One of the most effective ways of making sure that 1) you’re able to accomplish your own agenda while 2) those around you are left scratching their heads is to use language that means one thing to the speaker and something entirely different to the rest of us. This is the timeless ploy of the power-mongers of history, who first charm their listeners with slick, often-eloquent, well-turned phrases that put the masses at ease and then, following their own definitions of their carefully chosen terminology, do something that is just the opposite, usually to the detriment of the people.
So, in an effort to help you better understand what is the meaning behind what is being said, let me offer the following primer in Remedial Liberal-Speak 101.
1) What they say: ”We’re going to put a freeze on spending”
What they really mean: “Well, we’re going to freeze spending after we increase it dramatically first. Then, we’re going to put a freeze on those areas that amount to a fraction of 1% of our budget. The largest and most costly budget items will continue to grow. And beyond our control.” The $25 billion per year in budget savings proposed amounts to less than two-tenths of a per cent of the total budget. Please.
2) What they say: ”We need to tighten our belts.”
What they really mean: ”YOU need to tighten YOUR belts. We’re planning to raise the US debt level by $1.9 trillion (the equivalent of the entire Gross National Product of France!) even as we speak.” (Passed 2.4.10–total budget deficit as of now: $14.3 trillion!)
3) What they say: “We have invited Republicans to the table to try to build consensus.”
What they really mean: ”If they would just passively cooperate, not analyze/criticize what we’re trying to do and quietly and dutifully go along with our statist agenda, we could have ‘consensus.’” The liberals way of “reaching out” is to announce what they’re going to do, before, during and after, no matter how much it costs.
4) What they say: ”They don’t like what we’re proposing for healthcare reform? So let’s see what they’ve got. They have nothing and have proposed no meaningful alternatives.”
What they mean: ”We don’t like the numerous, detailed plans that have been put forth that propose simpler, far more cost-effective ways of reducing the burden of health care for Americans. What we’re after is a total, unequivocal, government takeover of one of the largest industries that remain in the private sector and we will oppose any other cheaper, easier plan that interferes with that goal. Better still: We’ll just tell the American people that no real alternative has been put forth at all.’”
5) What they say: ”We’re making our first priority, the passing of a Jobs Bill.”
What they really mean: ”We are committed to our ideology that real solutions to America’s problems don’t come from the private sector, that there are no free market solutions. What we need is yet another government solution–a huge stimulus that we’re going to give an appealing name because, after all, who could oppose job creation??” Note: As Rand Paul has pointed out, the government cannot create jobs (unless they’re government jobs), only business can create real jobs. The government “creating jobs” is akin to taking water from the deep end of the pool and pouring into the shallow end. It’s still taking from those who are working and giving to those that are not.
So the next time you hear some establishment politician, whether Democrat or Republican, say something that sounds too good to be true, look beneath and behind the words. Our leaders’ true message is revealed in what they do, not what they say.
~~Dan Blanchard
