus characterized as a preening, elitist Democratic power grab.

Carterized: the sad, inevitable fate of Obama’s foreign policy. Turning the US into a “pitiful, helpless giant.” (see below under “feckless, etc.)

dark money: any unregulated Dem campaign funding. On the other hand, Koch Brothers’ money is called “free speech. and even granted personhood.

faculty lounges: the Devil’s spawning ground.

feckless: a Carerized White House foreign policy. Aka, “flat-footed,” “deer-in-the-headlights,” “dithering”, “clueless” and “flaccid.”

jackbooted bureaucracy: mandatory modifier when referring to the IRS.

market-ready: the primary, proper, and very circumscribed role of government is to make the poor “market ready”– that is, make them even more subject to the forces that have made and kept them poor over the centuries.

neutering: what the “Carterized” Obama does to our military.

oppression envy: what gay rights activists suffer from, wishing they had suffered more “systematic, Jim-Crow-style oppression.”

organized homosexuality: the proper name for gay rights activism.

payola: any government funding o green technology initiatives. In fact, the entire alternative energy sector has been reduced to the buzzword Solyndra.

restricting good citizenship: any opposition to GOP state electoral reforms and voting rights limitations.

revanchism: one of several archaic terms taken out of the Cold War archives and dusted off to beat Obama over the head about Putin and the Ukraine. other oldies-but-goodies that have emerged included satrap, atavistic, and vassal state.

Glossary: an anatomy of key memes, euphemisms, sneers, and innuendos in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, Feb 23-March 1, 2014

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asset bubble: what a market rally is called when there’s a democratic President.

climate alarmism: the Chicken Littleization of the climate change “debate”.

cultural pressure and insistence:  the Obama admin’s relentless war on traditional, middle-class values. A fancy label for “political correctness”.

dithering: a mandatory modifier for any Dem foreign policy.

decay: the general malaise Obama has mired America in; the result of “cultural pressue and insistence” (see above).  The slow moral rot of the US.

disquisitions: scolding, grandiose Obamaseque pomposities. Lately, the target has been “disquisitions on inequality”.

gender complementarian norm: a fancy-sounding name for marriage between a man and a woman.

host: new GOP synonym for a pregnant woman.

hounding: what any government agency–especially the IRS–does when it enforces regulations, especially against Republicans.

hysteria and misinformation: the by-product of “cultural pressure and insistence” (see above). Whatever arguments and facts Dems muster in any given “debate,” such as this week’s Arizona brouhaha over “religious liberty”.

matriarchal leviathan: the intensifying modifier gives birth to a new monster: Big Mother rather than Big Brother

mischief: the overall effect of Obama’s policies and reforms (aka, “fiats”). All regulations and taxes are seen as “mischief,” as if Obama is Dennis The Menace.

privilege: mistakenly confused for accomplishment by liberals.

sacramentalizing sodomy: GOPspeak for any sex except for missionary-position hetero.

socialism: the secret creed of the Obama administration, closely allied to fascism.

trampling: what liberals always seem to do to religious freedom, especially in the recent Arizona fracas. Inevitably leads to “hysteria and misinformation”–see above.

Glossary: an anatomy of key memes, euphemisms, sneers, and innuendos in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, Feb 15-22, 2014

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bitter seeds of anger and mistrust: any talk of race, economic inequality or social justice (see also0 “race hustler,” below)

costly (or “gold-platted) medical coverage benefits: mandatory modifier for any ACA-mandated coverage or standards. The ACA must always be called either “costly” or “gold-plated”.

dignity, standards, and judgement: all the qualities lacking in Obama.A perfect trifecta of character defects.

diversion: the Dem’s’ “war on the rich”. Just as discussion of race become “playing the race card,” any discussion of wealth inequality becomes diversionary “class warfare”. The irony of course is that the GOP use of these prophylactic terms becomes a speech act embodying and encouraging the very thing it is accusing the Democrats of promulgating: racism and classism.

