On modes of speech; Vance and Pence; the Polish-American vote; hell in Venezuela; and more
This is not the most important news item in the world, but it is an item: “In a fresh wave of criticism, Republican commentators have accused Vice President Kamala Harris of altering her accent again during a recent public appearance.” (For this article, go here.) In other words, Harris is “talking black,” say the critics.
I thought back to the first black president and what a leading Democrat said about him. Let me quote an article in the New York Times, dated January 9, 2010:
Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic majority leader, apologized on Saturday for once predicting that Barack Obama could become the country’s first black president because he was “light-skinned” and had “no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”
May we acknowledge that many Americans — probably many people, all over the world — have different modes of speech? Very few people talk exactly the same to all people at all times. You know who did? William F. Buckley Jr. I heard him speak to many, many people, at all levels of life: from cabbies to presidents. He always sounded like Bill Buckley.
Speaking of him: He had Governor Jimmy Carter, of Georgia, as a guest on his TV show Firing Line in 1973. Afterward, Carter’s aides told Bill that they had never heard Carter speak as he had: He had modulated his voice for Firing Line. In later years, Bill would tease about Carter’s “Firing Line voice.”
My grandmother (one of them) was something not too common: a native Washingtonian from a longstanding Washington family. (I am talking about D.C., just to be clear.) There was an old-Washington way of speaking, which I bet has died out now. It was not quite southern — but it was southern-ish. It was utterly distinctive. When I heard her talk to her old friends, I would marvel.
All of this is very American and, I bet, very human.
• Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal published a report headed “Nippon Steel Finds Unlikely Ally in Pittsburgh Workers.” The subheading: “In steel country, locals fight to keep jobs at U.S. Steel even if it means foreign ownership.”
The article begins,
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have found agreement on one issue: opposing the $14.1 billion sale of U.S. Steel, one of America’s most storied corporations, to Nippon Steel of Japan.
Sometimes you have to say, “Down with bipartisanship.”
• In recent months — recent years, actually — I have written about a trend, a phenomenon: The Right is sounding like the Left. This is especially so in the realm of foreign policy. (To sample a post from me on this subject, go here.) JD Vance is Donald Trump’s running mate. He is very different from Trump’s running mate in 2016 and 2020: Mike Pence. Pence has declined to endorse Trump this year. And this is what Vance, the replacement, said: “In reality, if Donald Trump wanted to start a nuclear war with Russia, Mike Pence would be at the front of the line endorsing him right now.”
This is what the Left always said about us — always said about us conservatives: Because we wanted a clear-eyed policy toward aggressors, we wanted to start a nuclear war.
And now the standard-bearers of the Right are saying it.
In a column earlier this week, I described the current era in politics as “disorienting.” It is.
• Vance has “evolved” quite a bit, politically. Did you see this story? “JD Vance got a former professor to delete a blog post he wrote in 2012 attacking GOP over anti-immigrant rhetoric.” We read,
A week after President Barack Obama won reelection in November 2012, JD Vance, then a law student at Yale, wrote a scathing rebuke of the Republican Party’s stance on migrants and minorities, criticizing it for being “openly hostile to non-whites” and for alienating “Blacks, Latinos, the youth.”
The other half of the 2024 Republican ticket, Donald Trump, made much the same criticisms. But back to the article:
Four years later, as Vance considered a career in GOP politics, he asked a former college professor to delete the article. That professor, Brad Nelson, taught Vance at Ohio State University while Vance was an undergraduate student. After Vance graduated, Nelson asked him to contribute to a blog he ran for the non-partisan Center for World Conflict and Peace.
The story continues,
Nelson told CNN that during the 2016 Republican primary he agreed to delete the article at Vance’s request, so that Vance might have an easier time getting a job in Republican politics. However, the article, titled “A Blueprint for the GOP,” remains viewable on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
Sometimes you want to airbrush. But sometimes technology — The Machine — won’t let you.
• During her debate with Trump, Kamala Harris said something startling (at least to me). If the United States had not supported Ukraine, she said, “Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe. Starting with Poland.” Recall that the candidates were debating in Philadelphia. Looking at Trump, Harris then said, “And why don’t you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up?” (meaning, give up on Ukraine).
Huh.
Yesterday, the Associated Press published a report that began,
Democrats are stepping up their outreach to Polish Americans in this year’s presidential election as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump vie for support from a community that could play a decisive role in razor-thin battleground state contests.
In my column of Tuesday, I noted this ad — a Harris ad, intended for Polish Americans in particular. I would like to make a point about it now. The narrator says, “She will defend our brave allies. For their freedom and for ours.”
Do you recognize that phrase? Let me quote President Reagan, speaking in December 1981. The dictatorship in Poland, under pressure from Moscow, had just imposed martial law. “When 19th-century Polish patriots rose against foreign oppressors,” said Reagan, “their rallying cry was, ‘For our freedom and yours.’ Well, that motto still rings true in our time.”
Remember, too, the protesters in Red Square on August 25, 1968 — those incredibly brave seven. They were protesting their government’s invasion of Czechoslovakia. They waved Czechoslovakian flags and held placards, one of which said, “For your freedom and ours.” Their protest lasted about five minutes. Then the KGB fell upon them, launching hellish fates for them all.
• In July, Venezuela held a presidential election. (A “presidential” “election.”) It was won by the main opposition candidate, Edmundo González, a retired diplomat, age 75. The dictatorship blocked his election, of course, and he fled to Spain, for asylum. As we learn in this article, he was made to sign a letter, before he could leave — a letter that effectively says, “I lost the election.”
González explained, “They showed up with a document that I would have to sign to allow my departure from the country. In other words, either I signed or I would face consequences. There were very tense hours of coercion, blackmail, and pressure.”
Do you judge González for signing and leaving? I find it hard — impossible — to do so.
• For years, JD Vance has had a line about people without children: They don’t care as much about the future of our country as people with children. They don’t have “a direct stake” in America. I wrote about this in my July 26 column, here.
Now comes Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the governor of Arkansas, doing a Trump event in Michigan: “So, my kids keep me humble. Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble.” The crowd, of course, booed lustily — booed Harris.
What is the definition of “humblebrag”? I think Sanders gave one.
I could say a lot but will simply repeat something I said in my previous column: In my opinion, people with children should not thump their chest about it, not crow about it. Should not put other people down for not having any. They should be grateful.
• Let’s have some language. In my column yesterday, I had an item that began as follows:
Earlier this month, the Justice Department indicted two employees of RT. (To read the DOJ’s press release, go here.) This pair funded an American operation called “Tenet Media” — funded it to the tune of $10 million. Tenet was started by another pair, Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan, husband and wife (or wife and husband). How to describe these two? The popular phrase is “right-wing influencers.”
“Husband and wife,” rather than “wife and husband.” Isn’t it natural to say? Also “mom and dad.” Isn’t “dad and mom” unnatural to say?
Over a blogpost yesterday, I had a picture from Springfield, Ohio — a picture of a mural. Originally, the caption read, “A mural on a wall . . .” But aren’t murals, by definition, on walls?
Yesterday, walking about New York, I heard an American pronunciation — a vernacular pronunciation. A native New Yorker, part of a construction crew, was talking about asphalt — which he pronounced “ash-phalt.”
The grandfather of a friend of mine — from a Wisconsin family — pronounced “conduit” to rhyme with “biscuit” — “condit.”
I do love this language of ours: its immense and colorful variety.
• Speaking of language: I smiled at this cartoon:
• A shot of New York, on a sparkling September morning:
But the portents of fall . . . are here:
Thank you for joining me, everyone. Very best.
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