Journal Jeremy Erwin's Journal: On Kerryisms and Bushisms 1
For a number of years now, Slate has been running what its author calls Bushisms-- reports of incidents in which the president has been tripped up by apparently simple english, and blurted out malapropisms, mangled syntax, and the odd Freudian slip For a leftist such as myself, they serve as a comforting "reminder" that the (p)resident is an idiot.
For the past few months, in a spirit of bipartisanship, Slate has also run Kerryisms which serve to highlight Kerry's excessive use of guarding phrases and caveats. The author of Kerryisms, William Saletan, takes it upon himself to simplify the Senator's verbiage, replacing phrases with footnotes, so that:
"I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception. But I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist
... who doesn't share it." [Ellipses in original transcript]
becomes
"I oppose abortion1. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception.2 3"
[1] personally
[2] But I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist
... [3] who doesn't share it.
If a reader skips the footnotes, the meaning of the phrase changes, from a strict pro-choice position to a rather more pro-lifeish position. "I really don't care about your personal decisions" becomes "I may care deeply enough to enact my personal position into law." For this sort of thing, Saletan has been roundly accused of distorting Kerry's message, and failing to appreciate nuance.
Nuance seems to be highly valued among liberals-- the world is a bit too complex for simple maxims. Others see only the result of such "nuance" and mistake it for flip-flopping. Synthesis becomes mediocrity. Flexibility becomes amorality.
But it takes a good speaker to properly present such nuance. Kerry is, on occasion, not up to the task. On such occasions, his capacity to translate his mind-language into english is so slow that he is tripped up into oversimplifying- and is forced to grope his way back to complexity.
Saletan's renditions are at least partially accurate-- those simplifications are what Kerry's oratorical skills allow him to say-- and the caveats are a crude attempt to salvage the original thought.
In that respect Kerryisms complement Bushisms fairly well. Both depict poor oratorical skills struggling to keep up with other thought processes. If such gaffes are representative, the presidential debates will be excruciating to watch.
forget kerryisms... (Score:2)