Political Speech

The English language, according to Orwell, is used to hide meaning or to prevent actual thought. This is especially true in political language where euphemisms are thrown about endlessly to conjure up prerendered political images of either fear or patriotism.

As I was looking through the different presidential campaign websites (including the third-party sites) I picked an example that I could analzye further using Orwell's criteria for bad English. My choice does not reflect any political leaning, so don't read too much into this analysis politically.

The speech I chose was given by John McCain on Sept. 24 in Freeland, Michigan.
"Remarks by John McCain in Michigan"
http://http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/Speeches/f1c65918-422e-48d3-9e37-50120a9bb5c5.htm

1) The first rule to break involves the use of tired cliches and metaphors. Political speech in general is riddled with this type of language. Here are a few examples from this speech:
a) "the perfect economic storm." - the phrase "perfect storm" has been used so much that it has lost all meaning. Furthermore, it is an attempt to create fear through political imagery.
b) " black hole of bad debt," - while not terribly overused, this phrase in context is not very meaningful. Money paid to the governments is going to go somewhere; it will not disapear into oblivion as the phrase suggests. This phrase creates fear again by implying that taxpayer money will simply vanish.
c) "History will be our judge," - I can't tell you how many times I have heard phrase. This is also phrased as a threat, suggesting that we take action responsibly for future generations.

2)Operators or verbal false limbs allow for the quick substitution of pre-made phrases for more exact, descriptive words.
a) "directly contributed to..."
b) "We are talking about..."
There were actually very few examples in this speech, because the tone of the speech was action. Passive phrases do not really help this cause. The above two examples, however, seem like filler.

3) Pretentious diction is often used to strengthen an argument by injecting it with intellectual clout. I find in the "new" style of American politics that tends to reach out the "common" person, that prenentious words are limited. Here are a few examples anyway:
a) "transparency"
b) "unprecedented" : probably on the top ten list of most used political words. In fact it was used three times in this short speech alone!
c) "outrageous"
d) "dimensions" : according to Orwell, probably used to give the phrase a "scientific" authority.

4) Meaningless words act as filler within political speeches and often times they are part of the above mentioned cliches.
a) "could rebuild the crumbling infrastructure in every town, county, and state in this country." The word crumbling here is meaningless because it doesn't specifically describe the problem that the infrastructure faces. It is an "invisible" disaster.
b) "there must be greater accountability included in the bill." 'Accountability' is another often used political word that at the very least is ambiguous. Who exactly is being held accountable? What are the consequences?

This was a short speech, so there were limited examples of Orwell's rules, but enough existed to illustrate Orwell's point about political speech. Whether or not you agree with Orwell's conclusions about the decay of the English language, it is interesting to actively pursue the peculiarities of political rhetoric.