{"id":6198,"date":"2013-07-15T16:44:47","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T16:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=6198"},"modified":"2013-07-15T16:46:24","modified_gmt":"2013-07-15T16:46:24","slug":"president-obamas-new-american-vocabulary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/president-obamas-new-american-vocabulary\/","title":{"rendered":"President Obama’s New American Vocabulary"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0PJ Media<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"CC-BY-SA-3.0<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Of all the many changes that the Obama administration has enacted over the last five years, the least remarked upon are the strange changes in our vocabulary. To fathom\u00a0the shifting meaning of words<\/a>, here is a guide to the new Obama lexicon.<\/p>\n

Affordable Care Act:<\/strong>\u00a0Mostly\u00a0unaffordable, uncaring, and inactive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Assault Weapon:<\/strong>\u00a0Paint your .22 black\u00a0and add a plastic handle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Associated Press:<\/strong>\u00a0Leakers\u00a0who dared to challenge<\/a>\u00a0the White House monopoly.<\/p>\n

Baby:<\/strong>\u00a0Punishment for a mistake<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Benghazi:<\/strong>\u00a0We won\u2019t have any more because\u00a0one video-maker is now in prison<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Berlin Wall:<\/strong>\u00a0Analogous to the Cold War fence<\/a>\u00a0that kept out German illegal aliens from entering a free East Berlin.<\/p>\n

Biden:<\/strong>\u00a0Buffoonery after it becomes boring.<\/p>\n

Buffett:<\/strong>\u00a0He alone built that<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Carney:<\/strong>\u00a0Ron Ziegler lives<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Cashing in:<\/strong>\u00a0A practice finally ended when Hillary Clinton and Lisa Jackson left office.<\/p>\n

Coal:<\/strong>\u00a0A toxic rock that the crazy Chinese\u00a0believe makes heat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Corporate Jet Owners:<\/strong>\u00a0Sort of like\u00a0Air Force One<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Corpsmen:<\/strong>\u00a0Zombies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Courts:<\/strong>\u00a0Revolutionary tribunals.<\/p>\n

\u201cCowards\u201d:<\/strong>\u00a0Everybody\u00a0but \u201cmy people.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Debt:<\/strong>\u00a0What\u00a0debt<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Debt Ceilings:<\/strong>\u00a0Only Senate cowards vote not to raise them.<\/p>\n

Deficits:<\/strong>\u00a0Ex-presidents\u00a0incurred them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Diversity:<\/strong>\u00a0Endangered by locking up mass-murdering Maj. Hasan.<\/p>\n

Drones:<\/strong>\u00a0Sophisticated, humane military tools in the hands of the right commander in chief.<\/p>\n

Enemies:<\/strong>\u00a0Ours are to be\u00a0punished at home<\/a>, while\u00a0courted abroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Erdogan:<\/strong>\u00a0A valuable and trusted\u00a0anti-Semite, racist, and religious bigot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Filibusters:<\/strong>\u00a0Unpatriotic obstructionism begun in 2007.<\/p>\n

Genocide:<\/strong>\u00a0An American crime unknown to the Germans,\u00a0Hutus<\/a>, and Turks.<\/p>\n

Guantanamo:\u00a0<\/strong>Virtually closed as promised.<\/p>\n

Hawaii:<\/strong>\u00a0Now in Asia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hope and Change:<\/strong>\u00a02016<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Illegal Aliens:<\/strong>\u00a0See undocumented workers.<\/p>\n

Interest:<\/strong>\u00a0It\u00a0no longer exists<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fast and Furious:<\/strong>\u00a0More often\u00a0a slow and methodical death<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fat Cat:<\/strong>\u00a0The new Al Gore<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fifty-seven states:<\/strong>\u00a0A trick question on Harvard Law School exams.<\/p>\n

First Amendment:<\/strong>\u00a0So long, glad to have known you.<\/p>\n

Food Stamps:<\/strong>\u00a0Never stamps and\u00a0not always for food<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fracking:<\/strong>\u00a0Produces way too much unnecessary energy and money.<\/p>\n

