Lake Superior State University has a year-end tradition of issuing its banished words and phrases list.  It usually misses some obvious candidates, like “democracy is on the ballot,” and its perverse variations. That sentiment encapsulates George Orwell’s description of ugly and inaccurate political language to exert mind control. 

Even more linguistic gobbledygook is emanating from Stanford University.  They spent 18 months to conjure a list of harmful words to ban from their websites and computer code.  If they had their druthers, they’d probably prefer this site be renamed “U.S. Citizen Thinker.”  You see, in addition to the usual admonitions against “gender binary language,” they also propose to ban the word “American,” replacing it with “U.S. Citizen.” Their doublethink stinks:  apparently “American” implies that the U.S. is the most important country in the Americas.  Of course it is -- migrants are heading north, not south. Duh!

Orwell noted that political language is fraught with deception and manipulation, and community activist Saul Alinsky wrote in his handbook Rules for Radicals that, “[H]e who controls the language controls the masses.”  Therefore, we should not let average academicians by a superior lake, or even those from Stanford, insinuate liberal linguistic lunacy into the town square to control the debate.  For those who have escaped -- or avoided -- academia’s mind-numbing waves of thought control with sanity intact, we might counter that not democracy, but “our republic is on the ballot.” 

Calls to “protect democracy “obviously resounded with impressionable TikTok users and other low-information voters with liberal-scrambled brains.  However, “our Republic is on the ballot” is more compelling, is easy to say, and happens to be the form of government we have. Indeed, it is our Republic to which we pledge allegiance -- doublethink Dems should recite it sometime.

A key distinction is that in a democracy the majority can impose its will upon the minority, even willy-nilly like today’s doublethink Dems; in a republic, there are checks and balances and rights of the political minority are protected.  In a democracy, the majority purports to know what’s best for all while it sanctimoniously tramples over an individual’s inalienable rights, including making an honest living. 

Our Founders obviously abhorred the tyranny of the majority, or mob rule, but that is often what we get from those who spout that “democracy is on the ballot.” Maxine Waters infamously encouraged supporters to confront political opponents.  Among others, Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have been accosted by mobs. 

Supreme Court justices, providing some circumspection against the unfettered desires of “democratic” mobs, have also been threatened.  By Chuck Schumer at a rally before rabid “birthing people” after the Dobbs decision; by a loony with a gun near justice Kavanaugh’s home; and by Harvard Law School professor Alejandra Caraballo, who stated that the justices who overturned Roe should ”never know peace again.”

That’s democracy?  One can only imagine the apoplectic open borders cabal now that the Supreme Court has temporarily blocked Biden from lifting Title 42, somewhat stymying the invasion of migrants-cum-illegal aliens into our republic.

Clearly, it’s not the liberal definition of democracy that needs protection, but our republic.  Remember, ObamaCare was passed without a single Republican vote.  Even Great Society legislation garnered some bipartisanship.  In that convoluted sense, they are right:  their version of democracy -- mammoth political overreach and intrusion into our lives -- was/is on the ballot.

James Madison was prescient when writing in Federalist No. 10: “Hence it is that democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and in general have been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”

The so-called Inflation Reduction Act is another example of Dem doublethink.  An effort to manipulate political language in Orwellian fashion, it is really just a slimmed-down version of Build Back Better. Overwrought liberals -- that’d be just about all of them, these days -- also want to run roughshod over the minority in the Senate by scuppering the filibuster.   Sure, elections have consequences; unfortunately, under the Dems that means our republic is in double jeopardy. 

Can we keep it?  Or are we going to be polite as loud liberals inculcate gullible voters with other ban-worthy phrases, such as “Voter Suppression” and “Jim Crowe 2.0,” both of which are preposterous doublethink given very high voter turnout, particularly in Georgia. Online dictionaries should update their examples of doublethink to include Stacy Abrams’ insistence that despite record voter turnout there is still voter suppression.

What about the overly used bromide “diversity is our greatest strength,” and the delusional assertion that “there is no border crisis“?  Both are egregious examples of doublethink, suspending disbelief in the logical contradictions.  A review of the composition of Biden’s incompetent cabinet and inner circle, a tip of the hat to just about every protected identity, disproves the tired mantra about diversity. As for those who claim our border is secure, it’s not Orwell’s Animal Farm but the funny farm where they belong.

Diversity can be a strength, but when it comes to Biden’s diverse enablers and entourage, one might as well proclaim “ignorance is strength.” Probably only defiant school boards are as intellectually incestuous and abusive of language.  They engage in extreme Orwellian doublethink by deviously rebranding banned Critical Race Theory to sneak it on the curriculum when it’s otherwise illegal.

Legacy media likes to engage in Orwellian mental manipulation by asserting another banable phrase: “democracy dies in darkness.”  Therefore, they shouldn’t mind when Republicans in control of Congress shine the investigative light into the dark, Democrat swamp.  Unfortunately, when one wrestles with a Democrat pig sometimes one gets dirty.  Conservatives are generally much happier and nicer people than malcontent liberals, but we cannot lurk above the fray, even if some of us risk being accused of “white savior complex” for trying to help.

Our Founders risked it all to bequeath us a vibrant republic.  Where’s the respect?  One small way we can keep it is by correcting the liberals’ contorted language that pervades the sensory worlds of immature voters. For example, when Martha Raddatz of ABC News incredulously  blamed Republican rhetoric for the border crisis, the guest (Texas governor Abbot in this case) should be ready to point out that in 2019 Biden said migrants should come to the U.S – instead of letting her skate with a vague response.

The liberal linguists missed it, but it’s time to promote the phrase “our republic is on the ballot.” Let’s protect the inalienable rights of the minority lest we succumb to a dystopian Animal Farm with mud-covered, cunning pigs who co-opt the language, as in Orwell’s masterful allegory.  

Image: Carl Glover