Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show [Paperback]

Geoffrey Nunberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 3, 2007 | ISBN-10: 1586485091 | ISBN-13: 978-1586485092

Geoffrey Nunberg breaks new ground with this fierce and funny narrative of how the political right has ushered in a new world order, aided unwittingly by the liberal media. Democrats are well known for their "lousy bumper stickers," as Joe Klein puts it. As liberals wade through the semantics of "social security lockbox," "single payer," and other wonky locutions, the right has become harder, meaner and better at getting out the message: the estate tax became the more menacing "death tax" and a contentious education initiative was wrapped in the comforting (and memorable) blanket of "No Child Left Behind." But Nunberg shows that the real story is more subtle than just a bumper sticker war. Conservatives' main goal wasn't to win voters over to their positions on healthcare, education, or the environment. They had a much more dramatic ambition. By changing the meaning of words like "values," "government," "liberal"; "faith," and "freedom," conservatives have shifted the political center of gravity of the language itself to the right. "Whatever our politics," Nunberg observes, "when we talk about politics nowadays, we can't help using language that embodies a conservative world-view."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Nunberg, a professor of linguistics and columnist for the New York Times, believes that Democrats are at a loss for words when it comes to the use of political language. As the Democrats feebly argue that they must "reframe" their arguments to reach voters, Nunberg (Going Nucular) believes that "what we have here is more than just a failure to communicate." Though conservatives have gained political ground using loaded terms such as "death tax" for estate tax, "climate change" for global warming and "hate speech" for any criticism of the president or fellow Republicans, their true triumph is more subtle, hijacking the "core vocabulary of American political discourse"-like "values" and "elite"-and using them to Republicans' exclusive advantage. Nunberg insists that liberals cannot model their strategy after GOP successes, though he offers little in the way of practical strategy. Though the phrase "politics of perception" has been overused-and therefore, as Nunberg might argue, rendered empty of meaning-Nunberg proves in this thoughtful, funny and rousing effort that the use and misuse of language is still of vital concern to the body politic.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"provocative" and "clear-eyed." -- Cleveland Plain Dealer's Writing in The Plain Dealer, July 18, 2007

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs (July 3, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586485091
• ISBN-13: 978-1586485092
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #298,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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61 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Losing the Language War, July 10, 2006

By 

Bart King (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show (Hardcover)

A scholarly expose of the linguistic nuances of political doublespeak could prove deadly boring. But in TALKING RIGHT, Geoffrey Nunberg proves himself an able and funny commentator and educator on the topic. He traces and annotates the evolution of political and media euphemisms, lingo, and nomenclature in the U.S. with a gimlet-eyed stare. Yet even with the brio that Nunberg brings to his theses, one wonders: Is the failure of liberals (or "progressives," if you prefer) really an inability to get a good motto on a bumper sticker? Or is it simply that since Clinton, there has not been a compelling leader to take charge of the Democratic Party?

Anyway, regardless of your party affiliation, if you're politically aware and/or enjoy thinking about the meaning of words and/or have an interest in American history and current events, you will get something from this book. (Did I leave anyone out?)

SIDELIGHT: With a book that deals with linguistics and meaning, one hopes that the author is an expert in his field. Impressive academic credentials aside, Geoffrey Nunberg chairs the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary. That's good enough for me. (Imagine the rousing discussions they have in that group!)

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent analysis of how slogans win elections, August 19, 2006

By 

calvinnme - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show (Hardcover)

The author's title, which describes how most Republicans describe most Democrats may not BE correct, but it SOUNDS correct to most people. That is the point this book is trying to make. Nunberg, a linguist by trade, shows how Republicans use terse and memorable mottos and slogans to get their points across and label their opponents - and it works, and has been working since 1980.

In contrast, the author points out that Democratic candidates have largely used lengthy discussions to argue their positions so that, at the end of the day, the voter can't remember the point the candidate was trying to make in the first place. This is largely because liberals have great disdain for simplistic answers to complex problems, but forget that the average voter can't remember the complex solution when he/she steps into the voting booth, even if the complex solution is correct.

The author points out that even when the Democrats have tried to come up with slogans they often fall flat. He uses John Kerry's 2004 campaign slogan "America can do better" as an example. Nunberg points out that this slogan sounds like what you would say to a less than brilliant child whose grades were even worse than expected. Is this really the Democrats' message to the nation: that they don't need to be quite as pathetic as they now are? The author points out that over the last 26 years, Bill Clinton seems to be the only national candidate who has been able to use the power of language effectively to get his message across with "It's the economy" in 1992 and "the bridge to the 21st century" in 1996.

The author points out that the right has rewritten the language of politics to the point that even progressives and liberals can't help using language that embodies the worldview of the right even when trying to put forth the worldview of the left. Thus, the author argues, the challenge facing liberals and Democrats is to recapture ordinary language itself.

I found this book to be an interesting perspective on modern politics and the success of the right from a linguistic standpoint, and I highly recommend it no matter what your political persuasion might be.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Told with great thought and insight, August 25, 2006

By 

Jon Hunt "musician, teacher" (Old Greenwich, Ct. USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show (Hardcover)

Geoffrey Nunberg's "Talking Right" is one of a number of books that have come out recently explaining why Democrats (and liberals, though not necessarily synonymous) have trouble getting their collective message across. Nunberg's approach is through language itself as he relates the success that the Republican right wing has had in wresting control of that message through slick phrases and twists on existing parlance. The author's book is straightforward and informative, to say the least.

It's clear from the beginning of "Talking Right" that this is not a book that will scream either at the right wingers or at us, the readers. Slowly, but with a broad brush, Nunberg hits the right (and with it the left, as well) with chapters on class, the "L" word, government and values. He's terrific, for instance, in delving into the word "freedom" and how the earliest Americans didn't use that word much...they preferred "liberty". It may be a bit of a shock to learn that the Declaration of Independence doesn't mention freedom at all but we are reminded "...it was liberty that Patrick Henry declared himself willing to die for....". In this wonderful chapter, Nunberg goes on to explain how freedom then became connected with other words along the way and how it became central to the Republican party's campaign for word domination.

While much of "Talking Right" is low-key, Nunberg revs up in a chapter called "Old Bottles, New Whines" and almost roars to the finish. The narrative here becomes eye-popping and this last third of the book is the best. Near the end of "Talking Right" Nunberg, speaking about "the right's capture of the basic vocabulary of politics...", concludes "...if the right can do this with an ersatz populism, surely the Democrats can do the same thing with a genuine one". It's a fitting statement to include in the final chapter of this terrific book.