Category Archives: roles

Glossary: an anatomy of key memes, euphemisms, sneers, innuendos, and metanarratives in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, June 29-July 6, 2014

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climateers: aka, “the climate mafia”. Supporters of the “theory” of climate change. This term infantilizes them, as if they are leading a children’s crusade.

cronyism: the moral impetus behind all Dem  political appointees.

crowd: a devaluing term for any large-scale social or political consensus that the GOP resists. See above,”climateers”. Mocking the elitist idea of “the in crowd,” this meme reinforces the master narrative meme of Obama as elitist. Often used whenever anyone proposed corporate or Wall Street regulation as the “anti-business crowd.”

good business climate: low or no taxes and regulations.

government seizure: taxes and regulations.

green pork: Any spending on alternative energy solutions or proposals. Solyndra.

humorless: the moral scolds inside the White House and Senate. They can also, however, be portrayed as putting on a “moral minstrel show” (see below), so they are at least sometimes entertaining.

minimalist:what Obama is being accused of being (along with detached, disembodied, fatalistic and passive)–that is when  he isn’t being accused of engineering a socialist takeover of health care, a federally-controlled government run by progressives, and a master foreign policy plan to give way to Muslims.

moral minstrel show: the GOP’s racist characterization of Dem social justice advocacy.

politicized indignation: yet another characterization of the use of the “victim card” by women and minorities. A scurrilous  euphemism for moral blackmail.

the ordinary citizen: similar to Nixon’s putative “moral majority,” the idealized common-sense citizens the GOP claims as their own. The same pesky voters who elected Obama twice, however.

raving: Obama on the stump, now likened to Lear on the heath.

tax reform: tax reduction, inevitably the only way to hope, growth and opportunity.

Glossary: an anatomy of key memes, euphemisms, sneers, innuendos, and metanarratives in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, June 21-28, 2014

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basic American principles:   (see “God-ordained spheres”, below)

blank check: any Dem spending priority. By definition, all Dem spending is profligate, wasteful and boundless.

constitutional balance: when the GOP Congress gets its way.

cosmopolitanism: sneering characterization of Obama’s foreign policy. Meant ironically, especially when coupled with “enlightened”.

God-ordained spheres: the family, the church, the NRA.

heavy-handed: mandatory modifier of “government regulation”.

hypersensitivity: staged emotion on a phony issue, designed to rally the pc crowd. For example, college women and college administrators are now routinely characterized as being “hypersensitive” to sexual abuse charges. Also sometimes known as “playing the race card”.

panic: any Dem social regulation policy or belief. Increasingly used as a mandatory modifier for “climate change”. Aka, hysteria, overreach, hypersensitivity. Any policy Dem policy that the Tea Party opposes is seen as “purposefully, willfully and unnecessarily induced”.

regulatory zeal: any Dem regulation whatsoever. Zeal in this cse is seen as “overreach,” “hubris” or “political agenda”. (see also “heavy-handed,” above)

runaway: any public official, regulatory office, prosecutor or judge making law or public policy that the Tea Party doesn’t like.

unlimited entitlement: a redundancy because all Obama supporters have an unlimited sense of desert, just as all government spending is a “blank check” (see above).

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

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anchor of stability (Iraq): nostalgia for a lost world that never was; the fleeting phantom of Middle East peace and stability, rooted in Baghdad

the approved victim scorecard: part of the so-called “victim industry,” this meme is just another version of what used to be sneeringly called “political correctness”. Implies that every liberal position is politically calculated and has no moral center.(See below, “privilege of sexual assault victims”).

crusaders: mocking, belittling term for anyone with a strong belief, taking a principled stand. Thus those who support the free market are said to be taking a common sense, moral stand, but anyone “supporting” (as if it’s a matter of opinion) climate change or inequality, is a crusader. This also implies that such liberals are fighting a holy war.

cronyism: what Dems do when they govern, only “ladling out” (or, see below, “funnel”) benefits to their politically-correct friends. When Republicans do this, it’s just called governing.

frivolity (self-indulgence, silliness):increasingly, almost any policy position or initiative the Obama administration undertakes. Implies that they are amateur and childish.

funneling: what cronys do.

hacks: any Congressional Democrat, administration official, or member of the “lame stream media”.

post-American world: assuming that America has abdicated its position of dominant world power, this is the GOP version of a Hobbesian world where either power or religious fanaticism rule. America as a “pitiful, helpless giant”. This is yet another false GOP binary: either intervene forcefully in Syria, Egypt, Libya, the Ukraine, Iraq, etc. or cravenly disengage. This lack of a middle ground of constructive engagement implies that everyone else in the world is “other”.

privilege (of sexual assault victims): George Will’s particularly vile column suggesting that college women bring sexual assault charges to gain instant social and political prestige and advantage. How long will it be before the GOP starts insinuating that “charges” of slavery are used for political privilege?

trampling: what Dem policies do to democracy, speech, religious freedom, the free market, etc.

