Perspicacity vs. Political Speech

One of the biggest downsides of working in politics is that you have to read what politicians say. If you’re not careful, you wind up talking like them, and I recently realized my writing style was a mess.

Budget season is recently over, so for about a month I sat and watched Jersey Democrats feud with Governor Christie over who’s really cutting taxes and who’s really helping the middle class. It’s amazing how vigorously all of them, including the Governor, sling buzzwords that mean nothing. All the epithets, moral fervor, and slogans only say, “I’m being a cookie-cutter partisan.” Everybody knows the real issue is Christie’s reelection in 2013. So New Jersey has a Democratic budget patchworked with Republican vetoes, and I think the whole thing is insulting.

Budget talk is the worst because even the people I think I agree with prefer slogans to information. But I’ve had a couple of mild shocks lately to hint that I might be more like them than I know.

On one of our wedding trips this summer, a friend put on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in the car. I’ve always loved the scene between Caspian and Governor Gumpas in the Lone Islands: Caspian shows up, switches effortlessly into king mode, abolishes the slave trade, and brings the Lone Islands back to Narnian allegiance all in about an hour. Gumpas becomes the laughingstock of the town and Caspian appoints Lord Bern as Duke in his place—“We’ve had enough of governors, I think.” But listen how he talks when Caspian questions him about slavery:

“I want to know why you have permitted this abominable and unnatural traffic in slaves to grow up here, contrary to the ancient custom and usage of our dominions.”

·      “Necessary, unavoidable, a necessary part of the economic development of the islands, I assure you. Our present burst of prosperity depends on it.”

·      “Your Majesty's tender years hardly make it possible that you should understand the economic problem involved. I have statistics, I have graphs, I have . . .”

·      “But that would be putting the clock back. Have you no idea of progress, or development?”

I wish I could find the whole exchange; sadly I don’t have the book. But much to my discomfort, Gumpas’s logic started tooling nicely along in a mental groove I didn’t know I had. Too much Trenton in my ears, evidently.

Similarly, when we went to the Hoover Dam, I was amazed to see Congress’s approval resolution, because they didn’t justify the project on the numbers, or on benefits for infrastructure or development or local economies. Congress approved the dam because it would “tame the desert.” What? A speck of vision?

The best writing—literary, poetic, political, and apologetic—comes from people who spend their careers on literature or the study of language. You can’t have truth without humor and beauty, and you don’t get much of either in party politics. So when I realized I’d become didactic, I resolved on two fixes. The short-term one was to staunch the bleeding: use shorter words and fewer prepositions, in a mental hat-tip to Strunk and White. The long-term fix is to get more literature, Scripture, and poetry in my reading diet. Humor and beauty do reside in things that are true to life—as literature, Scripture, and poetry are. As a Christian I have a calling to be true to life. So as a writer, the means I use to discuss truth matter. As a person, I don’t want a desiccated soul. And as a citizen, I ought not to be complicit in the avalanche of drivel that makes our political sphere so mindless. Time to read something that’s just straight-up fun.

"Just a Kiss"

The first time I heard a song by Lady Antebellum I thought it was terrifically unpoetic, and first impressions have pretty much held. Now in the spirit of “I’m a little drunk and I need you now” and “I miss the way we sleep…I can’t believe that I still want you,” along comes “Just a Kiss” with its narrative as follows:

WOMAN: “Lying here with you so close to me, it’s hard to fight these feelings when it feels so hard to breathe.”

MAN: “I’ve never opened up to anyone. So hard to hold back when I’m holding you in my arms.”

BOTH: “We don’t need to rush this; let’s just take it slow…I don’t wanna mess this thing up; I don’t wanna push too far.”

At this point, anyone who has read or loved an ounce of poetry should be punching “OFF” in great haste—or, if they’re easygoing types, enjoying a laugh at the singers’ expense for the sorry banalities they use so sincerely to express emotions that can’t for the life of them across as deep.

But then the lyrics change: “It’s just a shot in the dark that you just might be the one I’ve been waiting for my whole life. So baby, I’m all right with just a kiss good night.”

Hmm.

In any current blockbuster the romantic pair would have been a tangle of arms and legs a long time ago. Lady Antebellum has done something, not remarkable, but unusual, with this song: the fictional couple is ending their snuggle without sex. Somehow we are to believe that this relationship is exceptionally important to them, for which reason they choose to hold off from their wishes—whence the song’s title, “Just a Kiss.”

The impulse to handle admiration and desire with restraint is the beginning the reverence or respect that grounds healthy relationships. In this climate, when relationships are so often portrayed as consumptively possessive (and that as a desirable thing), this modicum of self-control is a tiny bit refreshing.

Even if it’s hidden like a needle in the haystack of un-poetry.
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NOTE: I wrote this in November when the song was a tad bit newer.