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Winds(Words) of Change

By Ken Wright

Found in: | Inside | Politics |

"Talk is cheap."

- Keith Richards

It's a blustery time. And not just because it's fall.

It's an election year, and by the time you read this it'll all be over except the paranoia over the electronic voting machines. All that'll be left of the campaigns will be in our heads - that vague, gnawing emptiness where the easy, slippery rhetoric used to lie. Pun intended.

You know what I mean: that election-autumn's wind of words - that barrage of gusty, inflated, value-laden and good-feeling, time-worn and focus-group-tested terms carefully chosen to render the appearance that the candidates actually stand for something, really do have clear, sincere visions lodged firmly in their minds and decisive strategies squarely mapped out on folded pieces of paper in their back pockets. Words designed to blow us, the voters, so hard (pun again intended) that we kinda forget to face into the wind, squint, and examine the brittle stilts those powerful-sounding ideas stand upon.

"Change," of course, was Sen. Obama's favorite expression. An enduring appeal, that term has, especially in times of social strife and economic uncertainty. Conditions which, of course, never change. Otherwise, politicians would have nothing to run campaigns on, except perhaps comedy. (See: Palin, Sarah)

The senator was also fond of "hope," a word with the benefit of being monosyllabic - easy to remember, and easily slipped into even the smallest cracks in a conversation. Never mind that "hope" implies a somewhat helpless reliance upon some greater power or authority. A president, perhaps. Or a political party.

It was impressive, though, how Sen. Obama at first managed to put a fresh and gleaming shine on those well-worn catchphrases. Alas, once he became the official nominee of the Democratic Party, that stagnant bog of blundering and blandness somehow managed to transform the creative and engaging exuberance of the nation's first black presidential candidate into just so much more stale white bread. (See: Biden, Joe)

Before that, though, "change" seemed to be working. So much so, that Sen. McCain couldn't resist giving it a go, as well. You can't copyright a word, after all. And it's a proven tactic in both politics and the NFL: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em and beat 'em with their own stratagem. And, besides, "change" seemed to be working better than what he was throwing out there before. Prior to his own change, Sen. McCain was fond of those good-ol'-boy (and good-ol'-girl - sorry, governor) stand-bys: "law" and "protection." This phrasing, of course, suggests a speaking from those positions of power and authority that we also beseech with our "hope." But those terms - both filled with rather fatty, empty calories - are nonetheless good bait for trolling the shallow waters of Fast Food America.

None of them, though, works for me. Because I think none of them suggests a looking at what's really around, none implies an honest assessment of where we really are, and none points us in a direction that is boldly forward rather than timidly hunkering down.

Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, etc., etc.

So as we already look ahead to the next blustery election cycle, I, too, vote for change. A change of words. And I'd like to get them out there now, hoping they'll percolate into the lexicon before the next wind of words blows us. I, myself, would like to hear words that say what we truly need to hear today, words that are suited to the realities of our 21st-century world, and that perhaps really can work as compass bearings our leaders can follow to guide us from those positions of power and authority in this still-new century.

I, therefore, nominate "Enough."

You want change, Sen. Obama? A change would be a leader leading us by holding up his or her hands and saying what we won't hear from any industry or politician or developer: "Enough! We're good! We're fine! We're there! We have enough energy! Adequate wealth! Plenty of roads! Big enough houses! More than enough malls, chain stores, fast-food shacks and plastic crap than we'll ever need! My fellow Americans, we did it - and now it's time to slow down and see how long we can make it last!" And so on.

You get the idea. "Enough" beats "change" because it is a specific change. Beyond that? Hey, it's politics - you don't have to get too specific. But "enough" would point us down the right path, at least - any path in any other direction besides more and bigger and richer and cheaper and everywhere.

For running mates with "enough," I would like to submit a couple of candidates:

"Share," for example, would work nicely with "enough." As in, "We have enough, so now let's share what we have with those who don't have enough!" The exact plan, of course, can be hammered out later. But "share" has the advantage that when used in a sentence it suggests both a doer and a receiver, and so is much more linguistically inspiring than the passive and fuzzy term "hope."

I'm also partial, though, to "Enjoy." Positive. Simple. And pretty much unprecedented in the generally gloomy and fear-mongering literature of political discourse.

So, better yet, why not all three? Those three terms together, I argue, make a solid triad of talking points on which to support a real "revolution" (another favorite political platitude) and suited to the world we face ahead of us in the 21st century and beyond:

Enough! Now let's enjoy and share and sustain the good things we already have!

That's not the kind of rhetoric that you're likely to hear from the standard cadre of 20th-century-style candidates we're still faced with. If Mr. Bush were running for President again (there by the grace of the Constitution go we . . .), he might even brand those three points "the Axis of Anti-Evil."

But for me? I'd hear a change blowing in the wind that finally would make me really say "hope."

Ken Wright is running for governor of the yet-to-be-created state of Powell. His most recent book is The Monkey Wrench Dad: Dispatches from the backyard frontline (Raven's Eye Press).