Category Archives: anchors

Glossary: Key memes, dog-whistles, canards, euphemisms and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, August 29-Sept. 7, 2015

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“can’t do-ism”: the Obama administration’s reflexive exculpatory refrain about why it can’t stop illegal immigration, grow the economy, make America energy-independent, defeat ISIS, create prosperity for the middle class, get the poor off welfare, etc. This “pervasive despondency and fear” is, according to Stephen Moore, the result of Obama’s ineptitude, not wider and deeper social, political and economic forces.

Note that this rhetorical move, similar to the “legal distinctions” one below, is actually a huge misdirection, a classic evasion by non-sequitur or stripping away all context. . Never mind that almost all of these conditions were created by the Bush administration, that no other country in the world economy has recovered from the Great Recession more thoroughly and enduringly than the US, that austerity has failed as an economic fix in Europe. Ignoring these mitigating circumstances is the only way they can get away with the standard litany of Tea party “fixes,” the Christmas list they’ve been peddling for the last 50 years: lower taxes, less regulation, market-driven, privatized health care, the end of the social safety net, etc. No matter how they couch their critique of the Dem scapegoat of the moment, be it Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, the Clintons, Gore or Kerry–it always comes down to the same solutions, even when these solutions are tried and fail disastrously.

chokehold: any Obama administration regulatory policy or practice. For example, the EPA is said to have  a “chokehold” over the economy.

demeaning: any Dem policy trying to maintain expanded voting rights. Limiting voting as much as possible through voter i.d. laws, shortened polling windows, registration restrictions, etc., is thus seen as “borderline racist” because it assumes that the disadvantaged black voters are too stupid or lazy to figure out how to vote. Thus, by GOP logic, Dems demean blacks by fighting for their rights.

difference happens:  An argument by non-sequitur: the argument against the “disparate impact” theory, claims that, just as some continents have deeper rivers than others, so too will differences emerge among different races and genders, like a force of nature. Never mind the substantive arguments that politics, economics and culture have shaped those outcomes and can be malleable, this “difference happens” argument is the ultimate complacent haven of the privileged–a form of Social Darwinism.

diversity: something to be overcome.

epidemic: “inordinate black illegitimacy, crime, drug use, rap vulgarity, social service dependence, and the romance of the violent cult of the male”.

Astonishingly enough, this patronizing caricature of Black culture comes from Tea Partiers trying to argue that the GOP will do more for the Blacks than the Dems.

facts vs. rhetoric: all Tea Party arguments are fact-based, whereas Dem arguments are dismissed as sheer “rhetoric”–concocted and calculated language aiming to deceive in order to persuade.

Never mind that the Tea Party’s so-called “facts” themselves are concocted, partial and designed to deceive. This false dichotomy is the most subversive of all because of its naive assumption that language is merely a reflection of reality and not a generator of realities.

“I’m not saying…”: classic rhetorical tactic: villification by innuendo rather than direct assertion. So, for example, you say, “I’m not calling you a liar, but the truth isn’t be told here.” A current example from Matthew Continneti at The National Review:

I am not saying that the president or the Democratic party is anti-American in ideology or rhetoric or intent. What I am saying is that the net effect of President Obama’s actions has been to legitimize, strengthen, and embolden nations whose anti-Americanism is public and vicious and all too serious.

Revealingly, even the article’s own title calls Obama an “anti-American President.”

legal distinctions:  as in the phrase, “obviously, there are legal distinctions,” as used in The Federalist.

This weasel phrase is usually used to try and subordinate, trivialize or slip past a devastating difference that exposes the fundamental duplicity of your argument. In this case, author David Harsanyi is attempting to make a moral equivalence between Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis refusing to follow the law and Obama using executive orders or federal regulations to circumvent GOP Congressional opposition to nearly all of his policies. Even though executive orders and regulatory authority are legal, and have been used by all past presidents, Harsanyi nonetheless accuses them of “contempt of the rule of law.” In true Rovian fashion, the very crime Davis is jailed for–“contempt for the rule of law” is actually being attributed to the Dems. Masterful bait-and-switch, using a false equivalency. A similar non-sequitur is the argument against the disparate outcome theory, that, just as some continents have deeper rivers than others, so too will differences emerge between people. Difference happens, in other words. Never mind the substantive arguments that politics, economics and culture have shaped those outcomes and can be malleable, this “difference happens” argument is the ultimate complacent haven of the privileged–a form of Social Darwinism. Another variation on this theme is to dismiss Davis’s overt breaking of the law with the “entrenched criminality” of the Obama administration, especially the IRS, Justice Department, Hillary’s e-mail criminality, etc.

