Posted by
ConservativeChange on Thursday, December 04, 2008 12:14:15 PM
I noticed that one of the complaints against Sarah Palin was that her language and communication skills made her sound uneducated. She sounded like a folksy backwater mom that couldn't string words together in complete sentences. At least that is how the elite Washington intellectuals made it sound. Honestly, I think that a national politician should be able to speak the language well enough to understand and be understood in Washington. However, they are not there to represent Washington they are there to represent us, so I think it is just fine for them to speak like a regular person as well. Especially when they are out talking to us, and not heads of state or other dignitaries.
One thing that does bother me far more than a candidate speaking in their local vernacular is when their language becomes vulgar and obscene. I would rather have a civil country bumpkin in office that mispronounces some words, than a foul mouthed intellectual that pronounces obscenities and insults with precision. We have tossed civility out the door in politics. As long as the insult sounds clever and witty it is ok, but simple kindness and politeness are no longer en vogue.
A conservative change would be for conservative politicians in every level of government to cut back, not just on spending but also on the foul language and rudeness that they bring to the political process. I had a tenth grade English teacher that also happened to be a state representative. It was rather enlightening when I heard some politicians discussing her performance in the statehouse and the type of language she used. I didn’t have nearly as much respect for her after that, and I can’t say I am too surprised that she lost her bid for re-election this year. She may have been a Republican, but when it comes to her choice of words she was not the least bit conservative.
There are some places were insults, cursing, and other bad language don’t really belong. Those places include the news media, schools, and government. However, we have let them in anyways, and they now seem commonplace. It is time to reverse that trend, but lets do it the small government way, not the big government way. We need to look at our own lives to see the type of language we use personally. Then we need to look at the language being used in our homes. Next we need to look at the language used in our workplaces, schools, and places we hang out. Students don’t need to stop their whole school or university from swearing, but they can ask for better behavior from the people in their classes, especially their teachers.
If swearing and playground insults are no longer a part of our lives then maybe we will be a little more shocked and outraged when we see those in government or in the news using such language. Maybe we will actually react to it and let our representative know that we don’t want to be represented in that fashion.