Friday, May 23, 2025
Words, words and more words. Everything we do every day is connected to the use of words and their meaning. Shakespeare’s Hamlet spends a lot of time complaining about words. In “My Fair Lady,” Eliza Doolittle expresses her frustration with excess talking and her desire for action.
I relate the use of words to the political arena, where I spent a great deal of my life. In our history books, public officials gain notoriety by using memorable words. President Franklin D. Roosevelt soothed a fearful nation with promises that America would go to war and win it. Great Britain’s prime minister, Winston Churchill, lacking enough troops and ammunition, uplifted his nation with his brilliant use of words.
If I asked you to remember some of the greatest words from President Ronald Reagan, you might say, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” President Bill Clinton was believable when he told the voters that he felt their pain. President Barack Obama was elected on the promise of change.
President Trump has used the word “tariff” with enormous frequency, but after major drops in the markets, even he may temporarily realize that the word is toxic.
This month’s economic crisis is a good example of how politicians fail to talk to the average consumer in simple terms. When the stock market takes a dramatic plunge, stockholders and pensioners get nervous about their long-term economic fate. Over the past few weeks, there wasn’t one person who consistently crafted a message that could soothe the millions of people who were on edge.
The Wall Street crisis may be on hold, but there are no assurances that the White House has a real long-term plan. One of the underlying problems right now is that there are no assurances that anyone will emerge who will be a credible voice, able to keep the nation calm. The president has promised to negotiate with multiple nations on trade issues, but he may not be the right person to talk to the American public, because he is known to change his mind often, and has already said so.
Most people don’t understand how pure partisan politics emerges when there are complex fiscal headaches and multiple talking heads. An example of the confusion is the back-and-forth between Elon Musk and Peter Navarro, the president’s voice on tariffs. Recently Musk referred to Navarro as being “dumber than a sack of bricks.” Navarro referred to Musk as a “car assembler.” If these two people are supposed to be the economic face of the administration, which one should the public trust?
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is widely respected on Wall Street, but at the height of last week’s turmoil in the markets he was telling us that “things are going to be just fine.”
This should be alarming to all Americans, because it appears there’s no one person who is capable of uttering the words that investors need to keep their collective blood pressure under control. To add to the boiling pot, there’s Vice President J.D. Vance, who has found ways to throw dynamite into a Washington crowd. While his boss is trying to find a working strategy against Chinese tariffs, Vance, who comes from so-called hillbilly country, said, “We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.” China is our Number 2 lender.
With all these crazy intra-party fights going on, one would think the Democrats would be delighting in the bloodbath. Instead, they seem to be suffering from some kind of vocal paralysis, and are unable to find a few key players to articulate the case that the MAGA party is floundering. The United States is currently in a state of total confusion, thanks to the confusing words coming from the Republicans and the silence of the Democratic lambs.
For now, we’ll have to hope that the country doesn’t free-fall into a recession. We could use a few words from somebody out there who’s never heard of Pinocchio.
Jerry Kremer was a state assemblyman for 23 years, and chaired the Assembly’s Ways and Means Committee for 12 years. Comments about this column? jkremer@liherald.com.
