[lbo-talk] Luntz, wordsmith

[Carl Remick]

>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>
>Carl Remick wrote:
>
>>Pathetically piss-poor polemics.  On the strength of this piece, one would 
>>have to conclude that wordsmith Luntz is quite the dunce. Guess he saves 
>>his good stuff for the high-price clientele.
>
>Luntz is a fucking genius. The rationale is bullshit, but what'd you expect 
>- it's his phrasemaking that's so stunning. "Personalizing" Social 
>Security, not privatizing it. The "death tax." I'm in awe - I wish we had 
>one of him.

Wishing for the left to have a sleazemeister like Lutz is like pining, in an 
earlier thread, for the left to have "hate machines" like the right does.  
Lutz's slippery language reflects a visceral contempt for the public's 
intelligence that the left simply can't equal -- just as the left can't beat 
the right at cultivating hatred for its own sake.  For good and ill, the 
left is trapped into using honest language and trying to appeal to people's 
better instincts.  Damn it all.

Carl