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How To Speak Republican …… or Democratic.

By Jack Shafer
Posted Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2006, at 7:02 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

Prior to reading this paper I would have associated "reform" with Democraticspeak, but Republicans have so completely co-opted the word that it doesn't appear on the Dems' list in any form. Republicans must talk incessantly about "immigration reform," "health liability reform," "UN reform," "class action reform," and "social security reform."

As you might suspect, the Democrats own the word "cuts" in all its variations: "budget cuts," "Medicaid cuts," "bill cuts," "spending cuts," "cut food stamps," "cut student loans," "cut Social Security," "cut health care," and so on. They even own "tax cuts," which I assume is because Republicans avoid the phrase and use "tax relief" instead. Democrats have so locked up the word, I'd find an alternative if I were a headline writer, and I'd think twice about using it outside of quotations if I wrote straight news.

Which returns us to our original topic, the civil war—or as others prefer to call it, the sectarian violence in Iraq. Neither phrase earns space on the Gentzkow and Shapiro 2005 list. In 2005, the semantic battle pitted "global war," "war on terror," and "global war on terror" from the Republicans against the "Iraq war," "war in Iraq," and "cost of the war" of the Democrats.

Don't call me a liberal for saying so, but I reckon history will show that the Democrats came closer to correctly naming the thing than their colleagues across the aisle.

******

Call me anything but late to dinner. Did Gentzkow and Shapiro's data-scrape neglect important partisan phrases? Send your nominations to . (E-mail may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise. Permanent disclosure: Slate is owned by the Washington Post Co.)

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Illustration by Mark Alan Stamaty.
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