entreprenurial federalism: the latest euphemism for playing desperate state governments against in another as a way of wringing out concessions on taxes, regulations, labor laws, pensions, etc. The Democrats call this “the race to the bottom”.

holocaust denial: the new false equivalency for “climate change denial”.

market uncertainty: the mere threat of new taxes or regulations supposedly spooks the business community more than anything else, and stops them from investing in new products, factories, or hiring. “Market certainty” is a kind of imaginary equilibrium, almost surely one of those chimeras, utopias or phantoms of the mind, such as “perfect socialism” or “unfettered free markets” or perptetual motion machines.

the Miles Per Gallon Illusion: “when consumers don’t realize that increasing fuel economy for 15 mpg to 20 mpg saves much more than going from 45-to-50 mpg because the former increase represents a much larger percentage”. Of course, going from 20-50-mpg would be an even bigger percentage.

morass of consequences: the wreckage caused by any Dem policy or law.

powerful: mandatory modifier for  “teachers’ union”.

race-hustler: any Democrat who talks about racial inequality, discrimination, voting rights, or the criminal justice system. The mere act of bringing up race is now called “playing the race card,” but also calling Eric Holder a “race hustler” connotes criminality and deception.

retreat: any Obama foreign policy initiative that doesn’t immediately threaten invasion, coup, meddling or sanctions.

the “so-called” rich: Anyone worth less than $5 million. They also call it envy, but we should actually pity these people because they are so mislabeled as they struggle to pay for their second homes or cruises.

statist: what the GOP calls the Democrats, as in Big Brother. A stand-in word for dictatorial or authoritarian.

Glossary: an anatomy of key memes, euphemisms, sneers, and innuendoes in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, Feb 8-14, 2014.

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artiste in search of his muse: (aka, “the butterfly guy”) Krauthammerspeak for anyone with a new health care policy who thus can finally give up a hated job and pursue other paths. Overnight, having an ACA health insurance policy became, in GOP talk, a scarlet badge of shame, a ripoff of America. People with health insurance are suddenly a new generation of Obamacare “poverty pimps”.

assault: (see also “runaway,” below): any Democratic policy initiative, as in “Bill Blassio’s assault on so-called ‘progressive’ unions”.

the dignity of work: Ryanspeak for relegating people to non-living-wage jobs with no benefits, day care, consistent hours or workplace safety enforcement. The hope for a decent human life, in other words, gets turned into what is sneeringly referred to as an “entitlement” (now transmuted from what is due someone based on their human dignity to a “handout” to “the takers”).

dynamism: can only be nurtured by free markets, deregulation, lower taxes, the end of environmental protection laws, etc.

industrial-age unions: the new epithet/slur for unions, akin to “trial lawyers”.

the new opportunity society: a nation of Obamacare-enabled freeloaders (aka, “parasites”).

“Progressivism”:  the emerging rhetorical strategy seems to be to always cloak this word in fright quotes as shorthand for saying that old-fashioned Progressives are really regressive, and are launching all the “wars” (see below) on progress.

runaway: any Dem policy initiative, such as “runaway regulatory reform”. Anything the GOP can’t stop.

teachers’ unions: now directly being blamed for poverty and inequality because of their “war” (see below) on charter schools and education reform.

war on….: a war on jobs, a war on small business, a war on the health care system, a war on America’s international influence and prestige, a war on economic recovery, a war on energy independence, a war on the Constitution, a war on educational reform, and a war on minorities. The mother of all wars is The War on Truth.

Glossary: an anatomy of key memes, euphemisms, sneers, and innuendoes in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, Feb 4–7, 2014.

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abortion: now rhetorically relabeled as an iniquitous “inequality”.

assortative mating: one of the reasons the poor stay poor, and why redistributionists are now called antimarriagists.

bonanzas: free trade pacts, Keystone, etc. Always treated as if there are no downsides, externalities, trade-offs, etc. Jobs, jobs, jobs.

