by Victor Davis Hanson
National Review Online
ACORN: Never heard of it
Arizona: Resembles 1930s Italy
beer summit: Where investigating an apparent break-in is defined as acting “stupidly”
bipartisan: A senator with a 97 percent partisan voting record
Boehner, John: Is to be blamed
bow: Correct greeting for sheiks; for the Queen, an iPod is appropriate
BP: Company requiring a boot on its neck to make it fork over $10 billion, or $15 billion — or why not $20 billion?
campaign finance reform: Applies to “them”
capital-gains taxes: Increase them even if that brings in less revenue (it’s the punishment, stupid)
Chamber of Commerce: Is really to be blamed
Chicago community organizer: Best preparation for the Oval Office
Chrysler creditor: To the back of the line
Churchill: Eccentric 19th-century colonialist
civility: Requires demonizing George W. Bush, while deifying Barack Obama
comprehensive health-care reform: Entails astronomical rises in private health-insurance premiums
comprehensive immigration reform: Blanket amnesty
corpsman: One who carries corpses
Costa del Sol: A cut-rate getaway spot for recession vacationing
cowards: Won’t talk nonstop about race
czar: Agency director subject neither to confirmation hearings nor to audit
divisive: Opposing Barack Obama
doctors: Medical professionals liable to cut off your limbs and rip out your tonsils needlessly for profit
elections: Only sometimes have consequences
enemy: An American who opposes illegal immigration; sometimes mistakenly used of combatants fighting Americans
energy: To be capped and traded rather than produced
exceptional: Old, inaccurate description of the United States
faces: As in “get in their”
filibuster: Archaic and obstructionist parliamentary maneuver except when used to stop reactionary appointments
Fox News: Is really, really to be blamed
George W. Bush: Is really, really, really to be blamed
get out the vote: Dangerous except when applied to minority blocs
golf: Sign of aristocratic disdain that can nevertheless be appropriately used to recharge exhausted liberal batteries
green jobs: Massive subsidies to friendly progressive enterprises
Ground Zero Mosque: No such thing
Guantanamo Bay: Virtually closed
guns: You cling to them, we bring them to a knife fight
“hope and change”: An inspiring slogan that is better than the facts or the truth
ice cream: Eating it will get your children deported
inheritance taxes: Reason to die before 2011
Iraq: Now the good bad war
jobs: Always potentially saved, never actually lost
KSM: Virtually tried and convicted in a New York federal court
Las Vegas: Where enemies of the people go to spend their ill-gotten gains
Latinos: Group of Americans who must punish enemies of the people at the polls
laws: Suggestions that may be followed in cases of social utility
Limbaugh, Rush: Is really, really, really, really to be blamed
“make no mistake about it”: As enlightening as “let me be perfectly clear”
Martha’s Vineyard: Another populist recession-era getaway place
minorities: “They’re counting on your silence. They’re counting on your amnesia. They’re counting on your apathy.”
money: “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough”
NASA: A social bureau dedicated to Islamic outreach
“never waste a crisis”: Recessions are not so bad after all
outliers: Formerly known as rogue nations
polarization: Rising opposition to liberalism
Predators: Bush started them
progressive: Alternative to liberal, used when the latter polls badly
prolonged detention: Acceptable, as opposed to indeterminate detention
radical Islam: A construct of the paranoid Right
redistributive change: What the Supreme Court needs to work toward
renditions: Ongoing Bush felonies now impossible to stop
Republicans: Cannot sit in the front seat
reset button: Treating our friends as neutrals and our enemies as friends
SEIU: A social-services organization
shovel-ready: Neither ready nor involving shovels
smoking: Does not occur if it occurs in the Rose Garden
stimulus: Borrowing another trillion dollars with no plan for paying it back
tax: Reclaiming public money that was taken by greedy and selfish private citizens
Tea Party: Extremist anti-government types in the incendiary tradition of Jefferson; preferably called “tea-baggers”
terrorism: A man-caused disaster addressed by overseas contingency operations
“they”: Wealthy evil manipulators who use their obscene profits to vacation in places like Las Vegas
times of economic uncertainty: A signal that you are about to be called a racist
tribunals: Bush started those too
$250,000: Above that bad, below good
undisclosed: Description of anonymous opposition campaign contributors
unemployed: Those whose jobs were lost under Bush
Van Jones: Even the name was made up
wealth: To be spread rather than created
white person: Often “typical” and “bitter” with “untrained ears,” and likely to “cling” to religion and guns; in short, full of “antipathy”
working across the aisle: Offering huge earmarks or presidential appointments in return for a single Republican legislative vote
“yes, we can”: Inspiring slogan that went out of use during the summer of 2009
©2010 Victor Davis Hanson