George Zimmerman:<\/strong>\u00a0Does not look like\u00a0the son Obama might have had<\/a>.<\/p>\n

George Zimmerman Trial:<\/strong>\u00a0An indictment of white male America<\/a>, when a female judge instructs an all-female jury in a case involving a Latino shooting an African-American \u2014 with pretrial input from an African-American president and attorney general.<\/p>\n

Golf:<\/strong>\u00a0A\u00a0populist<\/a>\u00a0sport\u00a0necessary<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0relieve<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0weekly<\/a>\u00a0tensions of\u00a0average-guy presidents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Global Warming:<\/strong>\u00a0Along\u00a0with rising seas<\/a>, mostly ended by the president in 2009.<\/p>\n

Green:<\/strong>\u00a0Alternative sources of money<\/a>.<\/p>\n

IRS:<\/strong>\u00a0Investigation of right-wing suspects.<\/p>\n

Israel:<\/strong>\u00a0A boring free-market democracy surrounded by rich cultural diversity.<\/p>\n

Jihad:<\/strong>\u00a0A sort of personal journey to be posted on Facebook.<\/p>\n

Law:<\/strong>\u00a0Can occasionally be enforced against the right people.<\/p>\n

Leading from Behind:<\/strong>\u00a0Or rather\u00a0following from the front<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lobbyists:<\/strong>\u00a0Disappeared from government in 2009.<\/p>\n

Lying:<\/strong>\u00a0Speaking untruth except when doing so before the Congress and under oath.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake No Mistake About It\u201d:<\/strong>\u00a0Something neither \u201cperfectly clear\u201d nor \u201cin point of fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Media:<\/strong>\u00a0The Ministry of Truth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Money:<\/strong>\u00a0You have made enough of it<\/a>\u00a0already.<\/p>\n

Muslim Brotherhood:<\/strong>\u00a0Secular, at least largely.<\/p>\n

Muslims:<\/strong>\u00a0Those who also worship Jesus but without the bothersome bible thumping.<\/p>\n

NSA:<\/strong>\u00a0Add another A and it would be\u00a0an Islamic outreach agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nuclear Option:<\/strong>\u00a0To be outlawed,\u00a0except in the Senate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ObamaCare:<\/strong>\u00a0Sort of read, sort of passed, sort of enacted, sort of ended.<\/p>\n

One-percenter:<\/strong>\u00a0Obama fundraisers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Police:<\/strong>\u00a0Act stupidly.<\/p>\n

Profile:<\/strong>\u00a0Typical white person.<\/p>\n

Profit:<\/strong>\u00a0Not the time to.<\/p>\n

Race:<\/strong>\u00a0Cowards<\/a>\u00a0never talk about it.<\/p>\n

Recess Appointments:<\/strong>\u00a0Hardly \u201cdamaged goods.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Renditions:<\/strong>\u00a0Valuable anti-terrorism protocols once George Bush left office.<\/p>\n

Reset:<\/strong>\u00a0Turning neutrals into enemies.<\/p>\n

Revolving Door:<\/strong>\u00a0Abuses ended by those\u00a0like Peter Orszag<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sequesters:<\/strong>\u00a0Forced on fiscally sober presidents<\/a>\u00a0by uncaring, callous opponents.<\/p>\n

Spiking the Ball:\u00a0<\/strong>You avoid that by mentioning a dead Osama bin Laden ad nauseam.<\/p>\n

Spread the Wealth:<\/strong> Tuition at\u00a0Sidwell Friends<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Spying:<\/strong>\u00a0OK on friends, suspicious when on others.<\/p>\n

Taxes:<\/strong>\u00a0Never were raised on those who pay more of them.<\/p>\n

Tea Party:<\/strong>\u00a0Presidentially referenced sex act<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Terrorism:<\/strong>\u00a0Endemic among returning Iraqi veterans and Christian fundamentalists.<\/p>\n

