I briefly mentioned this in my post from earlier today, but Atrios said something similar, so I thought I’d flesh it out a bit. (Just a bit; taking off to do some book-writing tonight.)
I’ve written before that I think part of the problem that conservatives/Republicans face is that their mythology has become a bit too complex for mere mortals (people who don’t listen to Limbaugh and read The Corner obsessively) to comprehend. They reference rogues’ gallery of enemies and various “bad things” that most people have never heard of. Simply trying to navigate through the various wingnutty minefields while throwing out the appropriate red meat has become difficult to do, and the result is incomprehensible to most of the country.
Volcano monitoring! High speed rail!
I said something similar last night after the speech to Marc—-the amount of code language that Republicans have to use to communicate their ideas is getting so thick as to be incomprehensible. Even in 2004, when Bush was talking about Dred Scott during a debate as a way to hint at his extreme anti-choice views without coming out and saying it, things were better. Soon it’s going to be so bad that they’ll have to give their speeches entirely with “You knows” and hand gestures. Conservatives have a major issue. The reason they feel under attack is that the dominant values of the country are officially liberal—-it’s bad to be racist, sexist, or homophobic, it’s bad to suggest poor people are subhuman, etc. Couple that with the perception, often correct, that the actual dominant values of the country are sexist, racist, homophobic, anti-poor, etc. (Though less so all the time.) People don’t like to be thought of as sexist or racist, but they want to hang onto their beliefs, and Republicans need to communicate with those people. But how to do it without coming out and saying it?
Two ways: proxies and euphemism. Right wing talk radio show hosts get more ability to come out and state openly vile beliefs,* so Republican politicians don’t have to. Republican politicians have to refer to those beliefs without offending the swing voters who might not be as crazy and hateful as the base. Thus, they employ euphemisms like “Dred Scott”, “law and order”, “pro-life”, “big government”—-fill in your own.
The problem with euphemism is one that language-speaking, taboo-having humans (i.e., all of us) have struggled with forever. It’s that euphemisms, over time, stop being euphemisms and instead directly denote the thing previously alluded to. For instance, words like “water closet” and “toilet” were euphemisms for the commode, but now they denote the thing itself. “Going to powder my nose” is a way of saying straight up that you need to take a piss. “Making love” is another example, as is “sleeping together”. I’d say the main reason wingnut mythology gets increasingly complex is that as each euphemism for an odious belief becomes denotative, they need to shift gears a little. Mere mortals can’t keep up. We, after all, aren’t being fed a daily diet of right wing talk radio to make the connections for us.
Knowing this, the strategy for liberals (one that Obama has embraced) is to be as straightforward and bullshit-free as possible. We’ve got the high moral ground, so no need to be ashamed of it. Obama avoided euphemism last night, and spoke plainly, and that just made Jindal’s nonsensical nudge-nudge speech seem even more obtuse. The contrast couldn’t have been better.
*Though for some reason, the believe they deserve to be considered not sexist or racist. Hilarity ensues. Hilarity like Limbaugh’s puzzlement at why more women don’t listen to his show. He doesn’t officially hate women! Just unofficially! They should accept his bullshit on face value, because women are stupid, right?
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Mmm - I kept wondering, from an outsider’s perspective, what the hell was all the big deal about “immigration” until I twigged.