In the law, finance, and diplomacy, words matter.
They’re as critically important as numbers — to an engineer, a scientist, or an IRS auditor.
We’ve seen the stump speeches, the bite-sized Sunday morning show phone-ins, the televised town halls, the anything-to-juice-up-the-ratings debates, and the post-debate spin zone self-acclaimed victories.
Thanks to the editorial board of The Washington Post, a transcript of their discussion with Donald Trump is available to those for whom words matter. The wide ranging interview occurred ten days ago, prior to a televised 1:1 interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
Trump is a master at playing a “verbal shell game” (now you see it, now you don’t …). Even highly experienced interviewers like Blitzer have trouble managing Trump’s talent for distraction and avoidance — and supplying provocative, controversial answers to questions that haven’t been posed.
This transcript is an important tool to delve into the substance underlying Trump’s narcissistic bloviation. It’s highly recommended reading, if words matter to you.
Words mattered to a young legislator who struggled to educate himself in the law and the wisdom of our nation’s founders. He argued against inflammatory rhetoric in the political sphere, and maintained that “reason — cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason — must furnish all the materials for our future support and defense.” Words still mattered a quarter century later, when Lincoln wrote with his own hand, and delivered just 272 words at Gettysburg in 1863, consecrating a cemetery at the spot where many had perished.
Why are so many entranced by the tweets and retweets of a candidate for whom words – and numbers, for that matter – have no real importance, until he happens on a theme that strikes a nerve among his seven million Twitter followers? What’s happening now to the Party of Lincoln?
For all those who believe that words and numbers matter, the Democratic Town Committee is sponsoring a debate between two highly-respected economic pundits to examine the ‘pocketbook issues’ that are getting short shrift so far in this primary season.
Representing the Democratic View will be Jared Bernstein, former member of the Obama economic team and advisor to Vice President Biden, prolific author and blogger (“On the Economy”), and Ridgefield native. On the Republican side, we have Larry Kudlow, widely-recognized TV and nationally-syndicated radio host, contributing editor of the National Review, former Reagan administration official, and Redding resident.
They will examine the leading candidates’ positions on how to stimulate growth in employment opportunities and the economy, considering the effects these policies would have on the nation and the State of Connecticut.
What are the prospects for tax reform, and how can we fund entitlement programs while protecting those who are most in need? Can we optimize the investments we make in education, so Connecticut and the country can benefit from innovation and technology? Can we enhance the equality of opportunity?
This free event will be held at the Ridgefield Library on April 7 at 7:30pm. Reservations are recommended; visit RidgefieldDems.org to reserve your place.
The Ridgefield Democratic Town Committee supplies this column.