Friday, July 11, 2008

No Say List

John Cole has a list of phrases he wants to exile from political conversation. I agree with some, but not all of them.
1.) flip-flop
2.) throw under the bus
3.) Sister Souljah moment
4.) slap in the face
5.) but how will it play in Scranton? (or whatever city that is supposed to signify middle America).
6.) Middle America
7.) “Elitist,” when what you actually mean is able to read at a fourth grade level or higher [OH GOD YES!]
8.) homeland
9.) “He’s comfortable in his own skin”
10. “Would like to have a beer with him.”
11.) practicing partisan politics or practicing politics as usual
12.) Maverick
13.) Ethnic cleansing [don't know what's wrong with this if it's being used to reference actual ethnic cleansing]
14.) “rock star” to refer to anyone not engaged in the actual playing of actual music.
15.) “give them the tools they need.”
16.) “played the x card” (where x = race, gender, whatever)
17.) white working class and “Reagan Democrats,” who now consist of Geraldine Ferraro and the 6 folks running the 400 sockpuppets at NoQuarter
18.) Adding the ‘-gate’ suffix to any scandal (or, as it is most of the time, non-scandals) [I totally agree on the second half]
19.) “commander in chief” threshold
20.) stab in the back
21.) family values
22.) pain at the pump
23.) change agent
24.) “my friends”

Any other mods?

3 comments:

PG said...

Do y'all really think that there's no longer an identifiable "Reagan Democrats" voting bloc, which is Democratic in its preferences regarding economics, but will vote against the Democrats on national security and social issues? Is the idea that these folks are just plain Republicans now?

Incidentally, if we're not supposed to specify places to represent Middle America nor use the phrase "Middle America" itself, I'm guessing "What's the Matter with Kansas" is now understood to be a failure. But now I feel chilled from writing "What's the Matter with Goldman Sachs," to explain to the highly bewildered economic conservatives how their colleagues in the upper income brackets could support Obama. (Short answer: like the Kansans, they are valuing a sociopolitical identity over their own economic interests, but unlike the Kansans, they probably can afford it. The working-class Kansan who votes Republican may be losing health care coverage for his children; the Goldman analyst is just losing his Hamptons rental when he pays more taxes.)

Unknown said...

I think "Kansas" should be on that list. Obama likes to talk about living there because it associates him with "heartland values" (which should also be on the list if it's not), the implication being that it's not the Scary Muslim Whitey-hating values of every other part of the country. (I think we should call this belief stickslitism.)

btw David: on a not totally unrelated note, did you see the Daily Show parody of the Big John Cornyn ad?

alberich said...

I actually am in favor of banning "my friends" right about now.