The power ...

Of words. Larisa looks at how the Republicans' "linguistic choreography" sets up the field the Dems have to play on and mis- and dis-informs the American public in the process:

Jonah Goldberg continues to demonstrate how the right-wing is manipulating public discourse in order to confuse and conflate patriotism with rabid nationalism. Make no mistake, this is a coordinated effort to deliberately replace substance with its symbol, meaning with an emblem, and essentially strip language down to nothing but trinkets.

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For a people to be controlled, they must first be robbed of honest discourse and open debate. Distorting language and stripping it of real and honest meaning is the first tool and the best mechanism for transforming a democracy into an authoritarian state. An informed populace is a dangerous populace.

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Patriotism is the word that authoritarians most like to distort and Goldberg demonstrates - once again - just how this distortion is created.

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And our pal Nucks finds the reason Americans are so susceptible to it. Heh ...