“capitalists”: having some to see that this is now a pejorative term, GOPers are now starting to put it in scare quotes, as if to say, we aren’t mean old unfeeling capitalists, we’re just warm and fuzzy “job creators”.

cocoon: previously known as that benign, benighted thing called “the social safety net”, but now seen as a refuge for ne’re do-wells.

envy: the bedrock emotion underlying any calls for social justice or redistribution.

flake socialist: the new mandatory description of Mayor De Blassio.

the grown-ups in the room: in Congress, anyone opposing Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi. The “grown-ups” are the only people you can “trust”.

“losing your job”: exactly what the CBO appendix in their Obamacare report did NOT say people were doing. On the contrary, people are giving up some or all of their jobs in some instances because health care (or, rather, the fear of losing health insurance),  no longer has the power make cowards of us all.

the New Class: rich and highly-educated people who didn’t vote Republican.

Obamafascism: No wonder they’re engaging in Perkins’ version of Krystallnacht. Also refers to the “mobs” who are giving Wall Street “the pitchfork treatment”.

parasitic and malignant: bureaucrats, who are also always modified by the adjective “stifling”.

political pluralism: the kind of inclusive, consensus building that the Obama admin supposedly has by-passed in all of its “imperial” hauteur. When the GOP says pluralism, though, they mean just always getting their way–their way to “compromise”.

wealth-shaming: see “envy”, above.

the workers’ party: the latest laughable GOP effort at re-branding. This time they align themselves with the workers because they want to do away with Obamacare, workplace safety, environmental regulation, financial reform and union rights–all of which are, of course, “job-killers”.

Glossary: an anatomy of key memes, euphemisms, sneers, and innuendoes in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, Jan. 30–Feb 3, 2014.

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America’s calming presence: it’s worked so well in Iraq and Afghanistan–both part of the new Pax Americana.

bureaucrats: formerly known as public servants. Always an invidious condemnation in GOP rhetoric.

democratic freedoms: invoked as being endangered any time Democrats call for new laws on guns, voting rights, right to life, women’s health care, or campaign finance. (See “rights, liberty and justice”, below).

efforts to improve competition: any GOP reform that shield business from competition, regulation, scrutiny, or litigation.

evidence-based science:  any study that undercuts the ‘theory” of climate change. Doesn’t matter what the quality of the evidence is, just that there be the whiff of some.

extreme and muddled beliefs: climate change, women’s rights, voting rights, financial and environmental regulation, workplace safety, Endangered Species Act, immigration amnesty. “Extremism” is always portrayed as “muddled”, as in not clear or “rational”.

green indulgence: any environmental protection regulations or legislation. “Indulgence” does double rhetorical duty here, suggesting both naivete (as in indulging a child), and a nefarious payoff.

imperial presidency: Any attempt by Obama to act by executive order. Never mind that he has issued fewer executive orders or signing statements than any recent President.

private investment: doing anything to undermine this is always absolutely unacceptable.

protectionism (and poison pills): labor rights and woprkplace safety, environmental laws, minimum wage, childhood labor laws.

rationally balancing risks and benefits: hint: in this “rational” exercise, the benefits of deregulation always outweigh the risks. When the GOP uses the word “rational,” they have their thumb on the scale.

reform:  used to mean protection against harmful effects of unfettered capital markets, now, in GOP/Tea Party parlance, means removing those protections.

rights, liberty and justice: the core sustaining rhetoric of the libertarian-leaning, “don’t tread on me”  Right. Includes “freedom from” being told what to do and “freedom to” do whatever you want. No implicit sense of obligation, communitarianism or social contract. The “justice” dimension is derived from getting what is due you, not from a Rawlsian theory of distributed and balanced outcomes. Sometimes called “democratic freedoms”.

sacrifice: what the GOP pays lip service to but only the poor and middle class seem to actually have to make.

unilateral action: any Obama policy; the only way an “Imperial President” can govern.