Why Republicans are favoring abstract terms

by David Safier

Just a thought. Democrats are the ones accused of using fancy words and higher level abstractions, while Republicans are plain speakers, like real people. Think Al Gore and John Kerry vs. George Bush and Rick Perry. But while Obama is talking about building roads and bridges, fixing schools and hiring teachers — plain, concrete speech — Republicans insist on countering him with abstract terms like "infrastructure," "stimulus" and "socialism."

I think the reason Republicans are favoring abstract terms at this point is, Dems have them beat on the specifics. Obama wants to fix America with jobs and building projects, which people like. Republicans want to block him at all costs. They haven't been able to devise a bogus specific like "Death panel" to counter the Democrats, with the exception of "Debt." So they're leaning on words with no intrinsic emotional impact, which most people only vaguely understand, and sneering while saying them, giving them an evil connotation. "Don't listen when the Democrats say they want to build things and put people to work. All they want is some vague, snooty 'in-fra-struc-ture' and some bogus 'sti-mu-lus.' Their plan is to turn the U.S. into a Socialist Country!"