Tag Archives: Elizabeth Warren

Draining the Swamp?

One of the most common metaphors one hears in the news today is the idea of draining the swamp. During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump pledged that, if he were elected, he would drain the swamp, meaning that he would fire all of the politicians in Washington D.C. who were negative influences on the government. No one was exactly sure what he meant, but many us assumed that he was referring to career politicians, lobbyists, and those too closely connected to Wall Street and large corporations.

blog-nature-swamp-1This 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.

Despite Donald Trump’s promise to rid the government of career politicians and lobbyists, he has so far named five millionaires and billionaires to his cabinet, including Steven Mnuchin, a Goldman Sachs executive as Secretary of the Treasury, billionaire businessman Wilbur Ross as Secretary of Commerce, billionaire Republican supporter Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao as Secretary of Transportation.

While many Republicans are applauding these recent choices due to their business experience, other conservatives are not so supportive. In a recent interview, conservative radio host Mark Levin complained, “This is not Trump draining the swamp. This is the swamp draining Trump.”

blog-nature-swamp-alligatorDemocratic 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.”

Many of the cabinet choices require Senate confirmation so these candidates are not officially hired quite yet. In the meantime, we will see if President-elect Trump continues to appoint Washington and Wall Street insiders to this cabinet.

We have several other metaphors based on swamps, marshes and bogs. Here are a few examples for your reading pleasure.

blog-nature-swamp-2
swamped

Many areas of the earth are covered in a mixture of water and soil in areas known as swamps, bogs, marshes or wetlands. Some of these terms are used metaphorically to indicate the difficulty in getting out of complicated situations. In one case, we say we are swamped with work if we cannot keep up with all the tasks that we are required to do at a certain time.

Example: In July 2011, President Obama asked Americans to call their members of Congress if they wanted to make a suggestion on how to reduce the national deficit. As a result, the phones of many Senators and Congresspersons were swamped with calls for several days.

blog-nature-mud-and-bootsbogged down

A bog is a type of marsh, a large area covered in water that is difficult to cross. In a similar sense, a person who cannot make good progress in a situation may be described as being bogged down.

Example: Much to the dismay of American voters, progress in Congress is often bogged down by disagreements between Democrats and Republicans.

 

 

mired

A mire is another word for bog or swamp. Metaphorically, a person who is mired in something cannot make progress in a certain situation.

Example: American politics is commonly mired in ideological differences between liberals and conservatives.

quagmire

A quagmire is another old world meaning a bog or marsh. In common terms, a quagmire is any difficult situation that is almost impossible to get out of.

Example: After the difficulties during the War in Vietnam, many Americans felt in 2003 that the War in Iraq would be another quagmire that would cost millions of dollars and many lives.

blog-nature-quicksand-warningquicksand

Quicksand is an especially dangerous mixture of water and sand that traps a person. The more one moves to get out, the more trapped one becomes. People die every year from being trapped in quicksand. Metaphorically, quicksand refers to any situation that looks safe but is actually a trap or a dangerous situation that one cannot escape from easily.

Example: During the revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa that sprang up in 2011, most Americans were against any military involvement in those areas claiming it would be quicksand for our troops.

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To me it seems pretty sad that our government is described both as a swamp of evil creatures and as a place where we cannot easily escape with our lives. One can only hope that the new Trump administration somehow makes improvements in the effectiveness of our government working for the American people.

When Liberals Attack!

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.”

blog - comm - traffic_light_on_redclear 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.’”

blog - comm - Trumpet,_B_flat_-1623clarion 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.”

My beautiful picturesteamroll

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.”

blog - phys forces - Sheepshank_knotloose (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.”

blog - phys forces - reinsrein 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.”

DSC_7139fuel 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.”

blog - boxing - Boxing_Tournament_in_Aid_of_King_George's_Fund_For_Sailors_at_the_Royal_Naval_Air_Station,_Henstridge,_Somerset,_July_1945_A29806stand 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.”

blog - war - targettarget

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.”

blog - war - Missouri_broadsidemutiny, 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.

