Jeb Bush and the Enormous Cavity He Calls a Mouth

Notes from the Intergalactic Kegger – October 4, 2015

Jeb Bush and the Enormous Cavity He Calls a Mouth

He has put his foot in there so often, it thinks his mouth is the shoe closet.

What do you make of – or in Robert Reich’s signature sign off “What do you think?”- of a seasoned politician saying something so insensitive as to seriously threaten the efficacy of his Presidential bid? Was it a planned sound bite? Did he finally demonstrate his true nature? Should we be overly compassionate and forgive? Should we wait, with baited breath, for his spin on the whole thing? Or did he simply make a huge mistake?

The above title is an example of hyperbole – exaggeration to make a point and, in the case of the above sub-title, to be humorous. Forget for a moment the lack of truth or insight behind such a statement or declaration. Forgetting or dispensing with analytical thinking is the hallmark of the American political process.

Hyperbole: n. exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally. (The New Oxford American Dictionary)

Let that sink in while we are waiting for Paul Rubio, Ted Cruz, or Ran Paul to dispute the validity of the New Oxford American Dictionary.

Ok. I think it is safe to proceed.

As Americans, we are fortunate that we have an American Narrative. Most people in the world do not. We banter about, fling invective, demand action from our father and mother figures for supposed atrocities, and otherwise lean back in our desk chairs, with a vague sense of satisfaction, believing we have voiced a vital concern. Cumulatively, all of our voices become the narrative. And each of us suspects that since there are so many other voices shouting at the top of their ability to make noise, we must do the same. The American Narrative has become a surreal town hall meeting of drunks, extremists, and frightened housewives.

How’s that for hyperbole?

I only bring up this preponderance of exaggeration because I have noticed it in the American Narrative for years now. It reaches a penultimate level during political election seasons. Lately, however, we have forgotten that hyperbole is not to be taken literally. To demonstrate this process by analogy, the news media is the white background and Social Media venues are the dots on the white background. As participants, we draw lines and connect the dots that are colored the way we want them to be on a chosen background supplied by the media. A picture forms. But if we are to understand the literal message of the picture, we must see all the dots and try different connections between them, no matter if the result is something that just doesn’t sit very well with us.

What I’ve noticed is the tendency for hyperbole to dominate the narrative so completely that hyperbole becomes the norm. Shouting our perspectives becomes a war of hyperbolic absolutes. Unrealistic black and white explanations provide the promise of certainty, garner the most attention therefore, but black and white explanations in a world of varying perspectives, cultural interpretations, and political agendas (not just from politicians) are necessarily hyperbolic and don’t facilitate the discovery of a resolution in the narrative. They define the word hyperbole in our society’s narrative and, therefore, dilute the power of an electorate to actually have a societal narrative that serves their interests by resolving our disputes, coming together for a common purpose, or actually being truly democratic.

At this point, fingers are pointing at me in a suspicious manner, believing I am going to be hyperbolic and suggest an “end to hyperbole!” This is not a Bloom County episode, however, I assure you. Hyperbole has a place, a small place, in any rhetorical narrative. Bernie Sanders does it. Paul Rubio does it too often. Donald Trump doesn’t care if you realize he’s doing it on purpose. Hillary Clinton is unsure when to do it and will get back to us when she’s consulted her advisors. Ben Carson doesn’t know how not to do it. Jeb Bush recently stopped doing it for a brief moment and it will cost him the job.

I only bring this up because when hyperbole begins to feel like the norm, when people begin to take or use absolutes literally, we lose our sense of what is really occurring and what is actually being said in our narrative. The Presidential election that will take place next year is not a huge, make-or-break, do or die, languish or perish, event. To strip away all the hyperbole, next year’s election is simply the time when our democratic process decides who will be the next President since our current President is not allowed to continue. The Election is when We The People get to decide who we are going to hire for this job. Before the election, the candidates are simply interviewing for the position. That is all this is really about. And after several more candidates drop out of the race (no one is actually running here. No one is lifting their feet and perambulating rapidly toward anything – “running” is a metaphor used to establish a hyperbolic rhetoric – and that’s almost enough big words for today) the real rhetorical circus will begin. Hyperbole will abound.  Men and women will don their metaphorical costumes, arm themselves with obscure simile, and the race will be on. Let’s get excited about that, shall we?

Can you see where hyperbole no longer serves anyone? Can you sense with your mind when job-interviewees are relying on exaggeration and vague assertions, intended normally to not be taken literally, to replace real interaction with the interviewer? As a result, all of us feel the drought of pragmatic answers to moderately assessed issues. Only by using our minds and our ability to honestly determine what a candidate is saying can we move forward to find whatever real world answers are available to us.

 G. M. Potter

Thank you. Now, go out and have a really wonderful, mind-blowing, epic day !!

(Irreverence used to juxtapose a point of view by the use of overly dramatic hyperbole)