Political Jargon 301 and Metaphors
Is politics the art of the possible or is it child’s play? Let’s look at some political metaphors and jargon that might answer this question.
Politics is the Art of the Possible
As politics is the art of the possible, political spin doctors always try to present their political parties’ best foot forward. It is also said that there are no permanent friends or foes, and that politics makes for strange bedfellows . Candidates also frequently try to mend fences with their electorate, even when they think that they have committed political suicide.
A political spin doctor is usually a political aide polished at presentation and providing a spin to the party’s policies, actions or viewpoints on an issue in a favorable manner. The origin is a little mysterious and there are a few theories that relate back to “spinning a yarn”, or the spin of a ball in sports such as cricket or snooker and others in this blog post.
A political pundit is different from a political spin doctor. In ancient India, the word “Pundit”, derived from the Sanskrit “Panditah”, referred to someone who was a learned authority, usually in the area of Vedic scriptures. It was adopted in English and then in politics. A “political pundit” means a person who provides opinions, generally authoritative, in mass media on politics. Here are some examples of the usage “What Every Political Pundit Gets Wrong about the Election”, “A conservative news network’s defamation case against the political pundit should be tossed”, “A federal judge considered whether the political pundit’s on-air statements were fully protected speech immune from a jury trial”.
Political fence mending to try to repair a damaged relationship, is often seen around election time. The usage of the phrase is seen in the following examples: “Gubernatorial candidates have fence-mending ahead”, “This President’s Trip to Mexico Will Mix Goodwill, Politics, Fence-Mending “, “President Looks to Mend Fences With Detroit Car Makers “. One of the poet Robert Frost’s famous sayings is “Good fences make good neighbors”. Since neighbors usually share a fence, keeping a fence mended probably shows respect for each other. The expression originated in America in the late 19th century, when a Congressional member would return to their home town to keep in touch with voters and look after their interests.
“Political suicide” is when a politician or party proposes or takes actions that are unpopular or unfavorable and so loses the confidence of the public. Here are some examples: “Only a person on a political suicide mission can dare take on his party leader publicly in the manner he has done and hope to survive”, ” It is far too early to start raising taxes to pay for the current debt pile-up and it would be political suicide to broach the debate at the current time”.
Even when two candidate’s or parties’ have widely differing views, a common cause or political interests can bring them together. The origin of the phrase “Politics makes strange bedfellows” is thought to be from Shakespeare’s line in the Tempest “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows”. I saw many examples of such alliances between far-right and center-left political parties when growing up in Indian politics.
Is Politics Child’s Play?
Characters from Alice in Wonderland , references to musical chairs and Pirates? Read on to discover hidden nuances in political phrases that might make you wonder when our politicians will grow up.
The phrase TweedleDee and TweedleDum politics refers to people that are one of a kind, generally in a derogatory context. They are fictional characters that Lewis Carroll used in his his book “Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice Found There” . The two brothers never contradict each other, and seem to complement each other. The general context in the media article represented by this headline “Get ready for another tweedledum versus tweedledee election” is that although the two major political parties might swap power, there doesn’t seem to be any radically different approach to governing.
Politics is often compared to a game of musical chairs. A game played in our childhood, where players march to the beat of music around fewer chairs. When the music stops, some players are left without a chair and therefore are out of the game. Congressional redistricting due to gerrymandering or census counts often results in a game of political musical chairs where multiple candidates contest for fewer seats. Cabinet reshuffles, with cabinet members vying for plum posts, are also similar.
Pirates of the Caribbean were the original filibusters, who used disruptive practices to plunder and capture booty. The word filibuster owes it origins to the Dutch term vrijbuiter, which means ‘plunderer’ or ‘pirate’, and the Spanish word filibustero which means freebooting. It currently means to “pirate” parliamentary procedures. A filibuster is often used in the US senate, where the political party in the minority, can choose to debate a bill for a long time, sometimes unending and prevent it from being voted on. Senators have been known to read Shakespeare’s plays, recipes and the American Constitution for hours on end in their filibustering attempts. A filibuster can end if three-fifths of the Senate approves to end the talking and force a vote on the bill.
Although Witches and Wizards prominently figure in Harry Potter books, political phrases too have their origins in witch-hunts and masks.
The “Salem Witch Trials” occurred in the seventeenth century in the coastal town of Salem in Massachusetts and led to the phrase “political witch-hunt“. Many people were accused and tried of witchcraft,and several of them executed. There were many socio-political and racial issues at play during that time. Spectral evidence, where the accused witch’s spirit supposedly appeared in the witness’s dream, was accepted in the courts.