Transparent:<\/strong>\u00a0Say it enough and it happens.<\/p>\n

Typical White Person:<\/strong>\u00a0Jorge Meza Zimmerman.<\/p>\n

Undocumented Workers:\u00a0<\/strong>Never had documents and not all have worked.<\/p>\n

Unemployment Rate:<\/strong>\u00a0It depends on why you want to know.<\/p>\n

White Hispanic:<\/strong>\u00a0Not to be confused with white African-American<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wind and Solar:<\/strong>\u00a0Like farm subsidies without the farm.<\/p>\n

Workplace Violence:\u00a0<\/strong>Murdering 13 soldiers\u00a0while yelling \u201cAllahu Akbar.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0PJ Media   Of all the many changes that the Obama administration has enacted over the last five years, the least remarked upon are the strange changes in our vocabulary. To fathom\u00a0the shifting meaning of words, here is a guide to the new Obama lexicon. Affordable Care Act:\u00a0Mostly\u00a0unaffordable, uncaring, and inactive. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[536],"tags":[12,726,398],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Blacks-Law-Dictionary.jpg?fit=300%2C217&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1BY","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8109,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/fantasyland-u-s-a\/","url_meta":{"origin":6198,"position":0},"title":"Fantasyland, U.S.A.","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ PJMedia One way of reinventing reality is to warp the meaning of words. No president in memory has waged such a war on the English language as has Barack Obama \u2014 changing the meaning of vocabulary to hide what he fears might otherwise be unpopular.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Political Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Political Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/political-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mr. President, honest, I did not write 1984 as a how-to guide.Photo via Eddriscoll.com ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/orwell_obama_12-21-14-3-500x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7088,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-modest-proposal-on-ukraine\/","url_meta":{"origin":6198,"position":1},"title":"A Modest Proposal on Ukraine","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO's the Corner\u00a0 Of all the advice to Obama to reverse his brand of Carterism, the best might simply be to shut his eyes, and every time he gets angry and is about to say something about Israel, stop, and think first to substitute the reset\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ukraine"","block_context":{"text":"Ukraine","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/ukraine\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8241,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-derangement-syndrome-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":6198,"position":2},"title":"Obama Derangement Syndrome?","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ NRO- The Corner Some, like Ezra Klein, have posited that Rudy Giuliani\u2019s suggestion that Obama may not be patriotic and Scott Walker\u2019s hesitation to assert that Obama is a Christian illustrate a sort of unhinged Obama Derangement Syndrome. Aside from the fact that Obama himself\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "NRO The Corner"","block_context":{"text":"NRO The Corner","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/nro-the-corner\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13677,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/words-matter-or-not-the-biden-vocabulary-of-the-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":6198,"position":3},"title":"Words Matter\u2014Or Not: The Biden Vocabulary of the Times","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 3, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Private Papers Armed insurrection\u2014a motley mob riot with no leaders, no firearms, no plans, and resulting in five fatalities, four from natural causes and one shot while unarmed by an unnamed police officer. Assault\u2014anything but 120 days of rioting, looting and arson, $2 billion in damage,\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 14 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 14 comments","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/words-matter-or-not-the-biden-vocabulary-of-the-times\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2711,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/hope-and-changes-shelf-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":6198,"position":4},"title":"Hope and Change’s Shelf Life","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner After listening to Obama's speeches of the last few weeks, I think almost everyone now knows the boilerplate. In essence, the script is the following: First, the president clears his throat by trashing Bush and\/or the prior administration. Then, as many have noted, Mr.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "May 2009"","block_context":{"text":"May 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/may-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5973,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/reap-what-you-sow\/","url_meta":{"origin":6198,"position":5},"title":"Reap What You Sow","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner In the next few weeks, we will probably hear more stories about journalists whose correspondence was monitored, and more creepy details about the corruption of the IRS. The fault, however, is not Obama\u2019s alone; he is what he is \u2014 a take-no-prisoners tough Chicago\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mainstream Media"","block_context":{"text":"Mainstream Media","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/mainstream-media\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6198"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6202,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6198\/revisions\/6202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}