by Marsha Mercer
Knoxville News-Sentinel, September 26, 1990, p. A12.
WASHINGTON -- Newt Gingrich and GOPAC, his conservative political action committee, have taken the guess-work out of campaign speechmaking.
No longer will Republican candidates have to worry about whether they are conveying their vision for the future persuasively--or if they even have a vision. They'll just say, success ... mobilize ... strength ... dream ... freedom ...
No longer will these same Republicans have to wonder whether they are casting their Democratic opponents in the proper, pessimistic light. They'll rest easy pronouncing, decay ... failure ... sick ... pathetic ... lie ...
Former professor Gingrich, R-Ga., the House minority whip, is general chairman of GOPAC. The self-styled "National Grass-Roots Organization Building Republican Leaders for America's Future" routinely mails audio tapes of Gingrich's speeches as inspiration to the faithful.
Earlier this month, the ever-accommodating GOPAC must have figured that candidates needed direct help in choosing the right verbal stuff. It compiled vocabulary lists and mailed them to some 6,000 GOP candidates.
The list was in two parts. One offered 66 "Optimistic Positive Governing Words" and phrases for candidates to use to define themselves and their message. The other provided 64 "Contrasting Words"--can you say negative?--for use against Democrats.
Under the headline "Language: A Key Mechanism to Control," GOPAC explained that in candidate training sessions around the country, "We have heard a plaintive plea: 'I wish I could speak like Newt.'"
Be assured it's no easy task to speak like Newt. As GOPAC quickly points out, "That takes years of practice."
And who's got time (or, it would seem, the brains) to do as Newt did? Why spend years in college and graduate school and then teach history--all before launching a political career?
The election is only weeks away, but there's still time to inject extra power into speeches, direct mail, TV spots and even door-to-door campaigning, GOPAC says.
"The words and phrases are powerful. Read them. Memorize as many as possible. And remember that like any tool, these words will not help if they are not used."
Gingrich is described in "The Almanac of American Politics" as "a politician of ideas: he spews forth theories and political analogies and phrases ... like a broken water main spews out water."
But rather than encouraging would-be Newts to seek out and articulate their own political theories and analogies, GOPAC sent a sort of simple-minded Cliff Notes. The underlying idea is that candidates don't need ideas; they need only emotionally charged words.
The words suggested for GOP candidates to use about themselves are warm and strong and vague. The candidates should be pro-flag, pro-children and pro-environment. They should be tough and listen and learn and help and lead. They should eliminate good-time in prison and be passionate about prosperity, workfare and reform.
Opponents, regardless of their record or proposals, and the Democratic Party as a whole should be depicted as anti-flag, anti-family, anti-child and anti-jobs. Democrats threaten and devour and waste. They are radical, corrupt, selfish, shallow, insensitive, destructive, incompetent and intolerant.
Here's how Gingrich himself plugged suggested words into a speech to the Heritage Foundation last month: "Congress is a broken system. It is increasingly a system of corruption in which money politics is defeating and driving out citizen politics. Congress is a sicker and sicker institution in an imperial capital that wallows in the American people's tax money."
Shortly after the lists were sent, Howard "Bo" Calloway, GOPAC's chairman, mailed follow-up letters with a clarification: "Some of the words on this list, such as 'traitor' or 'betray' should not have been included since they could be used in a context that would question the motives or patriotism of an opponent."
Whoa, Bo, wait a minute. When could traitor or betray be used when they do not question motives or patriotism?
Gingrich also tried to distance himself from the GOPAC list, saying it was not shown to him.
"If it had, I would have insisted on emphasizing the importance of fairness in all political language," Gingrich said in a statement. "I also would have omitted certain words from the list."
One wonders why he agreed to sending the list at all.