In the self-perpetuating world of American political discourse, it seems that words can mean anything. 

Of course language is a subjective thing, but when plain lies are told, and daily sensations are forgotten in favor of the next lucrative soundbite, one can say that language has undergone a cheapening, a cheapening that has been accelerated by the Trump administration’s blatant dishonesty and rapid-fire violations of political norms. 

The commonplace occurrence of dishonesty and the short shelf life of modern indignation causes the general public to adapt to an ever-worsening erosion of American democracy. 

A gradual acclimation to absurdity, the expression of which is summed up in African American Vernacular English by the insightful comedian Wanda Sykes as “that’s just what we doin’ now.” 

At the functional level, this phenomenon is driven by the intentionally crude language of what Georgetown History Professor John McNeil calls the Trump administration’s “semi-facism.” Once again, as has been seen throughout the 20th century, rhetoric, inflammatory and simplistic, is the favorite tool of those, in the words of Stephen Hawking, “demagogues who appeal to the lowest common denominator.” 

The language characteristic of this semi-fascism is flattened and inarticulate. Little more than soundbites strung together with provocation. The only antidote is nuance. 

This is why Trump’s semi-fascism is so closely allied with populism – those with a command of language, who are, in the culture wars, often painted with the broad brush of “elite,” have the tools to dismantle what sounds good, what has been carefully designed to manipulate the anxieties of the disaffected. This is why Trump, as evidenced by the New England Journal of Medicine’s statement that the federal government has “undercut trust in science and in government…instead of relying on expertise,” perpetuates anti-intellectualism under the guise of anti-elitism. 

Biden, in actuality the ultimate political insider, attempts to co-opt this tactic for the liberal cause with his brief though not concise essay in brute strength “will you shut up man.”

Harris, in the articulate tradition, uses plain good manners – “Mr. Vice President” – and plain common sense – “I am speaking” when she is in fact speaking – to obliterate the crass dishonesty of fascist rhetoric. Though she had the luxury of sparring with the Trump regime’s more polished mouthpiece as opposed to the blustering figurehead himself whom one suspects is incapable of being admonished, particularly by a woman. 

Language is simultaneously the linchpin of Trump’s semi-fascism and the safeguard of democracy. Culturally language is our greatest medicine, it is, in the words of Toni Morrison, “how civilizations heal.”

Moving forward, language is the battleground.

The foes being the systematic world of articulacy where language is utilized to elucidate ambiguity and the chaotic world of inarticulacy where language is utilized to exploit vagueness. 

We are facing an era of rapid political entropy where both the poison and the antidote are language. Fascism accrues momentum via the perversion of language and the alternative, what I will call freedom tempered with responsibility, depends on the rigorous application of language to assert its merit and maintain its standards.