I have been studying the announcement speeches of the most recent Republican candidates (15 and counting!) but I was disappointed to find that there were almost no metaphors in their speeches. They were quite uniform in their plain language, laying out the problems of the United States and the steps they would take to solve those problems. I will keep looking for more interesting uses of metaphors in the speeches of those candidates.
In the meantime, I was just reading a fascinating article in a recent Time magazine article by Michael Scherer. If you are a subscriber, you can read the article online here. In the paper edition, it is “Up with People: Populist Fury and Economic Anxiety are Remaking Democratic Politics. It’s the Message of Elizabeth Warren,” pp. 40-45 in the July 20, 2015 issue.
The author Scherer discusses how Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are challenging former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on many progressive and populist issues facing the country today. I found a nice variety of metaphors used to describe the political moves the various liberal leaders were using. There were interesting uses of metaphors from communication, fire, fragile objects, physical forces, boxing and war. As always, all examples are taken directly from the article. The metaphors are highlighted with italics, and some examples may be repeated if there are several different metaphors in the same passage. Enjoy!
Communication
One area of metaphor usage I have not previously discussed is that of communication terms. A literal act of communication can be used to metaphorically describe a larger, abstract form of communication. For example, a simple action or statement may be described as something being said loud and clear, a clear signal, or calling out someone. Similarly, we may say that an action is a clarion call, a clarion being a medieval trumpet used to call the start of a battle. On a lighter note, we can also talk about a punch line, the final line of a joke. Metaphorically, a punch line is an important or unexpected statement in a description of a problem.
call out
Example: “In December she [Warren] attacked the White House and Democratic leaders for agreeing to roll back limits on derivatives trading by federally insured banks, even calling out Obama’s current and former advisers for their work with Citigroup, one of the major proponents of the change.”
clear signal
Example: “Brookings scholars Elaine Kamarck and Bill Galston, for instance, both veterans of the Wall Street–friendly Democratic Leadership Council, sent a clear signal to Clinton this summer when they proposed new curbs on executive compensation, stock buybacks and other forms of financialization that they argue have bled the economy of jobs.”
loud and clear
Example: “‘They are sending a message not to Hillary Clinton, not to Jeb Bush,’ he said. ‘They are sending a message loud and clear to the people that own America, to the Big Money interests, that enough is enough. They cannot have it all.’”
clarion call
Example: “The new fire is fueled by a shift in economics that feels like a crisis for many Americans and a clarion call for government action among liberals.”
punch line
Example: “‘Elizabeth [Warren] is, you know, a politician like everyone else,’ he told a reporter in May. ‘Her arguments don’t stand the test of fact and scrutiny.’ But he could not prevent the punch line: 78% of House Democrats and 73% of the Senate Democratic caucus initially voted against Obama, who prevailed only by restructuring the votes with the GOP.”
Physical Forces
It is very common to describe abstract actions as normal physical forces. We can find examples of shrinking, squeezing, or pressuring someone or something. There are also examples of holding sway and steamrolling families. Most famously, we have the nickname of supply-side economics as trickle down economics, as if money invested in corporations will trickle down like water to the middle and low socioeconomic classes.
shrink
Example: “‘The Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party is shrinking quite dramatically,’ says Robert Reich, a former Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton.”
squeeze
Example: “Obama talked about the middle-class squeeze as far back as 2005, and he shares much of Warren’s agenda, from increasing the minimum wage to expanding infrastructure investments and overtime pay.”
pressure
Example: “Warren, who clearly intends to apply as much pressure as she can on Clinton, says with some coyness that it is “too early to say” whether she will join Sanders on the campaign trail.”
steamroll
Example: “‘Here is this coalition of giant credit-card companies whose plan was to improve their bottom line by 1 or 2 percentage points by just steamrolling millions of American families,’ she says.”
hold sway
Example: “The old arguments and alliances no longer hold sway and won’t draw crowds.”
trickle down
Example: “Clinton, for her part, has already adopted much of Warren’s language, attacking the idea in her campaign announcement speech that ‘if we let those at the top pay lower taxes and bend the rules, their success would trickle down to everyone else.’”
Physical Forces with Objects
There are certain metaphors of physical forces that involved specific objects. We can speak of social relationships as if they are physically tied with string or rope. Those ties can also be loosed like untying a knot in a rope. We also talk of bending the rules as if they are branches of a tree.
strong ties, cut ties
Example: “She [Warren] also concluded that the party’s strong ties to Wall Street were not anodyne or manageable. They were the problem.”
Example: [speaking of Warren] “But a woman whose family finances and political fortunes have long been entangled with the biggest Wall Street firms has not yet declared how far she is willing to take the party down the populist path, or whether she is willing to pay the price of cutting ties with some of her biggest backers.”
loose (verb)
Example: “But the next party agenda will be the province of the Democrats’ 2016 nominee, and centrists have been rushing to propose their own set of reforms, retreating from the long-held view that loosing capitalism from regulation would unleash benefits for all.”
bend the rules
Example: “Clinton, for her part, has already adopted much of Warren’s language, attacking the idea in her campaign announcement speech that ‘if we let those at the top pay lower taxes and bend the rules, their success would trickle down to everyone else.’”