martyr: any Tea Partier jailed for not following the law. Similarly-jailed Dems are called “scofflaws” or criminals.

political stunt: any Obama policy issue or declaration. Aka, gimmick, ploy, cave-in, fiat.

praetorian defenders: the lapdog mainstream media that protects Hillary from criminal indictment by not reporting the “facts” of such “scandals” as Benghazi and the e-mail server. Like Whitewater, Travelgate and Vince Foster’s suicide, these so-called “scandals” will never go away in the minds of the Tea Party.

shackling: any Obama regulatory policy or action. In effect, any federal oversight does nothing but constrain the natural animal spirits of capitalism and stymie the natural freedom that is the birthright of all “original” Americans.

unfeeling opportunist: anyone advocating immigration reform or a “path to citizenship.” The assumption is that such liberals only care about immigrant and minority votes and not about the minorities themselves. Just as anyone advocating for racial justice is a “racist chauvinist,” and anyone calling for progressive social change is a “political manipulator.” Ultimately, the meme is that all so-called liberal “compassion” is a fraudulent cover for opportunism.

Glossary: Key memes, dog-whistles, canards, euphemisms and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, August 22-28, 2015

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affirmative action President: any woman or person of color elected President. Always elected by “victim groups.” After all, America belongs to the white man.

all-of-the-above: going all-in with every possible aggression (boycotts, weapon systems and missile shields, airstrikes, etc.) when it comes to dealing with Putin or the Iranians, In regards to energy policy, all forms of fossil fuel extraction (fracking, coal, etc)–or even nuclear power. When you’re not in power, it’s easy to say “let’s try everything,” as if discriminating among them or facing nuances, blowback etc. is too difficult.

ashamed to be Americans: Obama supporters. This dog-whistle phrase manages to combine nativism, racism, xenophobia, and aggressive militarism.

Citizens United: one dollar, one vote. The old promise of “one man, one vote” has been eclipsed as, on the one hand, billionaires now buy votes and spread hysteria in bulk via attack ads, and, on the other hand, voting rights are consistently diminished by new state laws and restrictions on early voting, voting registration, voter i.d., etc. These voting restrictions have been greatly enhanced by Citizens United because voting is now politicized, and money trumps any fundamental human right to vote.

European future: the worst possible outcome for America: socialism, progressivism, strict environmental and civil rights laws, single-payer health care, etc.

“fairness”: always in scare quotes, connoting what a contrived, phony issue inequality is. At the heart of the “equal opportunity” vs “equal outcome” dichotomy.

honor and dignity: what Black folks really want, according to Ben Carson. Not any guv’ment handouts or entitlements. All federal support for the poor just extends their victimhood. Social services and charities only create shame and a loss of character and any self-reliance. Note that this rhetorical shift changes the script from race to morality, which itself is seen as antiseptically “raceless.”

lavish: what  Obama does when he offers favors or a White House dinner. For instance, he will “lavish” the Chinese leadership with a State dinner.

mob of supporters: any Hillary supporters, always characterized as a nefarious “mob”–that is, conspiratorial, single-minded in their fanaticism (and otherwise mindless), and worked into a frenzy by  a manipulative leader.

on-your-knees pilgrimage: any visit by Obama or senior administration officials to any nation that does not kowtow to America, including, but not limited to, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia and France. Any Presidential concession is also considered a surrender. Obama’s non-stop “apology tour” has of course has surrendered almost all America’s global influence and power, lost at least two wars, etc.

original US citizens: white folks, especially nativists of European ancestry.

purveyors of hatred: people who insist on talking about race.

religious liberty: denying service to someone else, in the name of God.

