A weary Kerryism.

The Washington Post interviewed John Kerry:

During the interview, he eschewed the soaring rhetoric on freedom and democracy that are commonplace in Bush's speeches and news conferences. At one point, he stumbled over the words when he tried to emphasize his interest in promoting American values: "The idea of America is, I think proudly and chauvinistically, the best idea that we've developed in this world."

I don't think "soaring" is quite the right word for anything Bush might say in an interview. Even "rhetoric" seems to be a stretch if you're talking about Bush speaking in his own words, as opposed to reading a speech. Bush has dealt with his lack of a way with words by just speaking very simply (and rarely). Kerry's problem with words leads him into wordy, pretentious-sounding rambles.

Kerry's use of the word "chauvinistically" is a mind-numblingly poor word choice. It reminds me of the time Ralph Nader said "Don't burlesque me." Except that Nader's use of "burlesque" is dictionary-perfect, just a dictionary definition not ordinarily heard outside of an English Literature classroom. Kerry's use of "chauvinistically" isn't quite right from a dictionary standpoint. It should mean: in a manner characterized by "[m]ilitant devotion to and glorification of one's country; fanatical patriotism." "Chauvinism" is a fancy word that--outside of idiomatic feminist usage--should be avoided unless it has a precision of meaning that makes it worth the risk of appearing hoity-toity. The precision of meaning that "chauvinistically" has that distinguishes it from the normal word--"patriotically"--is not anything Kerry even wanted to say, let alone had a special reason for risking appearing hoity-toity. And Kerry has a huge interest in avoiding appearing hoity-toity.

Now, let's look at the sentence as a whole: "The idea of America is, I think proudly and chauvinistically, the best idea that we've developed in this world." It's so boringly verbose! He could have said, "America is the best country in the world." But he had to relocate America into the realm of ideas for some reason: "The idea of America is the best idea in the world." What's with the intellectualization? Does he mean the the ideas in American law and government are the best ideas? Extra words should add extra meaning or precision. (The sentence does appear out of context, as the Washington Post editorializes that he was stumbling over words.) So at the center of his sentence is the standard incantation "America is the best country in the world," or perhaps "American ideas are the best ideas in the world," but he makes it "The idea of America is the best idea we've developed in the world." As if the idea that an idea has been "developed" adds some value.

Then he has that clunker clause breaking up the sentence: "I think proudly and chauvinistically." Why stop in the middle and say that he thinks what he's saying (I'm John Kerry and I approve this message)? Why add the adverbs at all (quite aside from the mistaken use of "chauvinistically")? It seems as though he caught himself expressing pride and patriotism and he felt it necessary to remark on his own attitude, as if from a distance. Here I am, having to be the candidate, saying the candidate things, so I have to say I believe in America again, because that's what's required. That's what I would think if I were in that position. I'd feel distanced and alienated: oh, no, here I am, having to say that again, feeling like it's a load of crap, even though I actually do believe that the ideas in American law and government are the best ideas. Maybe there's some reluctance and weariness about going through all the motions we require a person to make before he can be President. (Most of us would have gotten much wearier, much earlier in the game.) Maybe the slip of using "chauvinistically" did add precision to his expression--though not a precision he would want to appear in his statement. Maybe he genuinely thinks the endless professions of patriotism that are required of a candidate are a lot of baloney. I don't hold that against him--and I certainly don't think finding this kind of thing tedious means he's not patriotic. But I don't think talking like that is going to help his cause. And if he really is getting weary of having to say such things, why not make it as brief as possible? Because people are getting weary of these long sentences.

And by the way, the Washington Post could use some more copyediting: "the soaring rhetoric on freedom and democracy that are commonplace" should be "the soaring rhetoric on freedom and democracy that is commonplace."