lily
04-23-2008, 04:34 PM
Spelling, grammar, punctuation all are my weak spots, so I found this interesting. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/04/20/DI2008042002124.html)
William Safire on Politics and Language
William Safire
Columnist and Author
Wednesday, April 23, 2008; 10:30 AM
Columnist and former Nixon speechwriter William Safire, whose political
dictionary is being rereleased April 30 with hundreds of new terms, will be
online Wednesday, April 23 at 10 a.m. ET to discuss the language of politics
and some of the changes brought to it in the past 15 years.
Submit your questions and comments before or during the discussion.
____________________
Washington: I don't recall the specific circumstances that led you to call
Hillary Clinton a "congenital liar." Could you please remind us? If
possible, could you compare and contrast her untruths of the '90s with her
more recent fibs (her death-defying trip to Bosnia, her childhood letter to
NASA, her profound bond with Sir Edmund Hillary, her crack rifle skills...)
William Safire: That question was asked so often that the NY Times published
my 1996 column on its website yesterday. To reduce the animus after
President Clinton reacted with a comment that if he were not president, he'd
punch me in the nose, the humorist Mark Russell cooled the contretemps by
suggesting that I had written "congenial lawyer" and it was garbled in
transmission.
_______________________
Rockville, Md.: For years I have had a debate with certain colleagues about
the proper use of "or not" in conjunction with "whether" -- specifically, is
the "or not" extra verbage? For example: "I do not know whether it is
raining outside." One side of the debate says that, in the absence of other
specific possibilities, the "not" is the only possible implication; the
other says that it leaves open what the other choices might be, even if
other choices (e.g. snowing) are impossible under the circumstances. What do
you think?
William Safire: It's a matter of style, not grammar; my style is to drop the
"or not".
_______________________
Burbank, Calif.: Is it incorrect to refer to the Democratic Party as the
Democrat Party? Why is this sometimes intended or taken as an offense?
William Safire: In "Safire's Political Dictionary", you can find the answer
under "Democrat". Tom Dewey was probably the first to use it, and it was
popularized by Len Hall in 1955. I think the "harsh ending" of "crat" as in
"bureaucrat" made it an attack technique, and it is still used because it
drives Democratic party members up the wall. Some have retaliated by calling
the other party members "Publicans", but that never caught on.
_______________________
Colorado: Do you find the term "heartland" and its implications that some
Americans are more American than other Americans as offensive as I do?
William Safire: It started as a description of Eastern Europe in 1904, and
was popularized in the US by General Eisenhower's 1945 Guildhall speech in
London: "I come from the very heartland of America". I don't see it as a
putdown of people who live on the coasts. (Well, maybe the "left coast".)
_______________________
Princeton, N.J.: As a fat old liberal Democrat, it seems to me that
conservatives have been the most guilty of perverting the language of
politics. There are many examples, but I will look just at the use of the
term "death tax" instead of the correct name, "estate tax." The amount of
the tax does not depend on how you die, distinguishing between death by
cancer or car accident. It depends on the size of your estate. As for the
argument that you pay it when you die, the person who dies does not pay it.
He can't; he is dead. It is paid by his heirs. Furthermore, do conservatives
call the income tax, the "April 15 Tax"?
I understand that the idea behind this perversion of language is to get
people to believe that everyone who dies will have to pay the "death tax,"
when actually only a fraction of 1 percent of the richest pay any estate
tax. This is a clear example of how to lie with language usage, and is
analogous to lying with statistics -- which conservatives also excel at, but
that's a story for another day.
William Safire: Both sides use the technique. How about when White House
aides (whoever is in office) are accused of a "bunker mentality"? That's an
evocation of Hitler's bunker.
_______________________
Montreal: Mr. Safire, watching coverage of the Pope's Yankee Stadium mass
this past weekend, I was particularly struck by an interview by a Fox
journalist and a priest that largely dwelt on notions of freedom. What was
fascinating was that, while they didn't refer to it, the two parties seemed
to have distinct and different assumptions about what the word "freedom"
means.