Glossary: Key memes, dog-whistles, canards, euphemisms and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, Aug 5-20, 2015

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character assassination: any Dem attack on Tea Party candidates.

clearly designed: the real intent of Tea Party policies, not what the Dems claim to be GOP motivation. For example, voting restrictions are “clearly designed”  to “protect the integrity of the electoral system,” and not in any way designed to suppress minority voters. In this case, “clearly” is a term of coercion.

crony capitalism: any Dem spending. When Tea Partiers spend money, it’s in the name of “the public good,” “fiscal responsibility” or “market forces.”  As the Washington Post puts it,

It has become fashionable lately for conservatives to decry “crony capitalism,” which involves well-connected corporations and rich people using their influence to milk the government for their own benefit. Even the Koch brothers talk about ending welfare for the wealthy, so firmly committed are they to the purity of market forces. But it turns out that Koch Industries benefits from hundreds of millions of dollars in government largesse, like so many other corporations. As Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute explains (in the National Review!), most of the Republican presidential candidates say they oppose crony capitalism despite long records of supporting it in various forms.

What do we learn from all this?

It’s another reminder that the principles of small government and fiscal responsibility that conservative politicians like Walker pledge their fealty to are highly contingent on who’s benefiting and who’s being hurt.

draconian: any Obama admin environmental regulation.

gutter ad hominem: any Dem attack on a Tea party candidate.

ladling: any federal funding. Money flows from the federal bureaucracy like gravy. Sometimes this ladle is referred to as “truckloads of money.”

political pawns: Hillary supporters.

political correctness: common decency

rambling: any Obama speech that connects two or more ideas. aka, “tendentious.”

regulatory overkill: any federal regulation, especially any from the EPA.

special interest groups: all blacks and Hispanics,  when it comes to issues surrounding civil rights, voting rights,police brutality, mass incarceration, etc.,

taking sides:  criticizing any Tea Party policy or position. Since there can’t be any objective standards for decisive evidence or arguments on any given issue, every Dem argument or point of view is by definition one-sided and distorted.

Washington elites: any influential Dem policy makers.

Glossary: Key memes, dog-whistles, canards, euphemisms and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, July 26-Aug 4, 2015

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arcane disputes: arguments over voting rights restrictions such as voter I.D., shortened voting windows, etc. Part of the phony War on Voting campaign.

bad guys: any nation opposed to American exceptionalism or Tea Party foreign policy. (See “pariah,” below, for the opposite conceit: that Obama and Kerry have turned the US into a “bad guy.”)

cooking the books: any data supporting the notion of climate change.

desensitization: any pro-choice position

income inequality: caused by immigrants taking jobs from natural-born Americans, according to Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions.

minimum wage laws: disguised welfare benefits

pariah: what the Iran deal has turned the US into.

putsch: any diktat from the White House.  Every executive order is seen as a direct threat to democratic rule; the Obama Presidency is lawless, Obama is Nero, etc.

sensible regulation: when it comes to abortion, a near universal ban

unconstitutional: any Obama executive order.

winning: the sole objective of US foreign policy: victory over the “bad guys,” at any price. No shades of gray, no negotiations, no compromises. Mistakes football for war. When people say that football is “total war,”

Glossary: Key memes, dog-whistles, canards, euphemisms and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, July 21-25, 2015

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all lives matter: a rhetorical way of dismissing #blacklivesmatter.

America’s best interests: not an Obama priority.

apocalypse: the inevitable outcome of the Iranian nuclear deal. Ted Cruz says millions of Americans, Israelis and Europeans  will die as a result, and typical Tea Party bloviation blithely intersperses references to Munich, Hitler, Stalin, and Armageddon. Of course, the really embarrassing moment comes the day after the predicted Armageddon, when the doomsayers have to ‘splain themselves.

austerity: the belief that starving people will make them healthy. Aka, the dog chasing its tail, because as budgets are cut, people laid off, and the social safety net eviscerated, human misery increases and GDP declines.

badgering moralizing: any policy speech or principled political stance by anyone opposed to any Tea Party position

decisive leadership: starting a new war against Iran, Russia and/or ISIS on Day One in the White House

deserved benefits: Social Security and Medicare. Everything else, from food stamps to Medicare–is undeserved, and thus a “handout.”

heritage: in the case of the South (the Old Confederacy), shorthand for slavery–That Which Cannot be Mentioned. Use of this term is a perfect example of so called “empty rhetoric,” which is all symbol and no actual content. Of course, rhetoric is never “empty,” since it always serves a purpose. In this case, the purpose is continued reverence toward a slavery-based society.

limited government and individual freedom: presuppose (rest upon a foundation of) religious faith and traditional values..

the patient: the unborn baby, not the mother.

