Words

A little over three decades ago, the GOP discovered that a single word was sufficient to change minds by aiming and shooting at a human emotion and affecting legislation that would benefit only a few wealthy Americans. The first one word of course was ‘death.’ “Death Tax substituting for ‘Inheritance’ Tax” did the job. By passing that ‘Death’ Tax legislation, over 99.7% of Americans were voting against their own self interest.

The use of that single word enabled the kick off for Frank Luntz’s career as a wordsmith for the Republican Party.

1. DICTIONARY WORD MEANING: ob-struc-tion; n. Causing the delay or an attempt to cause a delay, especially in the conduct of business in a legislative body.

GOP WORD MEANING: ob-struc-tion; n. A tool to destroy and disrupt the Democratic Congress and Party, the U.S. President as well as the entire nation.

2. DICTIONARY: taxes; n. A fee such as the one paid by 98% of Americans.

GOP: taxes; n. A fee to be avoided by two percent of the wealthiest Americans and large Corporations.

3. DICTIONARY: failure; n. A cessation of proper functioning or performance: a failure to pass a U.S. Congressional Bill limiting the sale of assault weapons.

GOP: failure; n. succeeding in causing the improper functioning or performance of government, as their number 1 priority to bring down a U.S. President and Nation.

4. DICTIONARY: debt; n. an obligation or liability to pay or render something to someone else. (Like ‘we the people of the United States maybe?)

GOP: debt; n. An unknown word to Republicans until January 21, 2009, when the word was discovered by a partisan wordsmith and delivered to GOP leaders.

5. DICTIONARY: def-i-cit; n. an amount by which a sum of money falls short of the required or expected amount; a shortage.

GOP: def-i-cit; n. Huh? (See ‘debt’ above) Oh yeah, ah, the deficit is the responsibility of the President in power. (The current President claims 90% of the deficit belongs to the Republicans, since 2 wars and Medicare D was kept off the books)

6. DICTIONARY: Dem-o-crat-ic Party; One of two major political parties.

GOP: “We call them the ‘Democrat Party to belittle them making them insignificant. Beside, we’ve got the money, the Supreme Court and all the voting machine makers.”

7. DICTIONARY: com-pro-mise; n. A settlement of differences in which each side makes concessions.

GOP: com-pro-mise; n. “There is no such word in the Republican dictionary. Therefore, there is no compromise. What’s that? …Oh, wait a minute, I’ve been told that ‘compromise’ has been replaced with ‘common ground.’ “Anyway, common ground is two words.”

The Neo GOP started to realize that two words could be twice as effective in changing minds and perceptions. “What about the words ‘Country First’?” “That’s good, but how about ‘No abortions?’” “That’s a strong one, but what about ‘No Taxes?” “Well that’s good too, however we can make it even stronger; ‘No MORE taxes.’” “Sure, that’s good, but it’s three words? Perhaps three words is better.”

Well then, the GOP’s thought maybe they could use some of their former dozen top candidate’s slogans. “Nine, Nine, Nine.” (On second or third thought 9 9 9 sounds too much like NO,NO,NO) McCain’s “Win the future” (eh) Ron Paul’s “Restore America Now” (Sounds like something from a museum) Romney’s “Believe in America” (Romney believed in America so much he parked his jobs and money overseas)

Then there was the four and five words such as Santorum’s “The courage to fight for America,” but slogans like that didn’t seem to work.

For now the Republicans have discarded “Obama will take your guns away” and they are now working on the technical words defining “Assault weapons,” claiming the Bushmaster rifle, with a 30 to 100 ammunition magazine capacity should not be considered an assault weapon. Why? Because the GOP wants to protect the National Rifle Assn.’s contention that the trigger must be pulled for every shot, which means only two or three shots a second and doesn’t make the Bushmaster rifle an assault weapon.

There are several words we can be grateful for in this holiday season and the New Year:

OBAMA: Winner!

Romney: Loser

Happy Holidays and a better New Year

Jerry Drucker

Valley Dems United, Margie Murray, Edtior

Friday, 28 December 2012