There are No Conservative Republicans or Entitlements in Our Country

There Are No Conservative Republicans or Entitlements in Our Country

Summary:  Words like “conservative” and “entitlement” should be replaced by “radical rightist” and “earned benefit.”  Words matter because they carry emotional freight, and we should not allow the radical right to select the words that we use.

Right Wing Republicans Are Radicals, Not Conservatives

Radical rightists in the Republican Party like to call themselves “conservatives,” but they are not conservatives.  They are radicals. Conservatives want to conserve what we have, but the rightists in the Republican Party want to make radical changes.  That makes them radicals, and the fact that they are on the political right does not change that.

So, we progressives should always use the term “radical rightists.”  The word “conservative” should disappear from our vocabulary except perhaps in a historical context.  It is important that we do this because words make a difference. The word “conservative” is warm and fuzzy.  It has good connotations among voters.  The term “radical rightist” has no such good connotations. Most voters don’t like radicals.

Take Back Control of the Vocabulary of Political Discourse

The radical right has been very clever in its use of words.  For example, they have persuaded us to use the term “pro-life” instead of the term “anti-abortion.”  “Pro-life’ sounds so much better, don’t you think?  We progressives have not really done what we could to influence the vocabulary that is used for political discussion, and “radical right” is a good place for us to start. Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while may have noticed that I never use the term “conservative.”  I always say “radical rightist” and I encourage you to do the same. Let’s take back control of the vocabulary of political discourse.

Entitlements Should Be Called “Earned Benefits”

Another word that we should eliminate from our vocabulary is “entitlements”.  Radical rightists like to use the term to refer to Social Security and Medicare because it sounds as though people were encouraged to feel as if they were entitled to a government benefit.  It sounds as though people were encouraged to be dependent on government handouts. In fact, these programs should not be thought of as entitlements. They should be thought of as earned benefits.  People pay for these programs throughout their lives.  Calling these programs “entitlements” is a slur, not a description. Worse, the use of the term reduces the electorate’s support for these programs, which, of course, is exactly what it is supposed to do.   So, “entitlements” is another word that should be banished from the vocabulary of every progressive. We should always speak of “earned benefits.”

I’m sure you can think of other words that need to be changed, and I encourage you to tell us about them in comments on this post.