productive workers: lower-paid, no minimum wage, reduced or abandoned workplace safety and labor standards.The only way the Tea party can meet its impossible dream of a  4% growth rate is through massive changes to labor, tax, welfare, trade and social safety net laws and expenditures. This reductionist, Gradgrindian notion of productivity reduces workers to being cogs in a machine, and doesn’t take any human welfare issues into account. Moreover, as Paul Krugman argues, Jeb Bush’s recent call for American workers to work more is a dog-whistle call to the “makers” (the so-called “job creators”), to take back the nation from the “takers”–the lazy Americans who make up Obama Nation:

You see this laziness dogma everywhere on the right. It was the hidden background to Mitt Romney’s infamous 47 percent remark. It underlay the furious attacks on unemployment benefits at a time of mass unemployment and on food stamps when they provided a vital lifeline for tens of millions of Americans. It drives claims that many, if not most, workers receiving disability payments are malingerers — “Over half of the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts,” says Senator Rand Paul.

It all adds up to a vision of the world in which the biggest problem facing America is that we’re too nice to fellow citizens facing hardship. And the appeal of this vision to conservatives is obvious: it gives them another reason to do what they want to do anyway, namely slash aid to the less fortunate while cutting taxes on the rich.

scripted talk: the insincere, boilerplate language liberals use to pretend they care about black lives, when all they actually care about is political gain and waving the bloody flag of racism. Thus any Dem talk about preserving the family, the need for education, the avoidance of illegitimacy and drug use–all the real hallmarks of black culture–are smokescreens.

thuggery: any organized opposition to the Tea Party

traditional morality: the only way to both limit government (challenge the Leviathan) and make individuals take moral responsibility for their own well-being.

Glossary: Key memes, dogwhistles, canards, euphemisms and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, June 24-28, 2015

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acting white: taking personal responsibility, quoting the Constitution, opposing big government, taking pride in America, etc.

assimilation: according to Michelle Malkin, “a Class A felony in the liberal rulebook and a threat to the Democratic grievance racket.”

balloon: what all deficits or health care bills do under Obama. Alternatives: soar, explode, mushroom, skyrocket.

criticism of attempts to turn religion into law: part of the War on Christianity. Part of the rhetorical fabric of the unending Tea Party Grievance, Hatred and Fear campaign.

devastating critique: any criticism aimed at the Left, or attacking laws or policies antithetical to the Tea Party/GOP. Most recently, any dissent written by Antonin Scalia.

eduacracy: the Higher Ed Thought Police.

empathy-based jurisprudence: Tea Party/GOP shorthand for any Supreme Court that goes against them (see “the rule of law,” below). To base legal findings on moral principles (sentiments,they used to call them) or common sense is dangerous because they were not voiced by the Founders.

Enforcers of Ethnic Authenticity:  the p.c. crowd, the final arbiters of who gets to call who what. aka, “identity-mongers,” the “civility police,” the “tolerance mob,” “militant hyphenated fetishism,” etc.

foment: what Dems do to the public every time they talk about race.

getting money out of politics; Demspeak for suppressing free political expression.

institutional racism: doesn’t exist, despite mass incarceration rates of blacks, attacks on blacks’ voting rights, educational inequality, inadequate housing, etc.

liberty and dignity: what big government takes away from free people everywhere.

(we need) more people pushing the cart than riding in the cart: Bobbie Jindal’s rationale for cuts to Louisiana state Medicaid coverage. The poor as shiftless moochers.

a moral and religious people: what the marriage equality ruling undoes, turning America into mon0thesitic state whose core secular religious beliefs–diversity and redistribution–trump all other religious freedom. This is one of the two main non-sequiturs the Tea Party has applied to the marriage equality ruling: the end of religious liberty and at least the implication that anyone objecting to gay marriage will either be forced to gay marry or criminalized. The slippery slope to Sharia Law.

natural marriage: between a man and a woman; the oppoiste of gay marriage, aka sodomy-based marriage.

racist element:  the classic “bad apple” dodge. As Bill O’Reilly argued, sure, the Confederate flag appeals to some “racist elements,” but it also stands for tradition and honor. Calling racism an “element,” this false equivalency between racism and honor not only undercuts the corrosive moral weight of hate and racism, but also overlooks the fact that Southern “tradition” and “honor” were inherently race-based.  As Jelani Cobb put it, ugly racism and “the sticky moral baggage of bondage” were the “original intent” behind the Confederacy. This romanticization of the Confederacy wants to put slave owners on an equal footing with Civil War enactors, in an attempt to whitewash the original sin of slavery.

