Merit is Not a Dirty Word

This Thanksgiving weekend, as I watched events unfold abroad, I was most grateful that the foolishness of election time is over. I don't miss the comedy, the verbs gouged and adjectives gutted, the nouns torn at the seams and fashioned into slogans. Before November 5, the assumption was that the electorate preferred relating to the candidates to making sure they possessed the right qualities to lead. Drop the final 'g' from your gerunds, my friend, and you too can prove just how much you understand the needs of the country and belong in the White House! Substance was traded in for populist appeal. That was before November 5 and I give thanks.

We no longer have to witness McCain, a multi-millionaire war hero and senator, and Obama, an ivy league-educated lawyer, professor and junior senator, look solemnly at reporters and, lest they be labeled elitist, insist they are the most regular of the regular. Nor do we have to watch Sarah Palin, with her pointy finger and false dichotomies, unblinkingly accept a seat on the express train to the White House in the name of gender equality. I do not miss looking on, mouth hanging open, as her appeal seemed to grow exponentially by the day among a Republican base that felt "she's just like us!" and, it was hoped, among independents and former Hillary supporters who might overlook her diametrically opposed views because "she uses Tampax just like we do!" No, I don't miss that.

I don't miss, not even a little, the Crazy Straw logic. That if anyone dared to utter any objection to Palin, supporters would claim that she was more qualified than Obama because she'd made more "executive decisions." Using the same reasoning, the president of the Hair Club For Men would also be more qualified. When they weren't gushing over how Palin's just the kind of woman they'd like to share a diet soda with, they were waiving "executive decisions!" high and ecstatically. I'm so very grateful that's over.

I could have done without Carly Fiorina's humorless reaction to the Tina Fey impersonations in the name of women's rights. In her eagerness to cry wolf, she completely missed the reality of political satire. Worse, when she repeatedly spat out accusations of "sexism" like a village priest at an exorcism, she took for granted a word that has taken years of painstaking, hard work by thousands of women and men to make legitimate simply in order to help a woman win a position she was unfit for. This Thanksgiving, I am grateful that this is in our past.

Before November 5, we had to watch Lady Rothschild explain, without a hint of irony, that she chose to endorse McCain because Obama, brought up by a single mother with limited resources, is an elitist. I am thankful that now the word elite is used in the press with admiration to describe the Indian commandos who risked their lives in Mumbai. Sharpened up, it has been used during election campaigns to kill (just ask Michael Dukakis).

I won't miss how the word "exotic" was put to the test, which was, apparently, good for fruit, vacations, and nude dancers, but not for candidates running for president. I'm thankful that an Obama victory proved that his "exotic" attributes were not the cause for concern that Pat Buchanan and others had hoped. We no longer have to endure spurious claims of "socialism" and I note that, as Obama chooses his economic team, nobody is accusing him of being a socialist now.

In the end, there was only so much we could take. On November 5 we ran for the theater exit. We declared in a clear voice: "Hold it! We like intelligence and hard work, clear thinking and consideration!" We like it when words mean something, when the capacity to communicate is respected. Sense was restored. Demagoguery was packed up in the trunk with the rest of the costumes.

As we now watch President-elect Obama appoint his cabinet, I'm sure everyone would agree that the "Regular Guy" standard should go the way of the sub-prime mortgage. After November 5, we no longer look to some stranger who claims to be a plumber to help us assess which economic road is best. Why did we before?

Followers of Lee Atwater-view politics as a game to be won at all costs. Maybe they didn't play the best game this year. Maybe the fact that this kind of cynicism didn't win has less to do with voters who saw through the pandering and more to do with an economy in dire straits. You can manipulate an electorate only for so long. If people are losing their homes, they can no longer be played like fiddles.

