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Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County NJ

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A Gaffe About Gaffes

April 12, 2012

by Ed Gross

We’ve all been hearing a lot recently about gaffes committed by Republican presidential

candidates. If I say that gaffe is the wrong word to describe most of them, you’ll say

I’m just a fussy former English major. Okay, you got me. Yet, in this case there’s a

very important distinction I’d like to make. A gaffe, according to the dictionary is “a

social blunder, especially a tactless remark” or, secondarily, “a noticeable mistake.”

Actual gaffes are committed regularly in politics and certainly aren’t limited to one

political party or the other. Joe Biden, for one, is deservedly famous for them. For

example, calling out to Missouri State Senator Chuck Graham, who is in a wheelchair,

he said, “Stand up, Chuck, let ’em see ya.” Some of Michele Bachmann’s reputation for

gaffes is equally well deserved. This summer, she wished Elvis Presley a happy birthday

on the anniversary of his death. Celebrating Concord, New Hampshire for “the shot heard

round the world” in Concord, Mass. qualifies as a gaffe, and a particularly embarrassing

one at that.

What’s bothering me about the misapplication of the word gaffe is something I call

journalistic squeamishness. It’s the unwillingness of reporters – and, surprisingly,

pundits and columnists, too – to call bad behavior by its rightful name. I noticed

this first during the Bush administration when even the New York Times called

torture “enhanced interrogation techniques.” That’s not just a euphemism to avoid the

socially unacceptable. That’s a distortion. It should be obvious that what was torture

when done to our soldiers in World War II and Vietnam must by definition be torture

when done in our name in Iraq and Guantanamo.

A politician who deliberately presents something as factual that is simply not true is, as

any good parent would tell their child, lying. Calling it a gaffe, implies a lack of intent.

No one, after all, blunders on purpose. Now, as an Ethical Culturist, I can be sympathetic

to lies told to protect feelings or avoid conflict on the one hand while condemning

egregious lies on the other. Here are a few from Representative Bachmann that I’m afraid

have been made more acceptable, or at least excusable, for having been dismissed in the

media as gaffes.

On the Constitution: “We also know the very founders that wrote those documents

worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States.” (italics mine) Paying

tribute to Calvin Coolidge, she claimed his conservative economic policies led America

into the prosperity of the Roaring ’20s. Really? To whose policies would she attribute

the crash and the depression? Speaking of which, she also said the depression was made

much worse by FDR and the Hoot-Smalley tariffs (actually Smoot Hawley, so that part’s

just a gaffe) although they were proposed by two Republicans and signed into law by

President Coolidge before FDR took office!

Okay, so maybe you don’t think Ms. Bachmann a serious candidate anyway. Fine. But

how about Texas Governor Rick Perry? Upon entering the race, he immediately led in the

polls, so he’s necessarily being treated seriously. Recently, he called global warming “a

scientific theory that has not been proven and from my perspective is more and more

being put into question.” That’s no gaffe, that’s a lie. As was his statement that Texas

has the legal right to secede from the United States. I don’t know how to characterize his

comment that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke might be guilty of “treasonous”

behavior for how he is handling economic policy, but it’s wrong and vicious and

certainly not unintentional.

Being President of the United States is a ridiculously difficult job. I would never pretend

to know who’s qualified based on what candidates say while campaigning. I do, however,

think that by spewing a series of blatant lies a candidate disqualifies him or herself. We

need the news media to have the stomach to make that obvious by calling a lie a lie.

Otherwise, we’ll end up with another “gaffe-prone” president, like another ex-Texas

governor I could name.

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Recent Posts

  • Society Gets Grant to Explore Concept of ‘Sacred Spaces’ January 31, 2023
  • Church-State Separation: Who Stands to Lose if the Wall Fails? January 30, 2023
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  • Struggle over Church-State Separation has Deep Roots in America January 28, 2023

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There's always time for play: celebrations, discussions (some in Spanish -- find Conversemos on our calendar on the fourth Tuesday of the month), hikes, picnics, cultural outings, and more. Come join us!
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Diane running the show

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