In the political environment, the phrase is used as a metaphor to refer to efforts to drag down, intimidate or punish supposedly innocent politicians. Here are some examples from news media on it’s usage, “Was the investigation a hoax or a witch-hunt or a deep state conspiracy?”, “His plea of a political witch-hunt and human rights violations in jails was already rejected during the extradition hearing” and “His lawyers will no doubt take this matter to international institutions where they will argue he has been the victim of a political witch-hunt with no respect for due process”.
Political mumbo-jumbo essentially means political talk which is confusing , meaningless or incomprehensible. A few examples are, “It was political mumbo-jumbo, with a dash of self-righteous posturing”, “The notion that all of us – rich, poor, and in-between-share and enjoy a common individual liberty like free speeech is political mumbo-jumbo”.
Mumbo-jumbo traces its historical roots to West Africa many centuries ago when polygamy was common. Ritualistically, a masked male dancer would resolve marital disputes that had gotten out of hand by frightening or sometimes whipping the woman. Perhaps, it was due to the nonsensical noises made by this masked male or the gibberish that came out of the frightened woman’s mouth, that mumbo-jumbo came to be associated with empty talk.
Elections and issues
While political campaigns’ have different strategies, bread and butter issues are always front and center in most election campaigns. To avoid controversy, candidates sometimes avoid talking about third rail issues, although they do make as many whistle-stops as possible to garner support. There are always the opportunistic carpetbaggers, who sometimes get lucky and ride the coattails of more popular candidates to victory.
“Bread and butter issues” or “kitchen-table issues” in politics refers any issue, such as the economy or taxes that affect ordinary people in their daily lives. Politicians often campaign on these issues to show how important they uphold the issues that affect ordinary people. Here are some examples: “I’ve been impressed by this candidate’s thoughtfulness and focus on real kitchen-table issues” , ” A free press is the platter to our bread-and-butter issues”.
The phrase “third rail” is used to describe political subjects or policies/programs that are felt to be too controversial to even speak about. The term comes from the power rail — the third rail — in subway or mass transit trains. The two “wheel” rails are safe to touch, but the third rail carries a high voltage current that powers the engine and will electrocute you if touched.
Whistle-Stopping: The practice of making speeches in many towns in a short time, often during a single day. When politicians traveled by train, small towns were called whistle-stops. Politicians would use the stop to deliver a quick campaign speech, often from the back of the train, before heading to the next stop.
A Carpetbagger is a political candidate who seeks election in an area where they have no local connections, an opportunist. Historical context was a person from the northern states who went to the South after the Civil War to profit from the Reconstruction. The term carpetbagger, used exclusively as a pejorative term, originated from the carpet bags (a form of cheap luggage made from carpet fabric) which many of these newcomers carried. The term came to be associated with opportunism and exploitation by outsiders.
Politicians or parties often “ride on others’ coattails” during elections. A few examples are , “Riding congressional coattails to the state Senate”, “Could Europe be in for serious political instability as right-wing parties in France, Finland and other countries try to ride Britain’s coattails out of the union” , “Governors who rode his coattails to victory have abandoned him”. A coattail refers to the loose material or flaps formed by the lower back of a coat. The “coattail effect” in politics refers to when an influential or popular candidate influences or impacts the results of other candidates.
Political Acronyms
Common political acronyms are POTUS (President of the United States), FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) , VP (Vice President) or Veep and SOTU (State of the Union) . RINO, short for “Republican in Name Only,” is used to criticize Republicans who often side with Democrats. Less common is DIABLO (Democrat in All But Label Only).
Other Political Jargon
The political grapevine refers to informal communication of information around political events or decisions from one person to another, the accuracy of which may be suspect. Here are a few examples, “The political grapevine doing the rounds suggests that a few senior cabinet members are feeling alienated”, “This development was clearly unusual and predictably set the capital’s hyperactive political grapevine buzzing”, “With one year to go before the next U.S. presidential election, the political grapevine is swamped with speculations once more as to who will be running for which position”
There are many theories around the origin of the phrase “grapevine”. In the pre-civil war days in the American South, grape pickers work in close spaces next to each other when harvesting grapes, and spread news by word of mouth to each other. Another theory is that the phrase may have originated as a codeword for the “clothesline telegraph” during the Underground Railroad days , when secret messages were sent to the slaves by arranging differently colored clothes on a clothesline. During the American Civil War, the telegraph was used as an important communications device. However, soldiers often knew important information before it was officially communicated over the wire, and the term became known as “grapevine telegraph”.
From the clothesline days, comes another political phrase “Clothespin vote“. The metaphor appears inspired by early twentieth century cartoons showing voters holding their nose while voting for a candidate that they disliked, perhaps due to party loyalty or habit.
For many more metaphors, check out my blog post on Boxing Metaphors, Football Metaphors , Baseball Metaphors , Political Metaphors-Part I and Political Metaphors-Part II