Metaphors of Physical Forces in Economics

Elizabeth Warren, Democratic senator from Massachusetts, has been in the news lately.  She has been fighting back against Wall Street firms who seem to have increasing control over our government.  A few weeks ago, Warren wrote a special article that appeared in the Huffington Post, outlining her reasons for opposing President Obama’s nominee for the Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department, Antonio Weiss.  Apparently Mr. Weiss is a long-time Wall Street executive who has created mergers, so-called corporate inversions and other tax-dodging schemes for large corporations.  I couldn’t help but notice that such discussions of politics and economics normally involve distinctive metaphors derived from our experiences with physical actions.  You can read the full text here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-warren/presidents-wall-street-nominee_b_6188324.html

As first suggested by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) and Johnson (1990), we often create metaphors based on experiences with our own physical actions such as pushing, pulling, holding, cutting, etc.  We use such actions to create metaphors to describe economics.  First, however, I should also point out that common words for seeing with our eyes from a standing height can also be used metaphorically to describe political and economic processes.  Here are a few examples.  As usual, the quotations are directly from the text.  I have italicized the metaphors for easy recognition by the reader.  Enjoy!

Sight

blog - vision - viewoversee, oversight

                  To oversee something means to supervise or control it.  Metaphorically this process is called oversight.

Example:  “Last Wednesday, President Obama announced his nomination of Antonio Weiss to serve as Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department. This is a position that oversees Dodd-Frank implementation and a wide range of banking and economic policymaking issues, including consumer protection.”

Example:  “According to a report by the Institute for America’s Future, by the following year, the six biggest banks employed 243 lobbyists who once worked in the federal government, including 33 who had worked as chiefs of staff for members of Congress and 54 who had worked as staffers for the banking oversight committees in the Senate or the House.”

focus

We have the ability to look at objects that are close or far away by focusing our eyes to the correct distance.  Metaphorically we can also focus on issues or problems by examining them in closer detail.  We may also refer to this process as having a sharper focus on something.

Example:  “As someone who has spent my career focused on domestic economic issues, including a stint of my own at the Treasury Department, I know how important these issues are and how much the people in Treasury can shape policies.”

point of view

Being able to see something implies that one has a view of it.  Figuratively, however, a person having a view can mean that he or she has an opinion on a certain matter.  We may also say that a person has a particular point of view based on his or her position in relation to the object in sight.

Example:  “The over-representation of Wall Street banks in senior government positions sends a bad message. It tells people that one — and only one — point of view will dominate economic policymaking.”

blog - loopholeloophole

A loophole is an error in a policy or law in which someone can gain advantage for himself or herself, as in tax loopholes which allow wealthy people or corporations to avoid paying taxes.   The word loophole is actually derived from a phrase from the 15th century meaning to look through a hole in a wall as if it were a window.

Example:  “Basically, a bunch of companies have decided that all the regular tax loopholes they get to exploit aren’t enough, so they have begun taking advantage of an even bigger loophole that allows them to maintain their operations in America but claim foreign citizenship and cut their U.S. taxes even more.”

Holding objects

blog - phys forces - Hold_my_handhold posts

                  If someone holds a post, this means that he or she has a certain government job in an administration.

Example:  “Shortly before the [Eric] Cantor episode, another former member of Congress — Democrat Melissa Bean — took the same senior job at JPMorgan Chase previously held by Democrat Bill Daley before his recent service as White House Chief of Staff.”

blog - phys forces - adjustable_wrenchesloosen

The opposite of tightening something is to loosen it.  As with tighten, verbs such as loosen or relax are also used metaphorically to reduce the pressure on a situation.

Example:  “It’s time for the Obama administration to loosen the hold that Wall Street banks have over economic policy making.”

tap

To tap means to hit a surface lightly, especially as in tapping a table with one’s fingers.  In some cases, we must politely tap people on the arm or shoulder to get their attention. Metaphorically, asking someone to take a job may also be referred to as tapping them for a position.

