So It Goes: the Pol Spinspeak Factory Grinds On
Monday, September 24th, 2007Random spin from the 2007-08 presidential hustings:
shared responsibility = chameleonspeak for big government coercion: the government takes responsibility for giving you a service that it defines; you take responsibility for gratefully accepting whatever is in the package and paying for it in taxes.
choice = once plain English now converted to Trojan-horse talk for you get to choose as long as you to what I tell you to do but feel good about it because you have “choice.” Of course, if you don’t do what I tell you to do, you don’t deserve a choice.
thoughtful = chocolatesaucetalk for describing anyone of the opposite party who is suddenly providing you with aid and comfort.
carbon footprint = diabolictalk (unless mitigated with the adjective “low” for what those who refuse to buy into the global warning doomsday scenario are doing to the world.
center = Chinese-lunchtalk for a moving point somewhere between not quite the extreme far left and not quite the extreme far right depending on the speaker and the auditor. The word is essentially employed as a self-awarded Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. (see below: move to center)
move to center = phony badgetalk for where a pol runs to bamboozle the general electorate after bamboozling a hard liberal left or hard conservative right into winning a nomination.