retrograde leftism: any positions of Bernie Saunders or Elizabeth Warren. By casting them as the “back to the future” candidates, this framing marginalizes them as throwbacks to the Wobblies or whatever, entirely dismissing the possibility that their political positions are getting traction with tens of millions of living Americans, many of them under thirty.

the rule of law: what is violated every time  Supreme Court decision goes against the Tea Party/GOP. To the right, the “original intent” of the Constitution is transparent and even interpretable. In such a clockwork universe, political laws are as fixed and unchanging as religious laws or natural law.

a secular theology of self-actualization: marriage equality. By this logic, marriage equality is antithetical to free speech and religious liberty because “hedonism”  (a “secular religion) will constitutionally prevail over religious objections.

zealot: anyone talking about race, advocating the banning of the Confederate flag, etc. Zealotry is stigmatized in this usage as something unreasonable and unhinged, but seems perfectly acceptable in defense of American exceptionalism.

Glossary: Key memes, dogwhistles, canards, shibboleths and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, June 17-23, 2015

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All men are created equal: the Tea Party wants this to mean that everyone has a shot at the American Dream (see below), so the rich should have lower tax rates to allow income to magically “trickle down.” The phrase’s original intent, however, had more to do with equal political opportunity, which of course is not widely distributed in America due to racial and class divisions.

The  American Dream: Tea Party/GOP  myth of upward mobility, probably the biggest lie ever. Ever-ready rationale for Social Darwinism.

grifters: anyone working for the Clinton Foundation or on Hillary’s campaign staff. Aka, “political operatives” or “grandees.”

hangers-on: anyone attending the Charleston funerals or voicing support for calls of racial justice or gun control. Aka, opportunists, easy riders, exploiters, the mob, interlopers, and the Deadheads of racial grievance.

overclass: Obama administration officials or any Dem political strategists, all of whom consider themselves vastly superior to Tea Partiers.  Aka, “grandees.”

playing politics: any time Obama comments on public policy, especially when it comes to guns, race, climate change, or financial reform.

quasi-Marxism: the hidden agenda of all Dem policies. As explicated in the National Review, this Dem pathology/arrogance/naivete assumes that:

human nature is infinitely malleable, that power dynamics can explain all undesirable human interactions, and that re-education can serve not only to change society for the better but to wipe out all instances of immorality or law-breaking

This cartoon version of liberalism reduces it to a naive belief in the perfectibility of human nature, a belief that ultimately is “suicidal.” This Tea Party “law of nature” philosophy, based on conflict and hierarchy, views all rational attempts to reconstruct or reform society as doomed. Thus the very notion of Progressivism is delusional.
racism: A “leftist construct.” This is an insidiious conflating of the idea of race as a social construct–a word-made world–into charges of racism as leftist propaganda, rendering any moral claims as nothing more self-serving fictionalizing.
redistribution: another of those master-tropes (such as The American Dream (see above) that has become the oppose

stigmatization of normalcy: the subversive Dem master-strategy. The Tea Party narrative here is that “normal” American values are being marginalized by the liberal media and an incessant Dem campaign to make “normal” seem racist, sexist, or selfish. This entire meme harkens back to the hippies vs. squares culture wars of the Sixties.

taking over our country: migrants, underclass “grifters,” the “entitled,”and the politically correct. Having “lost” the country, the question is whether to try to “take it back” or just preserve enclaves and stay separate.

transgenderism: the normalization of insanity.

the Unabomber manifesto: the Pope’s encyclical about climate change and other self-destructive human activities.

the wrong time: it’s ” always the wrong time ” for a conversation about race, etc

Glossary: an anatomy of key memes, dog-whistles, canards, shibboleths and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, June 11-16, 2015

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agenda-driven:  any Dem policy or position. Since liberals are incapable of moral positions because everything is a cynical calculation, they are always working their agenda. So any Dem issues–police brutality, racism, voting rights, climate change, what have you–are “phony” and don’t even really exist.

destructive: any Dem policy. Down is up and every well-intentioned public policy actually leads to its opposite, as recently illustrated in the National Review:

