Conservatives sometimes say confusing things. I'm here to help with a short, and sadly incomplete, primer on conserva-speak.
| What They Say | What They Mean |
|---|---|
| 14th Amendment | Complete ban on abortion from the moment of conception.
Usage: "We believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied Life or Liberty without Due Process, and that the States are, therefore, free to pass Laws protecting those Rights." |
| Bad apples | People we support shouldn't be criticized.
Usage: "We can't condemn all police for the actions of a few bad apples." |
| Capital formation | Low taxes on investment income.
Usage: "We need fiscal policies that encourage greater capital formation." |
| Consumer welfare | Leave big companies alone.
Usage: "The goal of antitrust policy should be maximizing consumer welfare." |
| CRT | Acknowledgement of past or present racism.
Usage: "Kids can be harmed when critical race theory is allowed in schools." |
| Death tax | Inheritance levies on heirs of millionaires.
Usage: "Death taxes are un-American." |
| Deep state | The federal government.
Usage: "The deep state is the enemy of all free men." |
| DEI hire | Dumb Black person.
Usage: "Kamala Harris was obviously a DEI hire." |
| Dynamic scoring | Tax cuts are free.
Usage: "Tax reduction actually improves the deficit if you properly account for the growth effects of dynamic scoring." |
| Energy independence | Oil drilling in national parks.
Usage: "Our goal should be permanent energy independence." |
| Evidence-based medicine | Anti-vaccine.
Usage: "I like RFK Jr. because he believes in evidence-based medicine." |
| Groomers | Gay people (or trans people).
Usage: "Keep groomers away from our kids!" |
| Hoax | Any inconvenient scientific finding.
Usage: "Climate change is a hoax." |
| MAGA | Nostalgia for the era when white men ran things and women were housewives.
Usage: "Remember when America was a great country?" |
| Nanny state | Workplace safety rules.
Usage: "The nanny state forces construction workers to wear expensive and complicated hard hats." |
| Originalism | A preference for the social values of 200 years ago.
Usage: "An originalist interpretation clearly supports the belief that gay marriage is bad for society." |
| Premium support model | Higher payments for Medicare.
Usage: "We propose replacing the current fee-for-service design of Medicare with one that incorporates a premium support model." |
| Red tape | Any regulations you don't like.
Usage: "Red tape is strangling America." |
| Right to work | Non-unionized.
Usage: "In the South we're committed to right-to-work workplaces." |
| Social discount rate | Climate change is no big deal.
Usage: "If you use an appropriately modest social discount rate, the high cost of addressing climate change is plainly not warranted." |
| Social engineering | Improving things for minorities and the poor.
Usage: "The military is no place for social engineering." |
| Virtue signaling | Opinions that make you feel guilty.
Usage: "Liberals don't really care about racism. It's all just virtue signaling." |
| Waste fraud and abuse | I'm pretending to care about the deficit.
Usage: "If we want to tackle skyrocketing spending, we need to start by reining in waste, fraud, and abuse." |
| Work disincentives | Welfare spending.
Usage: "Payments to low-income individuals are disincentives to work." |
"Patient centered heath care"
The patient pays more.
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'Deep state' should be changed to 'Any investigation of a Republican who breaks laws or norms, or when a citizen in government service contradicts a Republican '
Back when Trump was President, the “deep state” was a generic excuse for his failures. It’s worth remembering that Trump is the first President we’ve had who was so incompetent that his supporters had to come up with a conspiracy theory to explain his lack of effectiveness.
I t wasn't lack of competence. It was (and if he wins will be) lack of interest.
He wasn't and isn't interested in doing anything good for Americans. He wants to be "strong" (i.e. suppress the population) like his pals and heroes Putin, Xi and Kim.
The only one here that troubles me is "Bad apples." It's actually true that most police are devoted to doing a very tough and very psychologically stressful job with good intent. Of course, the prospect of having a job where you can abuse people make police work an attractant for people who shouldn't be given that opportunity. Most police departments try to screen out such people, but some slip through. Those are the "bad apples." Are they 1%? 10%? It probably depends a lot from one department to the next. But it's just wrong (and political suicide) to characterize all police as the enemy, as some on the left like to do.
So I object to the notion that anyone who uses the term "bad apples" is doing so in bad faith.
There's been little evidence of this.
By which I mean; if you have 1% bad apples, but 60% of the apples will form an impenetrable wall against doing jack-all about them, what you have is 61% bad apples.
If you would never, ever beat a confession out of someone with a sack full of doorknobs, but when asked if you saw that happen you reply "Nope, we're all good cops here" then you are part of the problem.