Example:  “For the number two spot at the Federal Reserve, the President tapped Stanley Fischer, another former Citigroup executive.”

Raising the American flag on Mt. Suribachi in Iwo Jima during World War II.
Raising the American flag on Mt. Suribachi in Iwo Jima during World War II.

raise

One way of describing the lifting motion is called raising as in raising our hands in the air. In a series of very common metaphors, we can say that we raise children, raise crops or raise money.

Example:  “So who is Antonio Weiss? He’s the head of global investment banking for the financial giant Lazard. He has spent the last 20 years of his career at Lazard — most of it advising on international mergers and acquisitions.  That raises the first issue.”

An upside down house built as a tourist attraction in Trassenheide, Germany.
An upside down house built as a tourist attraction in Trassenheide, Germany.

inversion

To invert means to turn something upside down.  An inversion is the result of that action such as in reversed word order in a sentence or different temperatures in layers of climates in a valley.   In economics, companies can create a tax inversion by moving their headquarters to a different country with a lower tax rate, even though most of their company’s operations stay in the first country.  The company can then save millions of dollars in taxes by being able to pay the lower taxes of the second country.

Example:  “No one is fooled by the bland words “corporate inversion.” These companies renounce their American citizenship and turn their backs on this country simply to boost their profits.”

boost

To push someone or something up from a lower position is known as boosting.  Some high school or college clubs created to raise money for a certain cause are called booster clubs.  Metaphorically, to boost something means to increase its height, power or performance.

Example:  “These companies renounce their American citizenship and turn their backs on this country simply to boost their profits.”

Cutting and Slashing

cut

The act of cutting involves a sharp object removing a piece of an object from a larger base, as in cutting a piece of paper with a scissors.  In common terms, we may also speak of cutting budgets, staff, or programs by reducing their size.

Example:  “Basically, a bunch of companies have decided that all the regular tax loopholes they get to exploit aren’t enough, so they have begun taking advantage of an even bigger loophole that allows them to maintain their operations in America but claim foreign citizenship and cut their U.S. taxes even more.”

blog - phys forces - cut down treecut a deal

Another figurative expression based on a cutting motion is to cut a deal.  This implies that an agreement is reached between two parties.

Example:  “One of the biggest and most public corporate inversions last summer was the deal cut by Burger King to slash its tax bill by purchasing the Canadian company Tim Hortons and then “inverting” the American company to Canadian ownership.”

undercut

Literally to undercut something means to make a low cut into an object such as a piece of wood so that the higher portion remains above the lower portion.  Metaphorically, undercutting refers to such things as offering lower prices than a competitor, or more abstractly, to reduce the effectiveness of another person’s actions or reputation.

Example:  “The White House and Treasury have strongly denounced inversions, and rightly so. But they undercut their own position by advancing Mr. Weiss.”

slash

Another word for cut is slash, but the latter term implies a more drastic or violent cutting action.

Example:  “One of the biggest and most public corporate inversions last summer was the deal cut by Burger King to slash its tax bill by purchasing the Canadian company Tim Hortons and then “inverting” the American company to Canadian ownership.”

blog - phys forces - Car_crash_1crash

When two objects hit each other with great force, we call this crashing, as in a car crash.  Metaphorically, the word crash can refer to any event in which the process or result is totally ruined.  For example, we may refer to a dramatic drop in stock prices as a stock market crash.

Example:  “Soon after they crashed the economy and got tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts, the biggest Wall Street banks started lobbying Congress to head off any serious financial regulation.”

I believe these types of metaphors are strong evidence that we create conceptual metaphors based on body position and physical actions.  These types of physical actions seem very common in discussions of money, profits, taxes or other economic topics.  If you see any other examples, please let me know!

Next time:  Metaphors of Taste