Fair and Balanced

[Dennis R. Preston]

I think Greg must remember a time when distinguished Congresspersons
(e.g., Everett Dirkson from Illinois) existed on both sides of the
aisle. I would have called Dirkson, for example, a centrist or
ever-so-slightly right of center person.

Nowadays there are no Dirksons in the Republican ranks (no pun
intended) since they decided to attract the poor (don't that
generalization just make your blood boil!) by appealing to the issues
among them which they could exploit (however repulsive they might
have been personally and, in a happier past, even politically).

Duane and Greg are just having lexical difficulties keeping up with
this Republican shift to a more extremely conservative viewpoint, one
which they have passed off, pretty successfully, as mainstream,
although, of course, their passing it off is exactly that. The last
time such views were "mainstream," we had a world war.

So some people, apparently Duane among them, would like us all to use
"right" and "left" according to the "new center" established by
right-wingers. I am no conservative about language, but I will have
to be shown that this is a long-term change in generally accepted
usage in what "left" and "right" mean in politics before I bite.
Until then, I will take the "new" definition of "center" be as
politically loaded as it source.

dInIs





On Wed, 13 Aug 2003 02:12:21 -0500 Greg Pulliam <pulliam at IIT.EDU> writes:
>  Fox is FAR right of center, while CNN is only slightly right of
>  center. There is no left of center medium.

I would expect more precise use of language on a list of linguists. If
Fox is "FAR right" then where would you put ... oh, say, the Montana
Militia? I suppose when you view the middle from so far left, it looks
far right to you.

I long ago realized that statements like this are akin to "You are the
morning and the evening star." Clearly the preacher didn't mean his lady
was a huge ball of hot gas. There is no literal or factual meaning;
rather it is an expression of pure emotion.

D

--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics & Germanic, Slavic,
      Asian & African Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027
e-mail: preston at msu.edu
phone: (517) 353-9290