Republicans: Please stop abusing the English Language.

[Dark]

I'm a writer, specifically a journalist in training. And I have a request for all the Republicans out there:

Please stop twisting, contorting, bending, mauling, and especially mutilating my mother tongue. I know you guys aren't the brightest bulb in the building (or trash heap, for that matter) and that words with more than one syllable confuse you. But it has gotten ridiculous.

And, before you say it, yes I know that liberals certainly have done their share with political correctness. And, yes, I hate political correctness. But at least politically correct phrases still mean what they say. "Physically challenged" is hard on the tongue, but at least it still means handicapped.

You all seem to just randomly select words out of a dictionary, or, rather a thesaurus. Maybe it's like a scavenger hunt, whoever can find the most impressive sounding word wins. I don't know.

But what I do know is that every time there's a new issue, some Republican comes up with a new phrase that, technically, has nothing to do with what anyone is talking about.

Cut and run is in vogue for this week, and I'm tired of it. That's all I hear, "cut and run. That's what you liberals always do, cut and run."

I won't bother pointing out the historical inaccuracy of that phrase, except to say that every major war we've been involved in before the two gulf wars was initiated by democrats and the only one where anybody did any cutting and running was Vietnam, and it was a Republican who did that.

Anywho, I want you to stop using this ridiculous phrase. First of all, 'cut' doesn't meant anything in that phrase. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cut">Dictionary.com doesn't give any definitions that match what you're trying to say for cut.

Secondly, 'run' doesn't mean anything bad. You can run from the enemy, or run to them. Or run around. You really need a preposition after it to clarify it. But I know most of your constituents wouldn't know what a preposition is, since they feel that the third grade is for them 'city-folks', just like electricity, indoor plumbing, and marrying outside one's family.

Suffice to say, please start looking up the words before using them. Then we can have a (semi)-reasoned debate.

[CatholicEdHead]

1. Actually, soundbytes like that have seemed to work

with the masses. If it is simple, and even somewhat grammatically incorrect it does appeal to the average person.

[Dark]

2. I know, but it still bothers me that they abuse the language, get away

with it, and it WORKS.

Bullshit in my opinion.

[LostInAnomie]

3. Sloganeering has been working for them since "Return to Normalcy"

After all, Harding was the prototype of all Republican presidents.

[Hardrada]

8. Nixon and Eisenhower were literate and wrote books.

Before them obviously Lincoln, Grant and Theodore Roosevelt. Interestingly, FDR wasn't a writer. He had a great staff though.

[LostInAnomie]

10. I should have said...

... modern Republican presidents. Reagen, Bush I, and Bush II.

Dim wits who have been placed in power to do the bidding of the rich and powerful. Completely undeserving of the position and power.

[MADem]

4. He who fights, and runs away

Lives to fight another day.

But he who stays when chance has passed,
Winds up with a swift kick in the ass!

[stellanoir]

5. I first tended to invent the phrase

oligarchicic hypnogoguery when they were just lying prior to 9/11.

Then after the "Help America Vote Act," the "Clean Skies Act," the "Healthy Forests Act," and "the "No Child Left Behind Act.," I now describe it as disingenuous nomenclature.

AKA they are frigging duplicitous freaks who have more control than they've ever earned or deserved.

Sorry I'm just bothered by their level of dishonesty.

[Igel]

6. Of course, the idea of an idiom is foreign to you.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cut%20and%20run

The meaning of an idiom is not compositional. It also displays odd grammatical properties.

For example ... the direct object of 'cut' is completely implied in the historical, literal meaning of the phrase. But there is no implied direct object in the idiom.

And 'run' was an activity in the phrase that spawned the idiom. A ship can run, and presumably it can run to something or from it, but 'run' simply meant 'to be underway'. Rather like saying a car engine can't just 'run', it can run to, from, around, under, etc., but not just run. "I left my car running (from the cat) in the driveway." Eh. Idioms. One needs not only competence, one has to exhibit a minimum amount of cooperativeness.

One shouldn't flaunt one's creditials to validate one's superiority while criticizing others' flawed grammar, and then write something like "'cut' doesn't meant anything in that phrase."

[FormerDittoHead]

7. They are only using what "tests" well...

They are as careful with their words and phrases AS SHAKESPEARE.

Do you really think they're doing it UNINTENTIONALLY?

I'm not talking about Bush's many flubs. I'm talking about the "heavy rotation" in the Republican echo chamber.

They will do WHATEVER IS NECESSARY to win. They don't care about truth, history or science, let alone proper English.

Every phrase, expression, EVERY **WORD** is tested on focus groups, then tested on a series of talk radio audiences to guage reaction, tested on small political "rallies" then finally put in the "heavy rotation".

You're looking at MARKETING *SCIENCE*, not GRAMMAR.

[mikeyj84]

9. english language

these war mongering idiots,scream cut and run because none of them had the BALLS to fight in a war. It's easy to say stay the course when it's not your ASS! i too hate political correctness, it's nothing more than controlling the Language.

[madmom]

11. actually the phrase "cut and run" is a nautical term meaning

if you're in a bad situation cut the anchor rope and run as in get out of it, what ever "it" may be. So it is really more intelligent to "cut and run" than to stay and whatever.

[Hardrada]

12. To stay and sink but wait!!! That's where the Titanic metaphors

can be useful.