Sorry, Trump (and everyone else), but words matter

I’ve been writing for a long time, and spent the last two years teaching writing to Department of Defense personnel. Imagine my chagrin when I awoke this morning, only to witness the brouhaha over yet another unfortunate statement uttered by Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president.

{mosads}One lesson that society has managed to forget in its descent into purely electronic communication (Trump is a master tweeter) is that words matter. The English language has over 1 million words, and surprisingly few mean exactly the same thing. When they do, they are often used in different contexts. Every statement has precise significance. 

Because few of us can read minds, we are stuck with interpreting for ourselves what we hear, i.e., the precise meanings of the words uttered by the speaker. So, at first blush, I could only interpret Trump’s statement as suggesting that violence should be used to settle the 2016 election; his supporters’ explanations can’t undo what was misspoken.

I’m not suggesting that Trump meant what he said, and even a supporter, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R) of California, pointed out that Trump is inarticulate, doesn’t speak English for a living and shouldn’t be held accountable for the precision of what he says. That’s like suggesting that I shouldn’t really be held accountable for traffic violations because I’m not a NASCAR driver.

Hunter is wrong on a number of levels, but, most basically, Trump does speak English for a living. Unless one is a mime, we all speak English as part of our jobs, and whether one is a politician, a shop foreman or, particularly, a military commander, every word we utter on the job can have serious consequences. Trump is a self-confessed negotiator, so how can English not be part of his everyday existence? Trump has now chosen to pursue a career where nothing is more important than speech, written and oral, so adapting one’s skills to a suitable level is mandatory.

Take a couple of examples. Show most people the word “Afghani,” and they interpret it to mean a person from Afghanistan. In fact, the word refers to the currency, and calling a person from Afghanistan an Afghani is like calling an American a dollar. At best, the average Afghan assumes you’re a moron. At worst, the term is thought by some there to be offensive. Afghanistan is not the place where one wants to gratuitously offend anyone.

In 2009, President Obama went to Copenhagen for an economic conference. Neither he, nor apparently, anyone on his staff knew that the name of the capital of Denmark is pronounced with a hard “a” (as if it were written “CopenHEYgan”). Instead, he pronounced it with a soft “a” (“CopenHAHgen”). Only Germans, who are not fondly remembered for their actions in World War II, use that pronunciation. I have Danish friends who hate this kind of mistake, and some of them are deeply troubled that the president of the United States would not know better.

Will either of these mistakes start a major war? Unlikely. But do people think less of us because of such mistakes? You bet. I’ve thrown first-rate resumes in circular file because of typos, and I’ve thrown excellent job candidates out of my office because they spoke seventh-grade English. What is one to think of a television pundit who starts a sentence with “Me and Sally …”?

Does this mean that there are not well-spoken, well, morons, on the planet? No. But David Halberstam, the esteemed writer, pointed out in his landmark book on Vietnam, “The Best and the Brightest,” that when the Department of Defense hired staff, it chose those who could write good memos over the Harvard graduates. Self-expression points people toward how they evaluate us, and recovering from impressions, first or otherwise, is sometimes impossible.

How does this matter here? The Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, has nothing in her past that indicates that she has either the judgment or the rectitude to qualify her for the presidency. Instead, a sense of entitlement to the office began to build in 2008, and has now built to a crescendo that, without a suitable opponent, is propelling Clinton inexorably toward our highest office. Donald Trump’s inability to express himself in a suitable manner has helped cheat us out of a true electoral race just when we are in desperate need of one.

Blady, M.D., is a former program officer for the under secretary of Defense for policy and senior analyst for the under secretary of Defense for intelligence.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.