A Vocabulary Lesson for Liberals
The Fifth Column/Brian Cherry
December 16, 2005 - I recently had the opportunity to discuss the “cut and run” politics of the left with an actual liberal. During this conversation a couple of things became apparent, chief among them that it is now obvious that the DNC has expanded the list of folks who they send talking points to.
Not only do Democrat politicians and members of the media (who burp out these talking points as “news”) get the memos, but talking points now seem to be faxed to every registered Democrat in the nation. This particular person I’m referring to recited the positions of Murtha and Pelosi almost word for word and made it a point to explain how we must “see the nuances in the issue”. After listening to the word nuance thrown around for a while, I had only one question for the guy, “what does nuance mean?”
The effect this question had on his brain was similar to the effect that a medium sized redwood tree, lying across the freeway, would have on a Ford Pinto that was traveling at 85 miles per hour. After some stammering and attempts to change the subject to hockey, he concluded that “nuance” was the ability to see things from the perspective of an opposition party.
Much like “paradigm” was in the nineties, “nuance” is a buzzword that dumb people use in the hopes that they sound intelligent. At this point the word “nuance” is to liberals what the phrase “where’s the beef?” was to yo-yo dieters across the nation back in eighties. With the word being tossed about like a stripper’s thong at a Kennedy compound “coming out” party, it would be nice if these folks actually knew what they were saying.
Nuance, is of course, a French word. Leave it to our “progressive” friends to glom onto a word from a country who has surrendered to any force larger than a bowling team time and time again. The list of those who the French have courageously waved the white flag at includes the Romans, English, Nazi’s, Russians, Vikings, Muslims, and a visiting troop of Cub Scouts from Wichita who were mistaken for invaders.
When giving up is part of your genetic code, and cultural identity, you naturally add words to your vocabulary that indicate the reluctance to take a stand on any topic that doesn’t involve cheese or alcohol.
According to the Merriam-Webster English dictionary “Nuance” is a “subtle distinction or variation”. In the liberal vernacular, this means that the issues are too complex to take an absolute stand on. This gives them an imagined flexibility to change their position with every poll. When called on the carpet about how their positions and comments have changed dramatically from positions and comments they have uttered in the past, most of them simply scream “nuance” in the same manner that a child would yell “safety” during a game of tag when they have reached that spot on the playground designated as a “no tag” zone.
As we all know, liberals are trying to nuance us into defeat in Iraq, but are doing so in a way that doesn’t make it look like defeat. Representative Murtha is spearheading this effort by redefining simple vocabulary words. He has often used the term “redeploy” in reference to his plan for our forces in Iraq. This redeployment scheme involves taking our forces out of Iraq and “redeploying” them to a position where the most dangerous situation they will be confronted with comes from the kitchen on “mystery meat” night. This may be a good way to finally unload some of that military surplus spam, but is not really a very good way to fight a war. Before Murtha tries to wrap his own personal cowardice in buzzwords, maybe he should spend some time at least looking up what those words mean.
According to the dictionary, redeployment is defined as “a transfer from one area or activity to another”. In World War II the United States took troops from Europe, and redeployed them to the Pacific. That was a military redeployment in its truest sense. Murtha wants to take our troops out of the primary battleground in the War on Terror and “redeploy” them somewhere with dance clubs and foreign women who see United States soldiers as a quick, matrimonial link to American citizenship.
Were Murtha proposing to move troops from San Diego, CA to Lakewood, FL, his plan could be called redeployment. The presence of danger and conflict changes things a bit though. What Murtha is actually proposing is a retreat.
The dictionary, (which Howard Dean will probably claim was written by the Bush Administration just to embarrass liberals), defines retreat as “an act or process of withdrawing, especially from what is difficult, dangerous, or disagreeable.” He does not want to move troops from one theater of war to another, or one homeland base to another; he wants to withdraw troops in the face of conflict with the enemy. Perhaps if the good representative spent a little more time watching Sesame Street with his grandkids, and a little less time eating quiche in the CNN Green Room, he would have the vocabulary skills to know the difference between a strategic redeployment and simply running away.
What the Democrats and their allies in the media are currently engaged in is not nuanced politics, it’s marketing. The act of using words that sound like, but don’t exactly mean what the audience really wants (like “redeploy”), as well as creating catchphrases (like “nuance”) to express their commitment to nothing (in a way that doesn’t sound so bad) are practices that good advertising firms use to sell cheap merchandise.
The American people do not want the same techniques that are used to sell NIKE shoes to be the way we conduct foreign policy. The American people also don’t want to cut and run. How do I know this? The citizens of this country seem to have redeployed their votes away from democratic candidates. This means that scores of Democrats at all levels of government have been redeployed to the private sector.
The Dems also know that their position is not popular with the nation. When it came to a vote in the House on the subject of leaving Iraq, all of them except three redeployed their support away from Murtha, and chose to follow the President (who has stuck to his guns, and as a result, hasn’t had to redeploy one inch on the topic). Now, because the polls are moving in the President’s favor, and there is an election coming up, liberals everywhere are “nuancing” their redeployments in the hopes of facilitating a paradigm shift in 2006.
Conservatives on the other hand, only need one, clear word to express their vision in Iraq, and the War on Terror. The word is “victory”. Aren’t things a whole lot less complicated when you actually stand for something?
Brian Cherry was born, raised and lives in the state of MI and from his home in the far north pursues the two passions that have driven him since his high school days, writing and the study of Scandinavian history... [read more] |
