{"id":5826,"date":"2005-11-14T10:02:59","date_gmt":"2005-11-14T15:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=5826"},"modified":"2005-11-14T10:02:59","modified_gmt":"2005-11-14T15:02:59","slug":"that-passive-voice-phrase-makes-a-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/that-passive-voice-phrase-makes-a-comeback\/","title":{"rendered":"That passive voice phrase makes a comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"

After all the times that infamous passive voice phrase has been used, you’d think Republicans would avoid it. Alas, it lives on.<\/p>\n

Former President Ronald Reagan, on the Iran-Contra scandal, in 1986<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“Mistakes were made.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

George W. Bush, on the Abu Ghraib scandal, in 2004<\/a>:<\/p>\n

” It’s also important for the people of Iraq to know that in a democracy, everything is not perfect, that mistakes are made.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sen. Rick Santorum, on the war in Iraq, four days ago<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“Certainly, mistakes were made,” Santorum said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The problem with the phrase isn’t just the passivity or the historical repetition; it’s the underlying motivation that makes the passive voice necessary in the first place.<\/p>\n

It active voice, the phrase needs a proper noun. Someone<\/i> made a mistake, Reagan, Bush, and Santorum suggest, but they won’t say who. They’re willing to acknowledge that a mistake occurred, but they’ll go no farther.<\/p>\n

The phenomenon seems to fit nicely into the way in which modern Republicans use language. Active voice assigns responsibility; passive voice admits errors without assigning blame. It’s an accountability-free admission, which is just the way too many Republicans like it.<\/p>\n

In fact, it’s worth remembering that it was George Orwell in “Politics and the English Language” who explained<\/a> that “the passive voice is wherever possible used in preference to the active” by those who hope to obscure the truth.<\/p>\n

A half-century later, it’s still true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After all the times that infamous passive voice phrase has been used, you’d think Republicans would avoid it. Alas, it lives on. Former President Ronald Reagan, on the Iran-Contra scandal, in 1986: “Mistakes were made.” George W. Bush, on the Abu Ghraib scandal, in 2004: ” It’s also important for the people of Iraq to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5826\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}