The Four Sweetest Words

’Twas blind, but now can see

I’m a bit of a wordsmith. Like so many writers, the ebb and flow of language, the energy that words impart, all give me a sense of appreciation for the well-turned phrase, the choice combinations of words, sentences and paragraphs that add power to ideas and frame convincing arguments.

I’m also deeply interested in politics, and find that words and politics blend together as well as — what was Forrest Gump’s phrase? peas and carrots?

From the simple dissimulations of local politicians to the high-blown chicanery of the White House Press Secretary, as well as their corporate magisters’ press releases, political humbuggery is demonstrated so widely these days that it should receive its own branch in Communications studies in universities which offer that major.

I am reminded of Mark Twain’s wonderful essay, “On the Decay in the Art of Lying,” in which he offered an encomium to those who practiced deception with elegance and grace, while lamenting its decline in form among the masses. Twain asked, “What chance has the ignorant, uncultivated liar against the educated expert?” Such a question today has particular pertinence in the face of the vast numbers of plain and simple prevaricators arrayed against the Steve Bannons, the Roger Stones, the news team on the Faux News Network, as…