As someone who enjoys wordplay as much as the next guy (looking at you, Ward Clark), I get a particular kick out of idioms. Sometimes, I get an even bigger kick out of intentionally mangling them. Like, "We'll blow that bridge up when we come to it."
So, as I was watching the furor unfold Saturday and Sunday over former President Donald Trump's "bloodbath" comment, it occurred to me that there's ample idiom room to work with there.
Amid the garment-rending and couch-fainting over his use of a term that, in context, was far from sinister and which his...uh..."successor" himself has used, there were the inevitable assertions that this was a "dog whistle" by the former president.
I know Trump doesn't always do himself favors with his rhetoric. Sometimes, he flat-out serves up the ammo on a silver platter to the Democrats. But often, it's simply the Dems and the media (but I repeat myself) seizing upon yet another excuse to take something said figuratively and insist it must be taken literally in yet another effort to deflect from the failures of their own policies and leadership. "Pay no attention to the results of our bad governance — the Bad Orange Man is worse than Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and Mao times eleventy!"
So, it looks like we're going to play "Wag the Dog Whistle" for the next few days. How long is it 'til November?
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This “Moore to the Point” commentary aired on NewsTalkSTL on Monday, March 18th. Audio included below.