In 1990, Newt Gingrich published a booklet he called "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control". He mailed his little manifesto to Republican leaders throughout the land and encouraged them to "paint a vivid, brilliant word picture." Gingrich, showing a distrust for his fellow Republicans' judgement, saw fit to supply the leaders with two lists of keywords, a positive word list to use in describing themselves and a negative keyword list to describe those evil Democrats.

Gingrich's positive words for Republicans (try not to laugh or retch)

"Active, activist, building, candid(ly), care(ing), challenge, change, children, choice/choose, citizen, commitment, common sense, compete, confident, conflict, control, courage, crusade, debate dream, duty, eliminate good time in prison, empower(ment), fair, family, freedom, hard work, help, humane, inventive, initiative, lead, learn, legacy, liberty, light, listen, mobilize, moral, movement, opportunity, passionate, peace, pioneer, precious, premise, preserve, principle(d), pristine, pro-flag, pro-children, pro-environment, prosperity, protect, proud/pride, provide, reform, sights, share, strength, success, tough, truth, unique, vision, we/us/our, workfare"

Particularly entertaining was the inclusion of such words as "Eliminate good time in prison", "peace" and "pro-environment". No. They did not include "Audacity" in their "pro-Republican" word list. Anyway, Newt continues with his choice of words to describe the opposition.

Gingrich's negative words for Democrats

"Anti-flag, anti-family, anti-child, anti-jobs, betray, coercion, collapse, consequences, corruption, crises, decay, deeper, destroy, destructive, devour, endanger, failure, greed, hypocrisy, ideological, impose, incompetent, insecure, liberal, lie, limit(s), pathetic, permissive attitude, radical, self-serving, sensationalists, shallow, sick, they/them, threaten, traitors, unionized bureaucracy, urgent, waste"

So now we know what Gingrich was doing when he wasn't busy cheating on his sick wife or serving divorce papers to her in the hospital while she received cancer treatment so he could marry his bimbo. Busy! Busy! Busy!

Nevertheless, if a loser like Newt can issue a list of "power words" then so can we. It is our duty.

Positive words for Democrats

American, Best-interest, Bipartisan, Caring, Children, Choice, Clean, Common sense, Confident, Correct, Courage, Decent, Democracy, Determination, Diversity, Environment, Equity, Fairness, Family, Fiscal responsibility, Forward looking, Freedom, Growth, Hard working, Health, Humane, Innovative, Justice, Liberty, Life, Majority, Middle-class, Moral, New ideas, Open government, Open-minded, Passionate, Peace, Pioneer, Populist, Progressive, Pro-growth, Promote, Prosperity, Protection, Proud, Reality, Responsibility, Security, Solution, Strength, Success, Tolerance, Truth, Unity, Vision, We/us/our, Win, Women, Working, Working-class

And?

Realistic Words for Republicans

Against, Al Qaeda, Anti-, Anti first amendment, Anti-choice, Anti-civil rights, Anti-environment, Aristocracy, Arrogant, Audacity, Authoritarian, Backward, Behind the times, Betray, Big brother, Bigotry, Bin laden, Chaos, Chickenhawk, Closed-minded, Corporate interests, Corporate malfeasance, Corruption, Cowardice, Crisis, Cronies, Danger, Dark ages, Death, Deficits, Denial, Despicable, Destructive, Destructive, Divisive, Doubt, Elitist, Embarrassment, Endanger, Enron, Extremist, Failed, Failure, Falling stocks, False, Fear, Fearful, Fear-monger, Greed, Hateful, Hurtful, Hypocrisy, Ideologues, Incompetent, Inhumane, Insecure, Insecure, Intolerant, Isolationist, Judgmental, Lies, Limousine, Lose, No ideas, Nuclear proliferation, Oil, Oppression, Orwellian, Outdated, Pain, Partisan, Poison, Prejudice, Propaganda, Racism, Radical, Recession, Right-wing, ,Secrecy, Selfish, Selfish, Self-serving, Shameless, Terrorists, They/then, Traitors, Unemployment, Unfair, Unilateralist, War, Warmonger, Weak, Wealthy, Zealots

In addition to these broad-based keywords, we can also focus in on specific issues. For example, in the article, "North Korea Threatens US with Preemptive Attack: Arguing Against the First-Strike Precedent", I suggested the following:

~ Such a policy is the antithesis of what America stands for. Use the term "un-American" liberally.

~ Refer to the Iraq situation as an "invasion" or a "preemptive strike", not as "war". It is not war. Psychologically, "war" is more acceptable to people than either an invasion or a preemptive strike.

So there you go. Every word matters.