Possibly. But the reality is that slogans and rhetoric make very little difference in elections.
Tuesday’s big flap was an interview at Vox with James Carville, who accused Democrats of being too “woke” and using “faculty lounge” language instead of rhetoric voters like. Kevin Drum adds: “one thing that’s clear is that Republicans sure think that attacking wokeness is a winning strategy.”
I’m not so sure. The truth is that all the rhetoric probably doesn’t matter much. If the economy is doing well, then the president’s party benefits. Voters tend to reward peace and prosperity; they punish economic downturns, casualties in foreign wars and presidential scandals. It’s obviously not that simple, but the effects of the other stuff are very hard to see in election results. Sure, it’s better to give good speeches than bad ones! But there’s simply not much evidence that good slogans help or that inelegant or out-of-touch language hurts very much.
