Originally published at crisis magazine
Ernest Bevin was a British Union leader and Member of Parliament of the Labour Party in the first half of the 20th century. He helped organized the General Strike in Great Britain in 1926 and then went on to become a cabinet minister in the governments of both Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee. He left school at age eleven, but like many self-made and self-educated men, his reading vocabulary was more ample than his spoken one.
During one late-night debate in the British Parliament, he said, “I’ve been here all night and all I’ve ‘eard is bloody clitches.” Clichés was the word he was going for, and his comment came back to me the other evening when ex-President Trump and Vice President Harris were engaged in what is misnamed a debate.
It was a contest of sound bites managed by two very partisan moderators of ABC. (I do not think that reading summaries of news prepared by others qualifies one to be called a journalist. They do not report, although they may editorialize by spinning the news report given to them.) The two broadcasters actually challenged ex-President Trump by quoting Vice President Harris several times. There is no question about
