The War of Words — Why We're Losing

He who defines the rules controls the game. And we’re letting them define the rules.

Jobs. Health care. Economic justice. Working families. Income redistribution. Fairness.

Words mean things. Very specific things. We on the Right tend to forget that. By following the lead from the Left, we abdicate our arguments without even knowing it. By using their terms, and in so doing, tacitly allowing their outrageous assertions to stand unchallenged, we surrender ground – one step, one phrase, one election at a time.

We are told the main issue on Americans’ minds in these perilous economic times, is ‘Jobs’. The main problem is putting people back to work, dontcha know. ‘Creating more jobs’. And of course, this is a classic example of the cart before the horse. It’s a tried-and-true ploy of the Collectivist to frame the problem as that which affects ‘the masses’ alongside the solution, which involves the central government. (The people need jobs! We’ve got to create more jobs!) As if…in a free republic the purpose of government is to provide each citizen with a job. As if…a job is merely this mystical anomaly that suddenly appears by fiat of a benevolent and elegant president. As if…the very economic policies of the new administration aren’t doing everything they can to retard the growth of the economy and hence hamper and defeat the expansion of the work force. As if…it’s not the stifling regulation, punitive taxation, and restriction of movement on business that prevents business from hiring new employees.

But the President drones on every other day about, “We need to create more jobs”.

As if…

But we on the Right surrender the argument every time we lead our point with, “Jobs”. A job is a result of a need of a business to run effectively. A business needs people to carry out various functions. And…contrary to popular Leftist thinking…the purpose of a business is NOT providing people with jobs. The purpose of a business is to create profit for its owners and shareholders by providing goods and/or services. Job creation is a happy ancillary effect of a business as it grows.

Expansion of free-market businesses is a good thing.

Too often, Leftist redistribution thieves, Race Merchant poverty pimps, Envoys-of-Envy class warriors, and their toadies — the mainstream media — paint Business as the bad guy. Sometimes their paint strokes are subtle…sometimes not. Corporations, big and small, and those who head them are depicted as nothing more than greedy, selfish, bastards out to ‘screw the little guy’. And we let them get away with this. We allow these ‘shades of lie’ to live in our national lexicon. And we do so by passively accepting…adopting…and eventually embracing their twisted phraseology. They distort our beloved English language…and we wave the white flag, content that anyone even talks to us, happy to be invited to the table.

FTS!

Before we can restore our nation to its original intent, we need to take back the argument. And that will take backbone – from all of us. Don’t let them frame the argument. Stand up for what you know is right! Are we pussies – or are we Americans? If our heroes didn’t fold at Normandy, Iwo Jima, Rumadi, Chosin, Lexington…then we shouldn’t reel when our Libtard buddies start waxing Alinsky and Zinn. Stand and deliver! Hit them with the truth.

They use innuendo and generalization as their major tools. I say kick them square in their syntax! Make them define their terms. (They are loath to do it.) Make them get specific; and if they won’t, dig your heels in and refuse to let the argument proceed until they do so. “What do you mean, specifically, by ‘income redistribution’? Do you mean you want to take my hard-earned salary and give it to someone who hasn’t worked for it, merely because you think he ‘needs’ it more?” “And what are ‘working families’? I have a family and I work. Is mine not a ‘working family’?” And…”What do you mean, ‘We need more jobs’? Don’t you mean, we need to create an environment less hostile and more accommodating toward business and industry in the form of lower taxes and fewer regulations, so that they may expand and be able to afford to enlarge their work force?”

You on the Left are like the misguided farmer on the road with a broken-down horse. You’re kicking him to get up…while you bash him in the head with a hammer. A carrot and some grain could get him moving on down that road.

Memo to Government: We in the business world can rebound and expand the economy if you will get out of our pockets and get out of our way!!!

Lift the crippling restrictions and heavy tax burden on small business. Get out of bed with big corporations – stop the payoffs (with our money) of ‘go-along with it’ back room deals. Stay out of Wall Street. Your lust to control is leading us down the ruinous road to fascism.

What part of “The government has no business being in business” don’t you get? Yes, that includes the ‘health care’ business. And by the way, fellow Righties — to frame the argument over free-market vs. government controlled health care by calling it simply ‘Health Care’ is a losing gambit. To abbreviate the very complex industry that involves one-fifth of the American economy, employs tens of millions of technicians, doctors, dentists, nurses, administrators, researches, salespeople, support staff, etc… as simply ‘Health Care’ is ludicrous. But…I hear it repeatedly from the Right…. “We stand in opposition to Health Care. We oppose Health Care. We’ve got to stop Health Care from moving forward.” Yes, most of us on the Right know what you mean…but stop and think a minute how that sounds to the uninitiated. “You oppose health care? You heartless morons!”

Words mean things.

It seems like a tedious, never-ending task…but make the Lefties do it; make them define and refine their terms. It’s obnoxious, but play dumb, as if you truly don’t know what they’re talking about. It’ll drive them nuts…but it will force them out of the clouds, it will force them to get specific. And clarity is a good thing.

It is my firm belief that if we bring the Left out of the generalized fog of euphemism, innuendo and non-specificity, and force them to clearly illuminate their positions…the voters will reject them. So many Americans right now are wishing they’d pursued this line of inquiry last year. “What do you mean by ‘hope and change’? Hope for what, specifically? And you want to change this country? What kind of change …specifically?”

The words we use are important. Words can clarify and elucidate. Or they can just as easily distort and obfuscate. To seek the former is to come out into the bright warm sunlight. And to flush out the latter is to send cockroaches scurrying for cover.