The policies she listed are, in the main, destructive ones. There is little evidence that the federal government can improve children’s futures through universal preschool. A big increase in the minimum wage is likely to suppress job growth. Discrimination by employers is not the major cause of the pay gap between men and women, and thus policing that discrimination more will not do much to shrink the gap. Mandatory paid leave may worsen employment prospects for women. Further weakening immigration enforcement will inflame social tensions while cutting the wages of the working poor. Judging from the premium hikes insurers are requesting, maintaining Obamacare probably means watching its already unsatisfactory outcomes get worse
This is a prime example of the Tea Party Parallel Universe. Rove’s Rule: portray everything in a counter-intuitive way: Preschool wastes children’s time; higher minimum wages and paid leave actually hurt workers; the gender pay gap isn’t caused by discrimination against women; immigration and guv’ment health care are bad for everyone.

eligible voters: the clever way the Tea Party defends voter exclusion acts, claiming that they are defending he rights of legitimate voters. Apparently being a US citizen is not  legitimate claim to being able to vote.

evangelism: not so much the right to “testify” and even try to convert so much as the right to claim access to absolute truth–fundamentalism. Only acceptance of their absolutism can bring absolution; their access to authoritative truth justifies their authoritarianism.

guilt: the “self-flagellating” agenda (see above) of the AP US History test and curriculum. Any attempts to discuss gender, class, race, identity, social justice, colonialism or white privilege are thinly-veiled guilt trips. In a way, any critical look at American history is now driven by he liberal “agenda; any moral principles are dismissed as “attitudinizing.”

hit piece: any article, especially in the NY Times, critical of Tea Party candidates.

inferior military: even though our military budget is larger than the combined military budgets of the next countries, our military is somehow “inferior.”

intrusion: any Afro-American presence in spaces where they aren’t commonplace or welcome, as recently in Dallas.

mouthing off: complaining about the police in public. In fact, all political dissent from the Libs is considered “mouthing off.”

naturally-occurring ozone: used as an excuse to gut all emissions standards and regulations. This is of course a non-sequitur, since it refers to natural causes, whereas EPA regulations are aimed at human causes.

no saint: as in the cases of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, etc., victims of police brutality are themselves transformed into menacing perpetrators, “thugs,” etc. Anyone less than a saint seems to be fair game.

value vacuum: the moral rot at the heart of all minority and immigrant cultures in America.  This failure to assimilate “American” values has created a seething mass of nihilists, a pathology of separateness.

transnational progressivism: a smear that seems to mean identification with any form of multilateralism or humanitarianism beyond America. Such identification (mocked as a “quivering sensitivity”) is considered a betrayal of patriotism, even a kind of reason.

Glossary: an anatomy of key memes, dog-whistles, canards, shibboleths and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, June 3-June 10, -2015

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bait and switch: Tea Party characterization of all social science research. The conceit is that most social science research is “cooked”–inherently biased and fraudulent. Political assertion masquearding as empiricism. Such fraudulence enables liberals claiming research as objective science, and then substitute it for “reality”.

crackpot: anything to the left of Ted Cruz. Bernie Saunders could call for the universal right to access to food and water and he’d still be labeled a crackpot. Anything from a cracked pot is suspect.

cynical: any of Hillary’s policy positions or statements, which are all considered to be calculated. The more effective her campaign, the more cynical it is characterized as being. (see “overheated,” below)

flexibiity: the Tea Party defense of “block grants,” an insidious budgeting device which just transfers the pains of making cuts down to the local level. The only flexibility involved in block grants  is what to cut, and by how much.

left wing: any talk of human rights or income inequality. As Bill Moyers and Michael Winship point out:

The progressive agenda isn’t “left wing.” (Can anyone using the term even define what “left wing” means anymore?) The progressive agenda is America’s story — from ending slavery to ending segregation to establishing a woman’s right to vote to Social Security, the right to organize, and the fight for fair pay and against income inequality. Strip those from our history and you might as well contract America out to the US Chamber of Commerce the National Association of Manufacturers, and Karl Rove, Inc.

At their core, the New Deal, Fair Deal, and Great Society programs were aimed at assuring every child of a decent education, every worker a decent wage, and every senior a decent retirement; if that’s extreme, so are the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution.

massive expansion: any new EPA regulatory action.

Normative America: Normative America prized hard work, personal responsibility, individual merit, delayed gratification, and social mobility–all values that the Tea Partiers say have been supplanted by the liberal redistributionist state.

overheated: any successful Hillary policy or rhetorical thrust.

phony issue: any of the leading Dem positions: the war on women, voting rights (see below), climate change, racial justice, inequality, etc. The Tea Party always tries to undercut any Dem position first by claiming that it is largely fictional, and second, by claiming that the Dems are making it up because they are cynically manipulating the dumb Americans who keep electing them President.