????
"t's actually true that most police are devoted to doing a very tough and very psychologically stressful job with good intent."
I think this is true as far as it goes. But I also think that these good people have a tendency to shield the "bad apples" when their badness is revealed. The blue wall is a real thing. If you are not prepared to call out bad people on your team, you are not a good person.
would any gop senator have called out bob menendez like john fetterman did, if a gop senator had done comparable to menendez?
To be fair, there were a few Republicans that were willing to call out Santos, and a considerable number of them who eventually voted to oust him.
that's because they snuck george back into the house as wyoming congresswoman harriet hageman.
+1
The police are like any other group, you have good cops, bad cops, and a whole bunch of average cops. The problem comes when the bad cops start getting medals, promotions and praise. This sends a clear message to the average cops as to who they need to emulate.
I would say it depends on your definition of "bad apples." If we're limiting it to people who seem to revel in being a publicly brutal and violent authoritarian, then you're probably limited to 10%. If you're also including people who enable them, use casual racism, and otherwise abuse their power and engage in activity that would otherwise be criminal, then you have a much higher proportion that's probably getting above the 40% mark. You could listen to A Tradition of Violence about the LASD gangs that shows how prevalent the issue is in that department. There are also lots of exposes on Chicago PD (including John Burge, who was lauded by the Police Union president fairly recently despite being convicted for essentially torturing people; the use of Homan Square as a black site; and the organized robberies reportedly committed by officers) and on NYPD, which has lots of prostitution and sexual misconduct with minors, as does LAPD. Smaller PDs tend to have similar problems that aren't reported on as vigorously. Basically, the culture of the PDs is so bad that you can't really have good apples that survive for long. It's similar to how most Germans weren't members of the SS, but there were plenty of "little Nazis" who supported, defended, and otherwise allowed the horrors to occur. If only 10% of the PD are "bad apples" but 60% of officers who make it through there career actively support, defend, or otherwise facilitate those 10%, then 70% of the PD is made of "bad apples" who aren't doing the purported job. Add to that, law enforcement isn't even in the top 25 most dangerous jobs and the vast majority of injuries and deaths are related to single car accidents (cop car hits a tree or pole), and "job related diseases (like Covid)". Don't forget that officers also have a very high rate of domestic abusers as well. Add all that up, it's a tough job because police unions lobby for greater funding at the expense of other social services, so police have to do things they aren't qualified for because they want all the money, but it isn't remarkably dangerous and a shockingly large proportion of officers engage in violence and misconduct that would be the cause of criminal complaints if anyone else did them.
What percent of police reports to the news are misleading, tho?
So, they’re cheap bastards. That’s what I thought.
Kevin, you have an excellent ear for hypocrisy. I'm sharing this post on FB. Thanks.
In its current usage, I think "DEI candidate" means someone so overqualified compared to the other candidate for the job that only a complete racist wouldn't choose her.
sounds about white.
When using the 'bad apple' metaphor it is well to remember what the proverb actually says. "One bad apple spoils the barrel". This is what has happened to the Republican Party (and in my own country, the Conservatives.)
When I worked in a parts plant, the end user--one of the Big Three--would open a random case from a shipment of say, 12 gross. If they found three bad parts the WHOLE 12 gross would get shipped back to us at our expense for inspection and re-finishing.
Applied to a police situation--say the murder of Sonya Massey--that entire sheriff's department needs to be investigated by the state police or the feds for any more "bad parts."
That would be great.
They had a chance to remove the orange bad apple and they refused. Instead they embraced the rot. This is all their fault. They have virtually surrendered their party to a cunning but otherwise really stupid person. I'm shocked that otherwise intelligent people would allow Trump to take over so completely.
"urban dweller"
we all know what they'd like to say instead of this
I would add "Right to Life" translation - right to birth, after that we DGAF.
Save the fetus. Disregard the wellbeing of the resulting child. There's no one as phoney and hypocritical than a person who's "prolife".
"socialism"
money not spent on white conservatives
Using the word "conservartive" to refer to Republicans or MAGA or related entities is a bd-faith argument.
The word "conservative" shouldn't be used unless you actually mean conservative. Use the correct terms instead when you talk about Republicans/MAGA.
They describe themselves as conservatives so I will refer to them as such. Most of the GOP describe themselves as such. Just because most of them have embraced a man that pretends to be conservative doesn't mean they aren't. This is what happens when you value power more than your self respect.
"They describe themselves as conservatives.."
That is non-sensical.
If somebody call themselves "the nobel class" you will also call them "the nobel class"?
