Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Conservatives Use Language To Disguise

In its Wednesday email to the faithful, Wisconsin Club for Growth includes this line:

State Senator Glenn Grothmann (R-West Bend) is seeking cosponsors for a mild reform requiring circulators of recall petitions to provide a notarized statement verifying their identity, and stating that they personally gathered the signatures on the petition.
"Mild reform?"

Think about the language; why the need to qualify and downplay the "reform" as "mild?"

Could it be that the Club is trying to disguise the impact of the "reform" [sic], since adding any impediment to the recall process would be at odds with a long-standing right written into the Wisconsin State constitution?

And by the way, remember how Scott Walker sold his so-called budget-repair bill, the one that also removed nearly all collective bargaining rights from public employees? After refusing to negotiate?

He said it contained "modest, modest" proposals.

Two modests! There's your tip-off.

As in, "I really, really liked that meatloaf."

And how the time he told a Congressional hearing his union-stripping approach was "progressive?" 

Forced on public employees and their unions, without negotiations.

When you take things away that have been around for more than 50 years, and do it as a one-sided power play, I believe the correct work is "regressive," especially in the state that gave the country the Progressive Party, magazine, movement, etc.

When these conservative politicians and advocacy groups speak, you have to look behind the words.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

DICTIONARY
modest
Definition
mod·est[ móddəst ]To hear the pronunciation, install Silverlight
ADJECTIVE 
1. 
humble: unwilling to draw attention to your own achievements or abilities
2. 
shy: not confident or assertive, and tending to be easily embarrassed
3. 
reasonable: not large, extreme, or excessive
"a modest income"
4. 
simple: not showy, elaborate, or pretentious
"a modest dwelling"
5. 
not overtly sexual: reserved in appearance, manner, and speech, especially in relation to sexual matters
[ Mid-16th century. Partly back-formation < modesty, partly via French modeste < Latin modestus "kept within due measure" ]

Scooter and Glen need to go back to school specifically to improve their vocabulary.
I have yet to see a "modest" proposal coming out of these extremists.

Anonymous said...

I believe that Jonathan Swift's original "modest proposal" was for the Irish to raise their children to be sold for food. Interesting that Walker used the same language of modesty in his draconian proposals. What a mean hypocrite.

James Rowen said...

I doubt Walker knew the Swiftian connection and that other people would laugh at him for making it

David Blaska said...

Yet, that is exactly what petitioners had to do before the year 2000 -- swear that they had circulated the petition and get a notary to sign and stamp each sheet. That is what I had to do.

James Rowen said...

So that apparently worked well through the recall of Tom Ament, which gave rise to Walker, and the recalls of the other county supervisors. What's urgency now?