Physical Forces with Animals
Working with animals leads to a several interesting metaphors. Wild or even domestic animals often need to be controlled as with leashes for dogs or reins for horses. The sudden release of a natural process may be called unleashing it, while controlling something that is more powerful than expected may be called reining it in.
unleash
Example: “But the next party agenda will be the province of the Democrats’ 2016 nominee, and centrists have been rushing to propose their own set of reforms, retreating from the long-held view that loosing capitalism from regulation would unleash benefits for all.”
rein in
Example: “Economists like Summers, who encouraged the banking deregulation of the 1990s as a way to increase growth, speak often now about targeted measures to rein in the ‘rents’ accrued by the wealthy, like limits on intellectual property, stronger enforcement of antitrust laws and tax reforms to increase purchasing power at the bottom.”
Fire
We all have experience with fire. A spark may start a fire, while fuel is needed to keep a fire burning. Metaphorically, something that is excited or aroused may be called something inflamed, while a process that is growing larger may be described as a fire that is being fueled.
inflamed
Example: “Not since Woodrow Wilson promised to break the ‘money monopoly’ and Franklin Roosevelt hollered ‘I welcome their hatred’ at the plutocrats has the Democratic Party found itself so inflamed against the intersection of wealth and power.”
fuel the fire
Example: “The new fire is fueled by a shift in economics that feels like a crisis for many Americans and a clarion call for government action among liberals.”
Fragile Objects
Abstract concepts may be compared to fragile objects that can be broken. We can break up or break down something or simply break it.
break
Example: “Not since Woodrow Wilson promised to break the ‘money monopoly’ and Franklin Roosevelt hollered ‘I welcome their hatred’ at the plutocrats has the Democratic Party found itself so inflamed against the intersection of wealth and power.”
break up
Example: “She [Warren] wants to break up the big banks, increase funding for Social Security and slow the revolving door between the White House and Wall Street.”
break down
Example: “But the similarities break down over how far and fast to go in financial regulation and free-trade agreements.”
Boxing
Politicians are often compared to boxers fighting in a ring. A boxer may also be known as a pugilist while someone can pick a fight, stand up and fight, fight back or get back on offense instead of simply defending against blows from an opponent.
pugilist
Example: [speaking of Warren] “A legal academic by training, a teacher by disposition and a pugilist to the core, she never sought politics as a career or party as an identity.”
pick fights
Example: “To see where the battle lines are drawn, all you have to do is list the fights Warren has picked with her own party over the past year.”
stand up and fight
Example: “In the meantime, Clinton is trying to get back on offense in her own party. ‘I take a backseat to no one when you look at my record in standing up and fighting for progressive values,’ she said, after speaking to a crowd of about 800 in New Hampshire.”
fight back
Example: “Obama, after promising hope and fighting back from the Great Recession, will almost certainly leave office having failed in the central economic challenge of his time: raising incomes for the American middle class.”
on offense
Example: “In the meantime, Clinton is trying to get back on offense in her own party.”
War
As I have pointed out many times before, politics in the United States is often compared to war between opposing parties. In some cases, politicians from a single party may be at war with themselves. People can be targets or be under attack from their enemies. There may also be battles between competitors and battle lines may be drawn before the beginning of a fight. In maritime battles, a ship can fire all of its guns on one side at the same time in an action known as a broadside. A ship that is shot full of holes will undoubtedly sink. A ship’s crew working for an incompetent or abusive captain may quit or mutiny. Metaphorically, a large verbal attack may be called a broadside, and a project may sink if it fails to make progress. Finally, people working for a failing politician may also mutiny and give up.
at war
Example: “… at the White House, where a frustrated President Obama has spent the summer at war with his own party over how to write the rules of global trade.”
target
Example: “House minority leader Nancy Pelosi says bluntly that Warren’s view of Obama as soft on Wall Street ‘is not the consensus in our party.’ Warren’s targets are less delicate. ‘I don’t know if she fully understands the global banking system,’ needles JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. Warren Buffett has suggested she be ‘less angry and demonizing.’”
under attack
Example: “The old arguments and alliances no longer hold sway and won’t draw crowds. And the giants of the party now find their credentials, and motivations, under attack.”
battle for the soul
Example: “‘The Democratic Party is being polarized to the left, laying the groundwork for a Tea Party–like insurrection,’ explains Bruce Josten, a top lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. ‘It is a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party.’”
battle lines are drawn
Example: “To see where the battle lines are drawn, all you have to do is list the fights Warren has picked with her own party over the past year.”
mutiny, sink, broadside
Example: “When Larry Summers, a top economic aide to both Presidents Obama and Clinton and a former consultant to Citibank, seemed close to getting his dream job as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Warren joined a Democratic mutiny and sank his chances. This summer she launched a broadside against Mary Jo White, Obama’s Securities and Exchange Commission chair, accusing White of slow-rolling new rulemaking for the finance industry, and highlighting the conflicts of interest caused by her husband, who works at a Wall Street law firm.”
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I am always amazed at the wide variety of metaphors that can found in a short magazine article. It presents more evidence that we can barely talk about politics without using metaphors. See if you can find examples of metaphors the next time you pick up a news magazine.
Next time: More political metaphors in the news.
This phrase is not new in politics. Originally it was derived from the physical draining of the water in a swamp where mosquitos were breeding and causing malaria or other diseases. In 1983, Ronald Reagan called for draining the swamp of bureaucrats in Washington D.C. while in 2006, Nancy Pelosi wanted to drain the swamp of Republican politicians in the U.S. government. Many other colorful examples can be found in a wonderful summary here.
Democratic Senator from Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren was even more blunt in an address two weeks ago. “Trump is not draining the swamp, nope. He’s inviting the biggest, ugliest swamp monsters in the front door, and he’s turning them loose on our government and our economy.”
bogged down
quicksand