For a good-faith argument, you call people what they are.
Words change meaning over time. Conservatives themselves are the ones who have changed what a conservative means today.
Giving them an excuse just because their current self description longer fit the old definition is not a good faith argument.
????
"Words change meaning over time."
In general that is true. But the word "conservative" has still retained many of its old connotations which are not applicable to Republicans or MAGA. It also has very different meaning to different people, and therefore it not useful for meaningful communication.
"Giving them an excuse"
What does that refer to?
Calling Republicans "Republicans" is giving them excuse?
You're literally writing apologia for their actions redefining conservatism.
You are an idiot, Crissa.
You are going with their redefinition. I say don't accept it.
Words change meaning over time.
Yes, but one would think that the word "conservative," specifically, should not change meaning over time.
+1
Calling MAGA conservative is using the word the same way an alpha male chimp uses a large branch in a dominance display.
Cryptozoologists insist they're real scientists. Should we be lumping real scientists in with cryptozoologist and calling them all scientists?
Real conservatives and real progressives are openminded and skeptical, except the former are more skeptical than openminded, and the latter are more openminded than skeptical.
Some people live in a reality that exists only in their own minds. MAGA is one subset within that larger category.
If we insist on communicating like chimpanzees, let's just speak chimpanzee. Doing so will have the advantage of making us more self-aware.
You think conservatives are open minded? To what exactly?
To which way is the most effective way to punish those they hate.
I hear they are also open to considering whether getting electrocuted is better than getting eaten by a shark.
My experience with conservatives and being open minded is that they are only openinded if they have personal experience with something. For an example, a Republican politician will often soften their views on homosexuality if they are related to someone that is. Being open minded for them and theirs but not so much for anyone else is not really being open minded if you ask me.
"Make America Great Again" is explicitly reactionary, not conservative. Conservatives support the status quo and oppose change; reactionaries reject the status quo and seek a return to some usually imaginary version of "the good old days".
And yet, they call themselves conservatives.
They lie. What's new?
The correct terms are fascist and Nazi. People need to say those a lot more often.
I think you've got "originalism" wrong. "Originalism" means any principle -- or even just any idea or action, even if it's devoid of principle -- that I like, so I simply claim that back then everybody knew it's what the Founders wanted.
Alternatively, "originalism" means treating others the way you would want to be treated if the shoe was on the other foot, and neoconservatism means doing unto others before they do unto you. By that definition, three SCOTUS justices are originalists, all three were appointed by a Democrat, and the six Federalist Society justices are ORINOs (originalists in name only).
I always refer to it as "Through the Looking Glass" original-ism and textual-ism; The words in the Constitution and any law mean exactly what they want them to mean, nothing more and nothing less.
"Judeo-Christian"
Christian, preferably Southern Baptist or Evangelical.
Addendum: The Jews are useful to us in as far as they rebuild the Temple so Jesus can come back and destroy the Liberals. After that, they will all be sent to hell for being on the wrong end of "Judeo-Christian".
Supporting Israel because you think most of the Jews are going to die in the rapture has to be the most cynical reason ever to support someone or something.
I find the Republican’s obsession with “DEI hires” deeply disingenuous. Too many mediocre privileged white men just coast into their position (Kavanaugh, I’m talking about you), while a woman or a minority member still has to work harder a smarter to achieve the same success. Just take the example of TFG, who grew up as a poor little rich kid. Without his dad’s money you never would have heard of him.
They hate it because it's competition for mediocre privileged white men. If it weren't for Trump being born rich he'd be selling uses cars in Queens or doing late night infomercials on cable t.v.
Nah he's already be in and out of jail or maybe long since dead.
TFG's own children could are horrible examples of hiring for reasons other than merit.
I assume you’re not talking about Ivanka. If you are, what is your reasoning?
Ivanka had a job with the Trump Organization for a while; apparently she got out soon enough to escape the New York fraud claims. She also was an advisor to her daddy, the president although I'm not sure it was an official position.
Tiffany is apparently going her own way, and Barron hasn't yet reached the age to benefit from nepotism.
What makes you think Kavanaugh "coasted into his position"? Going to Yale, Yale Law school and serving as an editor of the Yale Law Journal is hardly indicative of "coasting". Not to mention going to Georgetown Prep. I have many friends that went there (I grew up right down the street) and it's not easy to coast through that school.
And it's nonsense that minorities need to work harder these days. Obviously that was true once upon a time. These days corporations are falling all over themselves to promote minorities.
Yeah I knew guys from Georgetown Prep. I went to a co-ed prep on the other side of the river and they were in our same sports league.
