"Once You Taste It, It's Like A Disease"
How Menus and Politicians Get Words Wrong
The Jewish deli my family liked near our home in New Jersey was introducing a new menu item.
“Tam-tam taters,” read the description. “Once you taste it, it’s like a disease.”
I was only ten or eleven, but I knew what they were trying to say. Once you taste it, it sticks with you. It’s infectious—you know, like a disease!
I probably already knew that words can have power, but the new breakfast side dish at Eppes Essen in Livingston taught me how they can also fizzle in the wrong hands, or become completely meaningless.
Now, I write for political candidates and causes and try to use language that reaches what the legendary ad man Tony Schwartz called “the responsive chord.”
Best known for the only once-aired “Daisy Spot,” used by Lyndon Johnson against Barry Goldwater to frighten voters about impending nuclear war, Schwartz said communication needs to resonate with the experiences, beliefs and thoughts of the audience.
“The most important thing to realize is that people are born without earlids...So what determines what people hear or listen to? Very simply, they listen to anything that concerns or interests them.”
Successful politicians manage to use political speech to speak to the most deeply held values and beliefs of voters. They—and their writers—try to use words with precision, consideration, and intent.
And then there’s Kevin McCarthy.
Kevin McCarthy is skilled at adopting a somber expression and speaking complete gibberish. The Washington Post’s Dana Millbank once wrote that “his words come out as if they have been translated by Google from a foreign language.”
During his coronation-that-wasn’t as Speaker, Kevin McCarthy kept repeating a line he said his father told him, “it’s not how you start, but how you finish.” Uh-huh. Is that what passes for profound in Bakersfield? How about, “the future lies ahead?”
The other day, McCarthy tweeted something else he thinks sounds profound:
“While President Biden wants to control the kind of stove Americans can cook on, House Republicans are certainly cooking with gas.”
Yes, and also throwing it onto as many fires as possible. Maybe that wasn’t the best analogy, Kevin. We know that what your colleagues really like doing with flammable material is making bombs.
That’s exactly how they’ll use Kevin McCarthy’s gift to the right-wing wolfpack of a Congressional panel to investigate the “weaponization of government.” In light of the January 6 insurrection, those are very dangerous words.
A social psychologist who studies dangerous speech and disinformation, H. Colleen Sinclair of Louisiana State University, has identified five basic types of rhetoric that drive conflict between groups identified as “us” against those who are perceived as “them.”
Physical threats—They are going to harm us
Moral threats—They are degrading our society
Resource threats—They are taking from us
Social threats—They are obstacles to us
Self threats—They make us feel bad
Prof. Sinclair begins her article with a reference to the recent mob attack on democracy in Brazil, and other acts of mass violence:
Events like the riots in Brazil, the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection two years before it and the mass shooting at the Colorado LGBTQ nightclub each occurred after certain groups repeatedly directed dangerous rhetoric against others. It’s the reason elected officials in the U.S. have begun examining the role language plays in provoking violence.
As Liz Cheney likes to say, Donald Trump lit the flame of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, but he didn’t use matches—he used words. You can still find the New York Times’ complete list of all of Trump’s Twitter insults from 2015 to his ban in early 2021.
If your blood pressure can stand it, I recommend diving into the Times’ index, to re-hear some of Trump’s greatest hits, like calling the vote count in Georgia “a meaningless tally,” the count in Michigan a “giant scam,” and 2020 the MOST CORRUPT ELECTION IN U.S. HISTORY!”
It would be funny if not for the millions of people who believe every word.
The insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and the assault on Brazil’s center of government happened because the rioters—and their supporters, financiers, and enablers—all heard (and repeated) words that made them lose faith in democracy. A recurring theme in this space is my hope that more voters—particularly young people—will believe that politics matters, and voting can make a difference.
A new report finds that one in four Americans say using violence against the government is sometimes OK, and one in ten think that kind of violence is needed “right now.”
Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan and the Liar’s Caucus in control of Congress say they are democratically investigating the “weaponization” of government, but they’re the ones who are weaponizing government against democracy. It’s the worst kind of hate speech, and it must be stopped.
Words matter, from the delis of New Jersey to the halls of Congress.