“real live experiment”:   Sam Brownback’s characterization of his radical economic and social policies in Kansas, which have resulted in drastic tax cuts, leading to massive cuts in medical coverage (especially Medicaid), higher poverty rates, lower economic growth rates, higher jobless rates, and a downgrade in the state’s credit rating. Voodoo economics unleashed!

relitigate: any attempt to examine and even judge the root causes of the financial crisis or the Iraq War. Even if few of the key actors in either scandal were ever prosecuted (due to being “too big to fail” or  legal immunity), the presumption is that these issues were already “litigated.” Hardly the “Truth and reconciliation Commission” to approach to culpability and owning up to the past.

supine, flaccid and impotent: Obama’s foreign policy, especially towards Iran. Obama just can’t get it up for America. On the other hand, Rand Paul seems To be the only Tea Party candidate not panting for full penetration into the Middle East.

voting rights: one of the “phoniest of issues”–a phantom menace. Like counterfeit money, it looks like the real thing but has no value. Thus any claims about its mere existence are dismissed out of hand. For example, the fact that there have only been a handful of documented voter fraud cases is only because the Dems have been in charge of the investigations (Sort of like flyer saucer wackos who claim the government is suppressing the evidence.) Likewise, any claim of racism or the targeting of minorities is itself called racist.

wild and unsubtantiated: any successful Hillary claim about the effects of Tea Party policy or governance.

the world’s only superpower: Is it Fortress America, or what was known in the mid-60’s as a “pitiful, helpless giant”? You have to wonder where this anachronistic (not to say hubristic) term even came from in the first place. Comic books? Uncle Sam in a Caped Crusader leotard?

runaway government: basically, any government. or at least anything that entails any increase in taxes, redistribution, or regulation. This bedrock Tea Party definition of government guarantees Congressional gridlock.

Glossary: an anatomy of key memes, dog-whistles, canards, shibboleths and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, May 19-24

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drama feminists: any feminists who speak out in public.

hiding behind her own skirts: what Hillary is accused of whenever she invokes women’s’ rights. Aka, “playing the gender card.”

incentive to be moral: what the takers ( aka the Dem base) seem to lack, and thus need from Republicans because the takers lack a moral sense. Part of the rhetoric of sub-humanizing Blacks.  Thus, the Tea Partiers are always calling for incentives and vouchers, as if the poor, the minorities, the “low information voter” and other core components of the Dem base need bribes to exercise a moral sense, act “responsibly,” be “self-reliant,” and show initiative. Otherwise, Blacks are implicitly, and sometimes explicitly, perceived as lacking character, reason, values, and culture.

innocence: total Dem naivete when it comes to foreign policy. Assuming the worst about politics in the Middle East and Russia, this meme makes any attempt at multilateral negotiation or political compromise seem foolhardy and dangerous. Bring back gun boat diplomacy! Dems simply can’t win in this characterization war because they lack backbone and an appreciation of reality (aka, “the facts on the ground”). Reduces Dems to being children.

menagerie: Hillary’s staffers; aka, henchmen.

moral superiority:  what Dems are accused of when they aren’t being accused of “innocence” or of lacking morals altogether (see above). “Superiority” here refers to the Dems’ arrogance of believing that they are right on key political issues, and having no notion of thir own possible moral shortcomings. The only alternative to this smug righteousness is to acknowledge that the Tea Party moral positions are superior. Reduces Dems to being moralistic prigs.

normal: the new deviancy. One of those “the world has been turned upside down” memes. Micro aggressions abound, parents are forced to supply their kids with condoms, popular culture is degenerate and traditional religion is mocked.

riot: any demonstration or public gathering by people of color where police lose control; when whites do it, it’s called a “shootout” or “disturbance.” Riots are always caused by “thugs,” “disturbances by “troubled youth” or “gang members.” Black people are inherently criminal, so it’s never a surprise when they act criminally.

surprisingly close: what either party says about lost elections if they even get within hailing distance.

tut-tutting: what Hillary is said to do in her peevish way every time she answers a question. She has been framed as the Queen Bitch, so she reveals her scorn every time she opens her mouth.