They were all wealthy families not to be confused with smart. The dirty little secret is that wealth buys you tutoring test prep and all sorts of special ed if you need help focusing on schoolwork. Also being a legacy and family that was a large dollar donor paves the way too.
What school did you go to? I went to public school (WJ) but a lot of my friends went to Prep, Gonzaga, St. John’s, Visitation and Holy Cross.
"And it's nonsense that minorities need to work harder these days. Obviously that was true once upon a time. These days corporations are falling all over themselves to promote minorities."
Just... wow. Citation needed.
Personal observation and experience.
This belongs on Kevin's chart:
WHAT THEY SAY:
"Personal observation and experience."
WHAT THEY MEAN:
"I have no data."
What a stupid comment. Where’s your data that republicans say that and what the alternative meaning is?
Personal observation and experience. You walked right into that one 😉
Please. People who run in Kavanaugh's class have a far easier time getting into all those institutions. That you had many friends that went to GP is the least surprising fact.
Kavanaugh is fairly middle class. He was not wealthy and his current house is one of the more modest in his neighborhood. And just because you have an easier time getting into Yale doesn’t mean you have to work any less hard once you’re there.
This modest home?
https://medium.com/@gregolear/money-line-parlay-how-did-the-kavanaughs-afford-their-1-225-000-home-b53aaaf31b04
Bought with a down payment which would have bought two of my house free and clear?
are you confusing georgetown prep with georgetown day, alma mater of minor threat guitarist lyle preslar & bassist brian baker?
lol. No, but my buddy’s little sister did go to Georgetown Day.
Literally the guy who got into Yale as a legacy admission?
Dude. Why do you make such blatant lies?
"DEI hire> Dumb Black person.
No, they mean ni**er, though in a gender inclusive way,
Dynamic scoring. The new way to describe trickle down economics. Death tax, the creation of an aristocracy. Right to work. The decimation of unions in favor of big corporations. Whatever they say think the opposite. Conservatives love their euphemisms.
I got a summer job working on a big construction project in Waikiki in 1970. We were required to wear hard hats on the site. Good thing too. I was working on the the foundation with another guy as we were removing concrete forms. He was about 50 feet above me when a piece of rebar snagged his tool belt and his hammer was snatched from it's loop. Landed dead center on my helmet, and I didn't even feel the impact - just heard a loud "bonk". It might not have given me a skull fracture, but I'd probably have gotten seriously injured or killed 'cause it was a long drop onto the foundation slab if I'd lost my grip.
Anybody who thinks a standard hard hat is expensive and complicated has never worn one. Hawaiian Dredging and Construction let me keep the hat. And if I need a new one our local Lowes hardware store only charges $12.98 for a plain construction hard hat - and it pretty much looks a lot like mine.
I'm old enough that I remember when seatbelt laws and passive-restraint belts were new, and SO many people were just FURIOUS. They would deliberately NOT wear their seatbelts, even latch them so no alarm would sound and then sit on them, which was uncomfortable!
I wonder how many of them are alive &/or escaped serious injury today who wouldn't otherwise have.
To people who complain about a "nanny state," I sometimes ask sarcastically, "why would you need a nanny?"
"America"
the ~35% of it that looks, thinks, speaks and behaves like they do.
"Conservative"
somewhere between overtly reactionary and radically revanchist.
"Christian"
Christianist, ie all the (public) form but little to none of the moral substance.
Nicely done. All of these are worthy additions to Kevin’s list.
+1
i see kevin drum is now capitalizing black.
has out orange county reagan democrat gone woke? what will his tuesday lunching crew make of it?
The 14th Amendment argument w/r/t abortion is so dumb. Believe if you want that the unborn deserve civil rights, but the 14th Amendment plainly says it applies to "all persons born."
Worse, the argument also requires to deny the pregnant person their right to bodily and labor autonomy, first.
The Rule of Law: Laws apply to the poor and powerless, never the wealthy and powerful. (Except, of course, when a rich person rips off other rich people.)
Molly Ivins divided it between Social and Corporate. Want to guess which costs us more?
You forgot "Thoughts and prayers", meaning some combination of "My guns are more important than your children", "Freedom has its price", and my personal favourite from Shrek, "Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make".
"We're a Republic, not a democracy"
Translation: we love the electoral college, all the way up until Texas goes blue. Then well come up with another slogan.
*we'll*
FWIW, Japan has very few regulations on buildings, especially residential, except for extremely strict ones on engineering.
Inheritance taxes seem like the most American thing ever. They're anti-aristocracy.
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