 

Glossary: an anatomy of key memes, euphemisms, sneers, innuendos, and metanarratives in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, June 1-8, 2014

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American hero: not Bo Bergdahl, who, in Tea Party snap cnsensius opinion, should be summarily executed. Can we please place a moratorium on calling all soldiers “heroes”? After all, if everyone is above average, then being “above average” is just the average. Could we live in a world without “heroes”? Can the media exist in a world where they have to do something rather than either lionize or demonize?

apparatchiks: all government workers and Dem campaign operatives.

Benghazi 2.0: the Bo Bergdahl prisoner release. To the GOP, another smoking gun on the road to impeachment, revealing how Obama is somehow simultaneously  a master plotter, scheming to close Guantanamo, and the most incompetent president ever.

blather and sanctimony:  anything and everything Obama says.

course choice:  euphemism for vouchers

democratization: euphemism for Citizens United & the Koch Brothers’ takeover of the electoral process. In this counter-intuitive argument, unfettered corporate campaign spending translates into greater transparency and more widespread political participation.

domestic politics:  what every one of Obama’s policies and actions “pander” to, as if the GOP is above concern about electability.

extreme regulation: basically, any regulation.

healthcare portability: code language for freeing up insurance companies from state regulation.

gentry liberals: a recycled current version of the old “Chardonnay and brie” label for liberals and Democrats. Implies that the Dems have long since abandoned the working class, and have been captured by the preppy elite. The Tea Partiers describe the lives of these Dem elites with so much intense hatred (and detail), that they seem to be engaged in a form of class envy.

honor: one of the “daddy words” in the moral matrix that the GOP claims ownership of, along with sacrifice, glory, duty, patriot, loyalty, authority, sanctity, etc.

reform: a misnomer and a misdirection, because the GOP doesn’t in any way plan to change anything. A keyword for GOP repositioning and reinvention of the same old principles of market-driven public policy, deregulation, massive tax cuts, and making government small enough to, as Grover Norquist put it,  drown in a bathtub.

usurpations:  any Obama executive order or regulatory policy. Has come to stand for anything he does without Congress.

victory lap: what Obama did in the Bo Bergdahl case. Basically, now used to characterize Obama whenever he takes credit for anything.

Glossary: an anatomy of key memes, euphemisms, sneers, innuendos, and metanarratives in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, May 25-31, 2014

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activist attorneys: like “activist judges”, these lawyers have the audacity to try and change public policy or laws by advocating for social change.

anointed: a mocking term for the self-congratulatory liberal elites, who only hold their positions due to cronyism or political correctness. (aka, “self-appointed”). (see also, “grandees,” below).

forfeited gains:  the rebirth of the “who lost Vietnam?” meme, in the context of Iraq and Afghanistan. The gist is “we had it won, but blew it”. As if.

grandees: liberal elites.

intrusion: what government does, by nature. Implies  that there is no “public” interest, but only “private” freedom, which government intrudes upon, like a home invader. Almost criminalizes the whole concept of government.

isolationist: Obama, except when he’s being a “multilateralist”.  (see below)

level playing field: euphemism for the lowest common denominator–the race to the bottom.  Assumes that regulation should be based on the short-term best interests of those being regulated,  not on that which, from the viewpoint of public interest,  is prudent, reasonable and morally necessary.

multilateralist: Obama, except when he’s being an “isolationist”. “American Exceptionalism” is essentially one-sided.

over-educated (liberal elites): too much of the wrong kinda larning, like them humanities and social sciences.

the muscular successful classes vs. the hyphenated classes: immigrants as losers.

racializing: even mentioning race or putting anything into a racial context. We should all be Colbert-like and not even see race, which would magically make racism disappear.

socialist paradise: sneering characterization of the VA, or any guvment social safety net or redistribution program

Glossary: an anatomy of key memes, euphemisms, sneers, innuendos, and metanarratives in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, April 19-25, 2014

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arcane dogmatics: (see below, “ideological screeds”). What counts as evidence in liberal policy analysis, especially climate change “science”.

crushing:mandatory modifier for “regulation”.

greens as the new reds: the reign of terror of “radical environmentalist” Commissars, with their “diktats”, sense of privilege, and elitist snoberies.

ideological screed: any liberal speech, policy analysis, op-ed piece or research. See below, “nostrum,” “overheated”.

minimum-wage laws: creeping socialism

nostrum: any Dem rallying cry, policy position, or slogan–e.g., “afflict the rich”. Republicans are said to have reasonable, market-driven  ideas, not overheated nostrums or screeds.

overheated: mandatory modifier for any principled or impassioned Dem speech or analysis.

