THE ART OF DECIPHERING POLITICAL-SPEAK

COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS
JANUARY 21, 2008
THE ART OF DECIPHERING POLITICAL-SPEAK
BY ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ

http://hometown.aol.com/xcolumn/myhomepage/

Politicians possess a special language that requires special translators. Yet, they don't simply engage in double-speak and obfuscation. Their primary objective, particularly during elections, seems to be contributing to national narratives that can be better understood as myth-making: the idea of American exceptionalism.

This year's number one word/phrase & myth is "change." Sen. Barack Obama claims to embody it, yet, Sen. John McCain – who would keep troops in Iraq for a 100 years – also claims to be "the face of change." Gov. Mike Huckabee, who supports overturning the 14th Amendment (birthright citizenship), also claims to have become "the face of change."

Political double-speak and myth-making, however, is not a partisan affair. For instance, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has refused to entertain the issue of impeachment, claiming that it is "off the table." She appears to have confused her role as a leading Democrat, with her Constitutional role as the head of the House of Representatives, whose primary duties are to uphold the Constitution and to carry out the peoples' business.

Here's a few other words/phrases:

THE RULE OF LAW: This idea led to the impeachment of former president Bill Clinton. Lawmakers insisted upon such action, not based on his "crimes," but behind the idea that he had lied under oath before Congress. Since President Bush took office, those very same voices have become muted; nowadays, any law can be violated, disregarded or changed – and no law applies to the president and vice president of the United States.

NATIONAL SECURITY: Under this canard, Big Brother and secret government now here to “protect the homeland.” Democracy, personal freedom, the Bill of Rights and the right to privacy have all been tossed into history's trash-bin in favor of a fear-based nation.

THE WAR ON TERROR: This catch phrase means that the United States has the God-given right to attack anyone or wage illegal wars against any nation that the president determines to be "our enemy." At the same time, rogue nations that use state terror against their own populations – are not deemed to be terrorists as long as they are on “the path to democracy.”

BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS: This idea (found on billboards), corresponds to the idea that the U.S. military has to right to kill tens of thousands of people…in the name of peace. Peace also refers to creating anti-democratic regimes that agree with U.S. policies of world domination.

OUT-OF-CONTROL-SPENDING: Republicans like to think of themselves as being opposed to taxes… as long as they can exempt certain categories, such as high fees for governmental services. However, the most egregious exemption is the war itself. Ending this exorbitant tax would permit every child to be educated through college; it would permit everyone to be protected by a national health insurance program, and; it would permit the nation's ailing infrastructure to be completely rebuilt.

SUCCESS: The Bush administration has created the fiction that U.S. occupation; the ethnic cleansing of millions of Iraqis and the continued killing of thousands of Iraqis form the basis for "success." As defined by the administration, the illegal and incompetently run war, is now virtually over. Meanwhile, U.S. soldiers also continue to die.

VALUES VOTERS: All people have values, but this concept is part of an Orwellian idea in which conservative ideals are equated with American/Christian "values." All other ideals are deemed to be un-American and un-Christian.

PRO-LIFE: This does not translate into: "all life is sacred." Pro-life corresponds to an anti-abortion stance that permits conservatives to also support the death penalty, the waging of illegal wars and the classification of people into legal/legitimate and illegal/illegitimate categories... without seeing any moral contradictions. Ditto the idea of “pro-family.” Families must be the right color and possess the correct legal status.

CORRUPTION: Waging illegal wars, war profiteering and wholesale law violations by U.S.-based global corporations that wreak havoc on entire peoples and the planet are outside of the American definition of corruption; that category is reserved for petty graft and bribery by police and government officials of other nations.

Implicated and coinciding with this latest phase of American myth-making is the decline of U.S. journalism. Nowadays, the news media has become part and parcel to this process, seemingly unable to see what the rest of the world can clearly see: the United States is not the moral leader of the world... unless the meaning of "moral" is altered.

(c) Column of the Americas 2008.

Rodriguez can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com

Rodriguez can be reached at: XColumn@gmail.com