Conservatives' Cliches

Hours after I make a post about how I won't probably post about politics much, I read the syndicated op-ed column by Clarence Page in my local paper. In the JG-TC, it is titled "Taking Stock of Conservatives and Their Lists of Cliches," but on website of the Chicago Tribune, it is called "Cliches Conservatives Say."

Page is responding to a book by Jonah Goldberg titled The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas.

I find it interesting that Goldberg thinks that liberals and progressives cheat by using cliches because conservatives and libertarians use them too. We're human after all.

In addition, and I know Jay Heinrichs who wrote Thank You for Arguing and Word Hero would agree with me on this supposition, I would argue that conservatives and the GOP, on the whole, are typically better at rhetorically/linguistically framing issues than Democrats and liberals are.

A good example are the slogans of "pro-life" and "pro-choice." Sure, people like to have their choices, but "pro-life" is difficult linguistic trap to escape.

Damn reality and its "liberal bias."

"Reloading..."

Linked HERE is an interesting op-ed from The Chicago Tribune.

The author provides a personal yet political look at the Supreme Court overturning the D.C. handgun law along with the political shenanigans in the Windy City. 

While I agree with a lot of what he says, I also think there need to be somewhat stricter regulations on gun ownership, especially the loopholes that people use to buy arms at gun shows.

What I'm struck by is the question of how exactly do we create a more family-focused culture? Mr. Box articulates that we need stronger parental structures in our country, so how do we go about doing that? Do we return to stay-at-home moms and dads? Have we fallen into what one Harvard economist has called the "two-income" trap? 

The op-ed, strangely enough, reminds me about what one of my favorite writers Wendell Berry has said about the environmental crisis we have before us: it's a "crisis of character."