“poverty”: increasingly being undermined with fright quotes, indicating that, as some commentators have put it, the term itself is relative, and that even poor people have indoor plumbing. Poverty is only in the eyes of the statistician.

race, endless fixation on: the Tea Party’s fixation with the Dem’s so-called fixation. Just bringing up the subject now is either evidence of a “fixation” or of “playing the race card”.

regulation, litigation, political consensus: the DNA of liberal politics; the opposite of efficiency.

sluggish and lackluster: automatic modifiers for any improvement in economic recovery numbers in the Obama administration.

statism: pejorative term for government regulation.

tax breaks: cronyism at its worst, these bonanzas are always said to be “carved out”. When the GOP does it, they’re called “tax relief,” and offered as a public service rather than a “carve out”.

war: a force that gives Republicans meaning, thus their constant need for enemies: Obama, Putin, the Clintons, Iran, etc.

welfarism: a noted “Negro” lifestyle, according to new Tea Party icon Cliven Bundy. Apparently he thinks the “slavery” lifestyle was a better deal.

 

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.

GOP Parallel Universes: Hyperbolic and Counter-Intuitive Myths, Claims, and Canards, July 2-8, 2013

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The whole modern project has been an attempt to control the freedom unleashed by Christianity’s dual loyalty, to re-create the conformity to “traditional” culture that predated the Christian moral liberation. What we see today in the success of gay marriage is not really freedom run amok, but the result of turning the power to define morality over to the state, or to the dominant group representing it. “Same Sex Marriage Isn’t About Freedom, The American Conservative 

Denying marriage equality is a form of liberation from state power. In GOP terms, the more the state grants individual freedoms, the more it enslaves individuals to the state. Freedom ias enslavement.
This is why Mr. Snowden remains in a Moscow airport terminal, making demands (via his father) of the terms the U.S. must meet before he returns home. This is also how Russia merrily arms Bashar Assad’s forces in Syria, and how Mr. Assad unleashes chemical weapons on his own people, and how Iran marches toward an atomic bomb—all with little concern for what the U.S. might do.  “The President and the Hacker, “ WSJ.Connect-the-dots exercises such as this  are analogous to magnets that attract everything into a single congealed ,hyper-paranoid field theory.  But, wait, they left out Benghazi!
Modern liberalism, among other things, is a psychological state, in which very-well-off Americans find ways through their income and privilege to be exempt from the ramifications of their own ideologies, while adopting causes and pets that exempt them from guilt over their own status and limitless opportunities. Judging by their concrete actions, they are indifferent to the poor whom they romanticize at a safe distance. In short, voting for larger government and subsidies is seen as a necessary cost of being a reactionary, liberal elite. “Liberal Apartheid,” Victor David Hanson, National Review
But there is another less-discussed reason. The Obama administration’s instinctive dishonesty and contempt for the rule of law are finally catching up with it. Few Republicans in the House — even those who devoutly want immigration reform — trust the Obama administration to enforce with consistency and integrity anything that passes Congress. “Why ObamaCare Threatens Immigration Reform,” John Fund, National Review.So if Obama has no respect for the rule of law, the is he an outlaw? If the GOP really believes  this, isn’t government dysfunction inevitable? This is part of the Machiavellian  Rove strategy to delegitimize Obama.
The basic premise of ObamaCare was the government’s superior ability to organize the health insurance industry.  That postponed employer mandate is the final proof that it can’t.  All of Obama’s projections were wrong, nothing in the ObamaCare system has worked as promised, everything is getting more expensive, and there hasn’t even been much of an improvement in coverage for the uninsured.  Central planning is once again exposed as an utter failure.ObamaCare’s continued existence now relies entirely on corrupting the basic principles of American government; the rule of law must be deformed beyond recognition to nourish it.  The whole deranged idea was never compatible with a Constitutional republic of free citizens.  It requires a bigger government, and smaller people, than we should be willing to tolerate.  Either ObamaCare ends… or America will have to shrink enough to fit inside it. “Trust In Government Dies With the Rule of Law,: Red State.
what sort of nation we are turning ourselves into… It’s hard to see how individual liberty can be preserved with the Feds setting loose swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance — and with half the nation cheering them on. That’s not democracy, or even a representative Republic. It’s mob rule. “Liberty, If You Can Keep It,” National Review.“Eat out their substance”???? ObamaZombies!
his appointees for high office were demonstrably corrupt, incompetent or pursuing a toxic socialist or gay ideology…we no longer see… true conservatives – men like Ronald Reagan, John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart, men who were willing to stand up to bullies and call a spade a spade…” modern man has been feminized by overwhelmingly liberal feminist teachers who see playing dodge-ball in the schoolyard as the moral equivalent of playing with a loaded gun. July 4, 2013: Can America Recover From Obama and His Fellow Travelers?”  One Citizen Speaking.

