I was just reading the Transcript of the Rock the Vote Democratic Presidential Debate (washingtonpost.com) and I remembered a lesson my dad taught me. The lesson was: “Find the Referent.” It’s from Stuart Chase’s “The Tyranny of Words“. In other words, think about what the words being used actually refer to, physically. Political speak is meticulously devoid of referents, except, of course, in the cases where the speakers abuse statistics. I want to see a debate where candidates aren’t allowed to use the phrase, “the American people”.
I was kinda enjoying the debate, and laughing about how all the other candidates, including the Reverend Al Sharpton, lord help us all, were trying to give Dean such a hard time for pointing out the unrequited loyalty of Southern white voters to the Republican Party. Bless ‘im.