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Much of political discourse is conducted in a code designed to express a particular point of view to supporters, while being able to deny that implication to the rest of society. This is the definition of Orwellian Newspeak, as described in the novel 1984. It has been called dog-whistle politics, after the high-pitched whistles that dogs can hear but not people. The following is a partial list of Republican code words.

  • Accountability: Sovereign immunity
  • Affirmative action: Organized discrimination against Whites
  • Big government: Social programs for the poor
  • Culture war: This is a Christian country! How dare you quote Thomas Jefferson?
  • Class war: The oppression of the rich by the poor
  • Culture war: The oppression of the Christian right by atheists (everybody else, including other Christians)
  • Democracy: Oligarchy; rule by our sort
  • Due process: Never mind the rules
  • Economics: Fairy tales, "Voodoo", Market Fundamentalism
  • Elitism: Wanting everybody to get a real education
  • Equal rights: More equal for our sort
  • Family values: Our families, not yours
  • Fiscal responsibility: No social programs for the poor
  • Free markets, Free trade: Free for us, not for you
  • Human rights: Property rights
  • Judicial activist: Not a strict constructionist
  • Law and order: Keeping the riff-raff down
  • Liberal media: Mainstream media
  • Liberty: Property rights, gun rights, no regulation of business, no enforcement of civil rights for the poor and for minorities
  • Mainstream media: Right-wing media
  • Original intent: In Constitutional law, slavery and exclusion of women and the poor from voting
  • Ownership society: More for us
  • Personal responsibility: Being one of us
  • Quotas: Organized discrimination against Whites
  • Racism: Alleged Black and Hispanic hatred of Whites
  • Real Americans: Our sort
  • Republic: Oligarchy; rule by our sort
  • Right to life: Rights of the unborn, but not of anybody else. In extreme cases, Death to abortionists!
  • Small government: No social programs for the poor
  • States' rights: The right to oppress citizens
  • Strict constructionist: One who upholds slavery and exclusion of women and the poor from voting; one who maintains that the 14th Amendment protections for ex-slaves are primarily meant to protect corporations
  • Starve the beast: No social programs for the poor
  • Tyranny: Enforcement of civil rights legislation and regulation of business
  • Unitary executive: King
  • Uppity: Thinking that equality applies to you

Resources

Frank Luntz is the principal architect of Republican code language. He has publicly praised the idea of Newspeak.

George Lakoff has written extensively on this subject, and gone into it much more deeply than we can here.

The language used to discuss this subject is often intemperate on all sides. Not all of the following sites are objective or reliable sources, but they demonstrate the nature of the controversy.