 

Parallel GOP Universes: Hyperbolic and Counter-Intuitive Myths, Claims and Canards, May 8-May 15, 2013

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We are not only losing the war with enemies whose stated goal is our destruction we are led by a political party that constantly finds excuses not to take these enemies seriously and never has to account for its disgraceful conduct because its potential opposition is mute. The only way to reverse this trend is to mount a campaign to put Obama’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood at the forefront of the political debate and to educate Americans about the real dangers we face. Americans need to become aware of the Islamic-supremacist threat of the malignant designs of the Muslim Brotherhood and of the disasters that may lie ahead because of the Obama administration’s policies of appeasing and enabling our enemies’ evil ambitions

David Horowitz, “How Obama Betrayed America”, National Review.

And fourth, the free breakfast profoundly weakens young people’s character. When you grow up learning to depend on the state, you will almost inevitably — even understandably — assume that the state will take care of you. And you will grow up also assuming — as do Europeans, who give far less to charity than Americans for this very reason — that the state will take care of your fellow citizens, including your own children.

These are the ways in which the Left has damaged children and families through free school breakfasts.

Why, then, do progressives advocate it? Because it meets three essential characteristics of the left wing: It strengthens the state; it has governmental authority replace parental authority; and, perhaps most important, it makes progressives feel good about themselves. The overriding concern of the Left is not whether a program does good. It is whether it feels good.

“No More Free Breakfasts,” National Review. The moral rot of the empire started with free breakfasts for poor children. The Left’s “destroy the children” campaign has been unmasked at last.

King said Obama ignores athletes such as former New York Jets backup quarterback Tim Tebow, who express their Christian faith, but was quick to call with his congratulations when former Washington Wizards player Jason Collins announced he is gay.

“These are ways that the culture gets undermined, where it gets divided, and the people on this side take their followership from that kind of leadership,” King said. “And one notch at a time, one click at a time, American civilization, American culture, Western civilization, Western Judeo-Christendom are eroded.”

“Obama Lowering American Values,” Steve King, R-Iowa, on the House floor. All it took was one gay NBA player to bring down Western Civilization.

The result is a paradox. As the ambitions of government in the Obama era have expanded, respect for the institution of government has reached new lows. These scandals add another layer of cynicism. And the practical political effects are very real. Who is more likely this month than last to trust the federal government with the implementation of Obamacare (in part by the IRS), the enforcement of new gun-control laws or the securing of the southern border?

“Government’s Heavy Hand Felt in AP, IRS Scandals,” Michael Gerson, Washington Post. Nothing like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Why trust the guv’ment with anything? This is the cynical nihilism at the heart of the GOP vision.

Republicans have waited five years for the moment to put the screws to Obama — and they have one-third of all congressional committees on the case now.

“DC Turns on Obama,” Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei, Politico. Oh, right, they’ve shown such bipartisan spirit and self-restraint blocking every Obama policy initiative, sabotaging budget negotiations at the last minute, holding up confirmations for months or even years, etc. Give me a break. Weather forecast: three and a half more years of non-stop hearings, leaks and cries for impeachment. The GOP is governing by negation.

Demonized and Lionized, April 20-May 1, 2013

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Demonized                                                    thought crime

Janet Napolitano DHS bullet hoarding
Fisker Automotive DOE loans; thinking that “green energy” has any viable future
Gaby Giffords “gun grabber”
Lindsey Graham Even daring to venture the opinion that Obama’s budget might be a “place to start on a grand bargain”.
Kathleen Sibelius Prevention and Public Health Fund monies used  for “local bike-path, community-gardening, and pet-neutering projects; to lobby for soda taxes; and to pay for $300 million in TV-ad spots designed to resign the American people to their fates under Obamacare.
Joe Scarborough Daring to oppose the NRA on gun control

 

Lionized                                                          heroic framing

George W. Bush Suddenly comparable to Harry Truman in stature. Fighting AIDS in Africa often cited as signal accomplishment.
Robert Rubio Re-assuring GOP critics on is immigration stance by saying it’s Ok to racial profile Muslim students
Ted Cruz Only about 100 days into his first Senate term, is already being touted as next GOP Presidential pick