It seems to me that this is a widespread trend in current political
language, where the basic meaning of words changes radically when they are
used in a political context, so that depending on one's politics or lack
thereof, the very key meaning of formerly common and universal concepts is
changed. Could you comment on this?
William Safire: I wrote a novel about Lincoln and emancipation and used the
title "Freedom". In the 18th century, the more frequently used word was
"liberty". Libertarians (of which I'm one) tend to use it to mean "personal
freedom"; when George W. Bush uses it in speeches, it has to do with his
"freedom agenda", which proposes to extend political freedom around the
world.
_______________________
Washington: Mr Safire, please answer: Is it correct to say "I'll have three
Whopper Juniors" or "I'll have three Whoppers Junior"??
William Safire: You're using the analogy of "attorneys general" and "courts
martial", pluralizing the noun and not the adjective. I like to order
"Whoppers Junior" because it gets a funny look or a laugh.
_______________________
Silver Spring, Md.: McCain, Clinton, Obama -- which candidate's oratory do
you like best/worst and why? Do you find yourself missing your regular New
York Times column during this campaign? Your fans do!
William Safire: I sometimes get the urge to let loose a blast at some
politician but I lie down and let it pass. After 35 years on the op-ed page,
I'm happy to comment on the political language in my Sunday Times Magazine
column and in my dictionary. But thanks for missing my vituperations.
_______________________
Silver Spring, Md.: Don't you think that Republicans are more often referred
to in the mainstream press as "right-wing" or "far right" than Democrats are
referred to as "left-wing" or "far left"? Isn't this a bias?
William Safire: Right-wingers often call themselves that; lefties hate
"left-winger". I guess it's a matter of sensitivity. But both have been
overtaken by "moonbat" and "wingnut".
_______________________
Boston: When/why did politicians start using the locution "at the end of the
day"?
William Safire: After all is said and done, it's begun to disappear.
William Safire on Politics and Language
William Safire
Columnist and Author
Wednesday, April 23, 2008; 10:30 AM
Columnist and former Nixon speechwriter William Safire, whose political
dictionary is being rereleased April 30 with hundreds of new terms, will be
online Wednesday, April 23 at 10 a.m. ET to discuss the language of politics
and some of the changes brought to it in the past 15 years.
Submit your questions and comments before or during the discussion.
____________________
Washington: I don't recall the specific circumstances that led you to call
Hillary Clinton a "congenital liar." Could you please remind us? If
possible, could you compare and contrast her untruths of the '90s with her
more recent fibs (her death-defying trip to Bosnia, her childhood letter to
NASA, her profound bond with Sir Edmund Hillary, her crack rifle skills...)
William Safire: That question was asked so often that the NY Times published
my 1996 column on its website yesterday. To reduce the animus after
President Clinton reacted with a comment that if he were not president, he'd
punch me in the nose, the humorist Mark Russell cooled the contretemps by
suggesting that I had written "congenial lawyer" and it was garbled in
transmission.
_______________________
Rockville, Md.: For years I have had a debate with certain colleagues about
the proper use of "or not" in conjunction with "whether" -- specifically, is
the "or not" extra verbage? For example: "I do not know whether it is
raining outside." One side of the debate says that, in the absence of other
specific possibilities, the "not" is the only possible implication; the
other says that it leaves open what the other choices might be, even if
other choices (e.g. snowing) are impossible under the circumstances. What do
you think?
William Safire: It's a matter of style, not grammar; my style is to drop the
"or not".
_______________________
Burbank, Calif.: Is it incorrect to refer to the Democratic Party as the
Democrat Party? Why is this sometimes intended or taken as an offense?
