The pox upon my favorite month is the garbage known as political campaigning. Not that it suddenly emerges in October, but it does get ramped up these last few weeks before an election.
When Candidate X comes on TV to assure me that he, unlike Candidate Y, will deliver on this and that, I hit the mute button and lip-sync “blah, blah, blah”—no less meaningful than the actual words of Mr. X. After all, Mr. X has been in office for years and he hasn’t delivered on “this and that” yet. Regardless, I’m instructed to distrust Mr. Y. In other words, garbage.
Campaign language is not about the promotion of a competent electorate, it’s about the fluff of consumerism. No matter how much we may protest that we don’t fall for flimsy campaign language, the spin doctors know otherwise, and they’ve known it for a lot longer than the term “spin doctor” has been around.
In 1840, William Henry Harrison propelled himself into the White House with unprecedented electioneering hoopla, framed around the slogan (and song) “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” (cashing in on his exploits against the Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811). The opposition, President Martin Van Buren, was depicted by the Harrison camp as a hoity-toity man of privilege who could not relate to the common folk — a sentiment reinforced with such ditties as “Old Tip, he wore a homespun coat, he had no ruffled shirt: wirt-wirt! / But Matt, he has the golden plate, and he’s a little squirt: wirt-wirt!”
The amusing patter of the Harrison campaign was embraced by the public, despite the fact that Harrison himself had been born to a prominent and wealthy Virginia family. Truth and substance be damned, Harrison’s tactics worked. His presidency was the briefest (he died just a month after his inauguration), but the landslide electoral vote of 1840 left one of the most enduring legacies of any presidential election in our history.
Indeed, political campaigning has been a matter of marketing ever since. Among the winning slogans to enter the lexicon of presidential races are Grover Cleveland’s 1884 mantra “Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, the continental liar from the state of Maine” (tell us how you really feel, Mr. Cleveland) and the 1916 chant from Woodrow Wilson’s campaign, “He kept us out of war” (well, we know how that turned out). Warren Harding’s 1920 tag line “Cox and Cocktails” was not an invitation to a party, but rather a snide comment on opponent James Cox, who was against Prohibition. (Ironically, Cox may well have maintained a temperate White House, while Harding’s White House drinking bouts with his buddies were infamous). In 1928, Herbert Hoover promised “A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage” (not exactly an accurate foretelling of the imminent Great Depression).
Since the Whigs sang their paean to Tippecanoe in 1840, music also has been a part of our political language. Of the many songs that have waltzed our chief executives into the Oval Office, the more memorable ones include FDR’s “Happy Days Are Here Again,” Eisenhower’s “I Like Ike,” JFK’s “High Hopes,” and, most recently, Obama’s “Yes, We Can.”
Songs, slogans, catchphrases, sound bites — these are the emotional building blocks of a campaign — yet no matter which party is represented, the language comes out the same: garbage. I suppose I could just stop voting, but the truth is, I would crawl through jagged glass to get to a voting booth. Fortunately, I discovered Project Vote Smart about 10 years ago. Profoundly nonpartisan, PVS is my favorite election resource for facts, just facts. No opinions, no spin, no fluff. Language a voter can live by. (William Henry Harrison would have hated it.)
Edmeston resident Christine A. Lindberg, senior U.S. lexicographer for Oxford University Press, is the principal content editor of Oxford’s American English dictionaries and thesauruses. Opinions expressed by Lindberg in this column are done so independently, and do not necessarily reflect the policies and practices of Oxford University Press. Have a question or comment relating to the English language? E-mail me: languagewithlindberg@gmail.com. Selected submissions will be answered here periodically.
Let's Look At The Language
The language of electioneering sometimes catchy, but often garbage
- Let's Look At The Language
-
-
'We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, for auld lang syne'
By Christine A. Lindberg A song that "owns" a particular day of the year is rare.
-
Here comes Santa Claus ... where'd he get that snazzy red suit?