Maybe there's a deeper reason. When anything goes and no one is concerned about language, a kind of word deflation occurs that is dangerous in bleak times. Perhaps we felt it in our bones. Without respect for language, there is no compass, no north and south. We need words to help guide us. There was no more accurate measurement with which to assess which candidate was better qualified in this election than how each candidate used words to communicate who he was. One candidate did so thoughtfully and honestly; the other tried to use words to create the illusion that he was no better than we are. He lost.

When my Romanian parents arrived in the United States, they knew that the best way to unlock a country was by learning its language. I still have the dictionary that they used over the years to familiarize themselves with the nuances of English. Sometimes I'll come across a check or question mark or a word underlined. I take these markings as a testament to their wonder about the place in which they chose to build a new life. Appreciation for words is an appreciation for the future.

Given the choice between feeling validated about the place into which we were born and feeling assured about the future of the country in which we live we chose the latter. Even now, looking back on the newspapers and magazines that litter my floor, there is a basic premise that has changed since November 5: merit is no longer a dirty word.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Comments

[KoolBreez]

"Using the same reasoning, the president of the Hair Club For Men would also be more qualified.­"

He is not only the President, but also a client.

[ciceroette]

Good article, however, as you know, English is fraught with multiple meanings. Sometimes, "Merit" is a dirty word, in terms of reality- based actual work. Is there an office somewhere, where the value of the work is actually rewarded comensurate with a person's worth? The Peter Principle, and beyond , seems to quantify merit more consisely. School teachers being paid on merit is an awfully scary proposal. I know many teachers in public schools, who work tirelessly with populations of ESL students, and yet, these dedicated teachers could lose their jobs to "No Child Left Behind" scores that are based on test taking skills and not pragmatic knowledge. No merit here. Perhaps merit should factor into CEO salaries, or Congressional pay raises, but that won't happen. However, merit really should factor into accountability of bail out money. I'm still waiting for that one. At this moment in our history, the DEmerit seems to be functioning just perfectly. Could DE merit be related to our past 8 years of DEmocracy?

[GregJL]

"School teachers being paid on merit is an awfully scary proposal. I know many teachers in public schools, who work tirelessly with populations of ESL students, and yet, these dedicated teachers could lose their jobs to "No Child Left Behind" scores that are based on test taking skills and not pragmatic knowledge. No merit here."

Why do you automatically assume that test scores would be the way to measure the merit of the teacher? Do you honestly think a teacher who comes in right at the first bell, sits up at the front of their class reading a newspaper and bolts for the door at end of the day is worth ANY pay no matter HOW well the students do on any test? And why do you assume NCLB is going to be left in one piece?

[DavidMcK]

Right on Roxana! I believe we're all exhausted from the show. I'm looking forward to the change of just getting Bush off the throne.

[kellygrrrl]

with my faith in humanit and Democracy rightfully restored, I feel I can now move on with my life. My kitchen has missed me :)

[Bronx56]

Spot On !!!! Thanks for an insightful summary...­..

[MaxChampion]

That'd be November 4.

[jeanrenoir]

Obama has achieved two stupendous revolutions in American politics so far: the election of a black person to the Presidency AND using small contributions on line to take campaign financing out of the hands of the lobbyists (not least AIPAC) who have bought every modern nominee of both political parties for decades. If Obama succeeds as president--and with his own brilliance and that of his cabinet, the odds of success look excellent--he will achieve the greatest revolution of all: the demolition of the idiot demagoguery of the highly successful national right wing since George Wallace which has demonized "elites" and "pointy-headed" intelligence in favor of know nothings appealing to the Silent Majority by seeming ignorant, anti-intellectual, racist, xenophobic, and stupidly hawkish, in other words, "just like us," if "us" means the white working-class morons who have voted stupidly like sheep for these con artists for forty years, especially in key rust belt states like Michigan, Ohio, and PA. With Depression staring them in the face, a critical mass of these Archie Bunkers actually voted for Obama, of course. Success by Obama will finally teach these fools that the last thing they want in the Oval Office is a stupid W or Palin cloning their own ignorant incompetence in life.