The race for the White House now runs through media terrain that looks appreciably different than the landscape of a decade ago. Among the new factors: The Internet is an important source of news and punditry. Cable television gives the broadcast networks a run for their money. And 9/11 has shifted the terms of many debates. Overall, the political atmosphere is nastier and — if we consider some TV attack ads — much sleazier.
But below the surface, a lot of the bedrock rhetoric hasn’t changed much. And the language of politics, as some American leaders have acknowledged, is crucial.
James Madison wrote: “The use of words is to express ideas. Perspicuity, therefore, requires not only that the ideas should be distinctly formed, but that they should be expressed by words distinctly and exclusively appropriate to them.”
John F. Kennedy contended that “the first duty of an officer in a democratic government is to uphold the integrity of words used in public debate.” And he urged the use of words “in ways where they will stand as one with the things they are meant to represent.”
Yet it’s fair to say that most of the debates in the partisan arena are light-years away from integrity. Poll-tested buzzwords substitute for meaning. The unspoken motto of speech-writers and sound-biters often seems to be: “Whatever works!”
To gauge how much modern American political verbiage has changed, I went back and took a look at “The Power of Babble,” which I wrote a dozen years ago. The book is out of print, but the kind of rhetoric it mocked is still going strong in all kinds of news media.
Don’t take my word for it. Make your own judgment. What follows is my 1992 version of an archetypal bombastic political speech, alphabetized for easy reference:
“America bashing and anti-Western appeasement may appeal to atheists, but such backroom bankruptcy is barbaric bean counting inside the Beltway, where Big Brother is big government with a blank check. Boys on the bus don’t seem to mind the breakdown of the family. With the brie-and-white-wine set and their burdensome budgets, a bureaucracy of cheap-shot class conflict is fueling costly cradle-to-grave criminality. The demagoguery is divisive.
“Doom-and-gloom feds promote a feeding frenzy — aided by flimflammers, flip-flops, herd journalists, ideologues, and influence peddlers. Impotent insiders are in sync with instability, intolerance, irresponsible labor bosses, loopholes and mudslinging. This great nation has grown over-dependent on PACs, partisanship, personal attacks, perversion, and pessimists.
“The people must not be polarized as political footballs for pork-barreling, power-hungry profligates and their propaganda. What’s more, we have no need for protectionist pundits. Quotas — with the reckless red tape of reverse discrimination and the rhetoric of self-appointed, self-styled sixties radicals — bring sleepless nights, sloganeering, and smears.
“With smoke and mirrors and smoke-filled rooms, soak-the-rich spendthrifts are strident as they tax and spend. These threats are tragic, tyrannical, unethical, and even unpatriotic — the work of vested interests, the Vietnam syndrome, violence, waste, welfare, wheeler-dealers, and wrangling zealots.”
Of course, campaign playbooks also call for “positive” messages. So, here’s my composite A-to-Z sample, also from 1992. If you think we’ve risen above such treacle since then, I’d be surprised:
“America is back, and bipartisan — biting the bullet with competitiveness, diplomacy, efficiency, empowerment, end games, and environmentalism, along with faith in the Founding Fathers, freedom’s blessings, free markets and free peoples, and most of all, God.
“Our great heritage has held the line for human rights, individual initiative, justice, kids, leadership, liberty, loyalty, mainstream values, the marketplace, measured responses, melting pots, the middle class, military reform, moderates, modernization, moral standards, national security, and Old Glory.
“Opportunity comes from optimism, patriotism, peace through strength, the people, pluralism, and points of light. Pragmatism and the power of prayer make for principle, while the private sector protects the public interest. Realism can mean recycling, self-discipline, and the spirit of ’76, bringing stability and standing tall for strategic interests and streamlined taxation.
“Uncle Sam has been undaunted ever since Valley Forge, with values venerated by veterans: vigilance, vigor, vision, voluntarism, and Western values.”