Years ago, I had a book of letters written to Santa Claus, and I remember that, among all the messages of "bring me this," "bring me that," and "I'll leave you a plate of cookies," one little boy had written, "Dear Santa, Where did you get your snazzy red suit?" I wouldn't be surprised if the author of that question grew up to be either a reporter or a fashion consultant, but in any event, I hope he got an answer to his question.
-
Where do I plug in these Electric Prunes?
Those of us who make the family feasts of Thanksgiving and Christmas magically appear on the table know there's nothing magic about it.
-
The sometimes-cryptic language of company names
Cream cheese originated in 1872 as the result of William Lawrence's failure to duplicate the French cheese Neufchatel. By 1880, he knew his "accidental cheese" was good enough for distribution, so he packaged it in foil wrappers and called it Philadelphia Cream Cheese.
-
Humorist Will Rogers: One of the crown jewels in American language
Defined as "a humorous writer, performer or artist," a humorist could technically be anyone who makes you laugh, but my concept of a humorist is not nearly so broad
-
Not quite an 'Ode to Pepé Le Pew' after gross, stinky encounter
My previous column ended with the words "sweet dreams," which are nice if you can get 'em, but sometimes the occasion of slumber time is a few degrees short of sweet.
-
What will my dream-doctor say about this orgledream in my head?
I just read a snippet of folklore that tells me "a dream of grasshoppers means that something is confusing you."
-
Names of hurricanes don't match reality
When the storm named Irene barreled up into Edmeston four weeks ago, I didn't think I'd still be looking down upon the vestiges of her destruction from my upstairs windows.
-
Sometimes an unremarkable day is the one we should cherish the most
Ten years ago today, it was a summery Sept. 10 here in Central New York. The temperature hovered in the 80s and there was an occasional drizzle here and there.
-
'Don't miss it, don't even be late' The Great New York State Fair is here
"Our state fair is a great state fair! Don't miss it, don't even be late. It's dollars to doughnuts that our state fair is the best state fair in our state!"
-
Some of it's all Greek to me, but mostly it's just herbaceously aromatic
For the past five years, I've been a container gardener (having given up the backyard to my dogs).
-
Like gods on the heptagram, so are the days of our week
-
'Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?' just not the same
When the Baltimore Orioles' third baseman took the field on May 30, 1982, not even Nostradamus could have foreseen that one of the most celebrated streaks in baseball was beginning at that very moment. The player was Cal Ripken Jr., whose 2,131st consecutive game on Sept. 6, 1995, surpassed Lou Gehrig's "unsurpassable" record.
-
A frabjous Fourth of July to everyone!
If there's one date in history that every American can cite, it's the day that the Continental Congress gave its nod to the Declaration of Independence: July 4, 1776.
-
I wonder if ancient Romans ever put sanctions on that two-faced Janus
Someone recently asked me if I could explain the meaning of the word "sanction.
-
June is bustin' out all over!
When "Carousel," the second stage musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, opened on Broadway on April 19, 1945, the audience left the theater in buoyant spirits.
-
Go ahead and have a rat on a stick, but please don't call it a lollipop
I recent read that this Tuesday is National Escargot Day. I was unable to find any compelling evidence that this is an official national day for any nation in particular, but it does seem that throughout the U.K. and North America, French restaurants have happily adopted the day as a time to celebrate their garlicky little mollusks.
-
Onomatopoeic power of wheatgrass souffle
“The formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named” is the New Oxford American Dictionary’s definition of “onomatopoeia” (Ah-Nuh-mah-tuh-PEE-uh).
-
The language of Benjamin Franklin, in whatever name he used
When Benjamin Franklin died 221 years ago this month, the entire Western world mourned, yet his gravestone reads (in full), “Benjamin and Deborah Franklin 1790.”
-
There's nothing like a good spoonerism to tickle a bunny phone
The English economist Sir Roy Forbes Harrod (1900"1978) once said that, compared to all the scholars he had known at Oxford and Cambridge, the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844"1930) was the most exceptional in "scholarship, devotion to duty, and wisdom." There is no reason to question Harrod's assessment, but that's not exactly the imprint by which Spooner is best remembered.
-
'We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, for auld lang syne'
