Lessons In Groupspeak
Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
- - George Orwell
I am always struck, and impressed to be honest, by the consistency of lefty language. Whether it is due to a coordinated narrative ala jornolistas, or the result of deeply embedded group-think, the language of the left is programmatic to the point where it really doesn't matter which guest is appearing on which show, because they all say the same thing.
Now that Wisconsin is the center of the political universe, and because of that many readers, especially those who "don't follow politics" and may be new to the debate, we need to decipher a few muchly overused code words.
Working families:
Definition; families who work, which make up 93% of the population in Wisconsin, i.e. the percent that is employed, both private and public sectors.
Groupthink definition: union members. As in comments like "Walker is assaulting working families", even though more than 92% of families who work will be unaffected by the budget fix.
Middle class:
Definition: an economic sub class of working families whose household incomes are north of the poverty line but south of wealthy, let's say $100,000 per year, since only 2% of the population is up there.
Groupthink definition: union members, who, as a group, at about $60K/year average, are all a lot closer to the $1000k than they are the poverty line.
Workers:
Definition; employed people. In Wisconsin that would number 4,342,866.
Groupthink definition; Public Union members, 271,000 of the number above (5.6%). As in Governor Walker is attacking workers.
I caught the Democrat response to Governor Walkers fireside chat the other night and was amazed, but not surprised, that the word union was never spoken. See for yourself So I gather they want us to believe this whole to do is about all 4.7 million of us. Sure. No problem. I believe that like I believe they visited Illinois in February for the sunshine and beaches.
If the debate is going to be decided on imagery Walker wins going away. Never mind Senator Cadaver Miller, the earth tones, the slouch, the background, the delivery. Yet in spite of all that the thing that struck me most was the fact that he never used the word union one single time.
If deliberate they understand the truth damages their cause. If accidental they are as out of touch as they are out of town, and/or as usual, they certainly think we are. But don't laugh, the fact we let it go this long has given them the confidence to think they still might win.
Here's the thing though, whatever term they use, middle class, workers, working families, employees, whatever, they have to resort to hyperbole, misinformation, and obfuscation. If they don't successfully blow their numbers way out of proportion someone might notice they amount to less than 1 in 17 of Wisconsin's entire workforce, and the other 16 are going to start wondering why they are getting so much attention.
Other questions might come up as well, like
- how can 5.6% of the workforce completely stymie the legislative process without a voting majority...
- how is it that 5.6% of the entire workforce enjoys a vastly higher percentage of all benefits,
- how can 5.6% of the workforce union wield so much influence on the Democrat legislature that when the union bosses say take a day off the Democrat Senators leave town. (I am assuming the Senators realize they are not actual union members, but after watching their antics this past couple of weeks that might be giving them too much credit)
Democrat/union incestuousness has become so complete you can't tell which is which, Democrats are the muscle of the union or the other way around, or both. It's difficult to accuse them of a conflict of interest when their interests are interchangeable.
It takes a concerted effort to keep such a sweet deal in tact. Well, that and a recalcitrant citizenry who in their typical Midwestern courtesy, are reluctant to say something unkind about their friends and neighbors, even while being buggered by the same people. Fact is the friends and neighbors aren't really the buggers, their union bosses are. It's all part of the grand obfuscation.
Just imagine, we have a situation where
- the employer actually funds his employees strongest lobbyist through payroll deduction
- the lobbyist funnels those funds to the campaigns of friendly politicians, who are, presumably, the employers boss at the state level while they also
- fund, organize, and execute grass roots support for compliant school board members to serve as their rubber stamp bosses at the local level.
Sweet.
The ingenuity of self-serving corruption has manifested a perpetual funding machine. Any appearance of innocence is derived from the fact that members also pay into the pilfered pot only to but get it back many fold in the form of higher than average wages and incomparably superior benefits.
The thing that elevates this con from brilliant to perfect is that it's all perfectly legal. Only in government.
In the private sector we might call this money laundering, or at least a conflict of interest.
In Wisconsin we call it statute. Until now.
It is very interesting to learn about the different socioeconomic situations of the people in Wisconsin. It's crazy how funding for lobbyists are funneled through the system. I wonder is Louisville payroll processing works the same way. I am very interested in politics and money, perhaps you can help me out?
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