William Safire: In "Safire's Political Dictionary", you can find the answer
under "Democrat". Tom Dewey was probably the first to use it, and it was
popularized by Len Hall in 1955. I think the "harsh ending" of "crat" as in
"bureaucrat" made it an attack technique, and it is still used because it
drives Democratic party members up the wall. Some have retaliated by calling
the other party members "Publicans", but that never caught on.
_______________________
Colorado: Do you find the term "heartland" and its implications that some
Americans are more American than other Americans as offensive as I do?
William Safire: It started as a description of Eastern Europe in 1904, and
was popularized in the US by General Eisenhower's 1945 Guildhall speech in
London: "I come from the very heartland of America". I don't see it as a
putdown of people who live on the coasts. (Well, maybe the "left coast".)
_______________________
Princeton, N.J.: As a fat old liberal Democrat, it seems to me that
conservatives have been the most guilty of perverting the language of
politics. There are many examples, but I will look just at the use of the
term "death tax" instead of the correct name, "estate tax." The amount of
the tax does not depend on how you die, distinguishing between death by
cancer or car accident. It depends on the size of your estate. As for the
argument that you pay it when you die, the person who dies does not pay it.
He can't; he is dead. It is paid by his heirs. Furthermore, do conservatives
call the income tax, the "April 15 Tax"?
I understand that the idea behind this perversion of language is to get
people to believe that everyone who dies will have to pay the "death tax,"
when actually only a fraction of 1 percent of the richest pay any estate
tax. This is a clear example of how to lie with language usage, and is
analogous to lying with statistics -- which conservatives also excel at, but
that's a story for another day.
William Safire: Both sides use the technique. How about when White House
aides (whoever is in office) are accused of a "bunker mentality"? That's an
evocation of Hitler's bunker.
_______________________
Montreal: Mr. Safire, watching coverage of the Pope's Yankee Stadium mass
this past weekend, I was particularly struck by an interview by a Fox
journalist and a priest that largely dwelt on notions of freedom. What was
fascinating was that, while they didn't refer to it, the two parties seemed
to have distinct and different assumptions about what the word "freedom"
means.
It seems to me that this is a widespread trend in current political
language, where the basic meaning of words changes radically when they are
used in a political context, so that depending on one's politics or lack
thereof, the very key meaning of formerly common and universal concepts is
changed. Could you comment on this?
William Safire: I wrote a novel about Lincoln and emancipation and used the
title "Freedom". In the 18th century, the more frequently used word was
"liberty". Libertarians (of which I'm one) tend to use it to mean "personal
freedom"; when George W. Bush uses it in speeches, it has to do with his
"freedom agenda", which proposes to extend political freedom around the
world.
_______________________
Washington: Mr Safire, please answer: Is it correct to say "I'll have three
Whopper Juniors" or "I'll have three Whoppers Junior"??
William Safire: You're using the analogy of "attorneys general" and "courts
martial", pluralizing the noun and not the adjective. I like to order
"Whoppers Junior" because it gets a funny look or a laugh.
_______________________
Silver Spring, Md.: McCain, Clinton, Obama -- which candidate's oratory do
you like best/worst and why? Do you find yourself missing your regular New
York Times column during this campaign? Your fans do!
William Safire: I sometimes get the urge to let loose a blast at some
politician but I lie down and let it pass. After 35 years on the op-ed page,
I'm happy to comment on the political language in my Sunday Times Magazine
column and in my dictionary. But thanks for missing my vituperations.
_______________________
Silver Spring, Md.: Don't you think that Republicans are more often referred
to in the mainstream press as "right-wing" or "far right" than Democrats are
referred to as "left-wing" or "far left"? Isn't this a bias?
William Safire: Right-wingers often call themselves that; lefties hate
"left-winger". I guess it's a matter of sensitivity. But both have been
overtaken by "moonbat" and "wingnut".
_______________________
Boston: When/why did politicians start using the locution "at the end of the
day"?
William Safire: After all is said and done, it's begun to disappear.