Glossary: Key memes, counterfactuals, dog whistles, canards, euphemisms, innuendoes, insinuations, fake outrages and obsessions in the Wall Street Journal and other GOP language factories, Sept. 23-26, 2016

angry:  The anguished voice of left-behind white voters, especially men. This is the year of the angry voter, and they will prevail on election day, much to the surprise of the self-satisfied liberal elites who only lok down on them. 

Anger is OK for whites; dangerous, sometimes even life-threatening,  for blacks. (see also, “open carry”).

Black Lives Matter: new free Nikes matter. Burn baby, burn.

crony capitalist: Anyone who made money under the Clintons or Obama.

As if the GOP/Tea Party doesn’t ultimately cater to narrow business interests.

facts: biased, when pertaining to Hillary; “piling on” when pertaining to Trump. “Fact-checking” indicates an anti-Trump bias.

narrative repairmen: Hillary’s spin doctors.

national interest:  the sole (thus narrow) criteria for Donald Trump’s foreign policy.

But what about existing alliances, international rules or shared values? Trump’s is above all a transactional universe, not rooted in enduring allegiances, multilateralism,  or principles. To him, all foreign affairs will be an isolationist variation of the Art of the Deal.

open carry: Common sense law allowing Americans to protect themselves and their families. A fundamental second amendment right.

Actually OK for whites, but life-threatening for blacks.

political dysfunction: what Obama has created–gridlock, low trust in government, racial divisions, the politics of envy, etc. What Trump will end with his decisiveness and bold moves forward.

This typically Rovian reversal of field meme works perfectly in the rhetorical sense of blaming the Dems for conditions the GOP has created.

power: domination, especially in a zero-sum game such as foreign policy. Power is always a “winner-take-all” proposition.

Talk of “inequality” only undermines the power paradigm of social dominance, which ignores the unequal capacities of wealth, influence and organizational resources to make their own domination possible and inevitable. It also ignores coercion in social exchanges, monopolization of resources, and coercions of consent.

propensity toward criminality:  an innate condition in almost all Afro-American males, who by and large are a species of criminal filth.

protestors: Black Lives Matter=George Soros-funded thugs.

public sector: government needs to get out of people’s lives because bureaucrats are inherently incompetent and corrupt.

Of course, the GOP/Tea Party has undermined government’s capacity to perform its vital functions

tax cuts: a form of altruism, not greed, because the explosive growth in an “unleashed” economy will lift all boats. Just have faith in the wisdom and efficiency of markets.

white violence: the last thing Afro-Americans should fear. They are their own worst enemy.

 

 

Glossary, April 20-27, 2013

an anatomy of key memes, phrases and obsessions in Wall Street Journal editorials and other precincts of the GOP blogosphere, April 20-27, 2013

assimilation:the first casualty of the Boston bombings. (See also “food stamp jihadists” and “the ethnic grievance lobby”).

character: (see also, “moral compass”).  A trump-card virtue, considered to be exclusively possessed by Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and, lately and astonishingly, Bush 43.  Lacking this virtue, Obama is always merely “calculating” and bent upon his collectivist, totalitarian, redistributionist makeover of the United States.

entitlement culture: the source of all ills in America; the nation of “takers, not makers”; Food Stamp America.  Evil spawn of earlier “moocher” memes such as “hippie” culture and myths of Negro laziness. Apparently, though, corporations are entitled to tax breaks, legal immunity, and subsidies.

the ethnic grievance lobby: along with Big Business and Big Labor, the main political force behind immigration reform.

food stamp jihadists: The Boston Massacre bombings are looking to be a trifecta for the GOP: immigrant-bashing,  welfare bashing, and a renewed war of eternal vigilance against “terror”.

people control: the real aim of the “gun control” (aka, “gun grabbers”) crowd.

sequester scare strategy:  any furloughs or budget cuts that are dire enough to nudge public opinion toward the Kenyan Pretender. The GOP always suggests alternative budget cuts, usually  for ridiculous-sounding (but sound) research projects, office supplies, travel budgets, or Acorn (“community organizing”)-style funding. These alternatives are always referred as “smart spending”.

socialist degeneration, cycle of: creating a reduced, weakened private sector that can’t generate enough jobs to raise the working poor out of poverty.

Third World experience: part of the growing GOP Politiscript lexicon for Obamacare. (See also “train wreck” ).  In this case, shorthand for FUBAR. The Republicans can never admit that any aspect of Obamacare is anything other than a catastrophic meltdown of the entire health care system and the inevitable result of government trying to do anything.

tolerance: liberals giving into sentiment about suspending civil liberties—no one is tolerant in a foxhole or when it comes to approving secret domestic wiretaps.

Glossary, April 12-19, 2013

an anatomy of key memes, phrases and obsessions in Wall Street Journal editorials and other precincts of the GOP blogosphere, April 12-19, 2013

angry: any expression of emotion from President Obama.

anti-antiterror: so-called media bias against racial profiling. In the wake of the Boston bombing, racial profiling is on the upsurge.

common sense: akin to natural law, human nature, or gravity, and bearing a surprising overlap with Tea Party position The DNA of instincts and values. (see “moral clarity.” Below).

the “do something” caucus: those intent on any form of gun control. The do-nothings carried the day.

“gun control: always in fright quotes. Gun controllers= “gun grabbers”. Similar to “so-called “assault’ rifles”.

elitist: any Obama moral position, whether on gun control, immigration, climate change, etc. In GOP rhetoric, it is virtually impossible for Obama to take a moral stand on anything without appearing “insufferably condescending”, “superior-feeling” and engaging in “meddling and moralistic overreach”.

The Homeland: still a battlefield, thank God, thanks to the Boston bombers. Even though Dzhokar Tsarnaev  is an American citizen, he does not deserve any  Miranda rights

moral clarity: The missing gene in the DNA of Obama foreign policy. Moral clarity, on the other hand, is the key gene in the DNA of invasion, war and occupation.

moral relativism: the Boy Scouts yielding to the “homosexual agenda” by allowing gay members.

obsessives:  anyone suggesting alternatives to carbon energy

train wreck: mandatory synonym for ObamaCare. The Tea Party faithful eagerly anticipate “the coming train wreck,” and will do everything they can to make it happen. ObamaCare is doomed to sink under its own regulatory obesity until it becomes a purely lean and mean “market-based approach”.