doublespeak

I think what drives me the craziest about today's G.O.P. is the baldfaced lying, deception, hypocrisy, and incredible, out-and-out, black-is-white reversals of reality:

"Obama's politics of hope is just empty words."

–Alex Conant, R.N.C. spokesman

Empty words, yes.  This reminds me of the way the very most narcissistic people in the world are prone to accuse everyone else of narcissism—except that those people, at least, are actually delusional, whereas folks like Alex Conant are the epitome of Harry Frankfurt's philosophical definition of bullshit, where truth is not just something we need to distort, but actually something that has no meaning or value whatsoever.

Senator McCain, who himself has said that he voted with President Bush 90% of the time, is now going around talking about how change is necessary in Washington, co-opting Obama's language with none of the content.  He knows his policies are unpopular and will not win an election, so now he is just going around using words that have polled well and offering no explanation of what he even means—explanation desperately needed when the Washington he says he wants to change has been dominated for years by his own party and politics!*

To take one particularly slimy example, Sarah Palin says that the parents of children with disabilities will have a champion in the White House if she is Vice President—and she does not explain how so.  That she has a child with Down syndrome is all the information we're expected to require.  What policies is she suggesting?  In what way would a Republican administration be good for people with Down syndrome?

And then, of course, the outright lies:  Obama will raise your taxes!  (Not true unless you're making more than $600,000/year, I think it was...and unless you're in the top 20% of earners, you'll actually be paying less tax than you would under McCain!  Fact!)  Palin opposed the "bridge to nowhere"!  (First she supported it—she only opposed it after there was a national outcry, and even then she never gave back the money!)

But I'm getting distracted from the main point: empty words.  A month ago, the McCain ticket was all about attacking Obama for his inexperience and for his enormous popularity.  Suddenly, it's all about championing Palin's inexperience and trumpeting her newfound celebrity.  And does anyone honestly believe that the G.O.P. is excited to shatter the glass ceiling?  If McCain–Palin prevails in November, it will mean that issues and reality itself are meaningless, that spin and manipulation have finally triumphed definitively over democracy in the United States.

Here's a good campaign slogan:

McCAIN–PALIN

empty words

destructive policies

Swift Boat politics

outright lies

and the end of the American way

* As Barbara Walters reportedly pointed out when talking to McCain on television, we're at almost eight years, now, of Republican executive leadership, and McCain himself has been in Congress since January 1983.  (She said 22 years, according to the article, but he was elected to the Senate in 1986; before that he was a congressman representing Arizona's 1st district.)