The headline, Im done with all you Americans hating on America, on a recent Lewiston Tribune column by Jeff Sayre prompts me to advise liberals that conservatives are winning the rhetorical battles in Americas political war.

Both liberals and conservatives are using rhetoric that appeals to their bases. This is one of many reasons for todays dysfunctional polar divide.

Politicians at opposite poles dont know what rhetoric will convince voters in the middle, which both need to win elections in our times. Trying to persuade voters at the opposite pole seems beyond reach.

Consequently, both conservatives and liberals fire salvos of rhetoric that appeals only to their base without hope of inviting the consideration of citizens at the other pole.

Anna M. Kuritzkes put her finger on it in an op-ed, Liberal Rhetoric is Intellectually Exclusive, published Oct. 3, 2017, in the Harvard Crimson. She credited President Donald Trumps 2016 victory to catchphrase rhetoric that is easily digestible by his base.

Liberals, she wrote, use rhetoric that is intellectual, pretentious and inherently exclusive. Even worse, the language we use to explain identity politics can be blatantly condescending.

Yes, Kuritzkes is a liberal.

While she says liberals shouldnt resort to name-calling, like President Trump calling Kim Jon Un Rocket Man, she enjoins liberals to change their rhetoric: if liberals want to make political correctness and identity politics politically viable for the general American public, we need to find a way to condense our message. ... Otherwise, it will forever be limited to colleges where expressions such as cissexist heteropatriarchy are part of the common vocabulary.

Liberals, are you listening?

Now, back to Sayres column, which clearly demonstrates the rhetoric that wins the heart of conservatives. The president proudly proclaims that he thinks with his guts. Perhaps I should use one of President Trumps rhetorical bombs to describe how to appeal to conservatives with gut thinking.

Sayre claims that liberals hate this country.

Thats good gut vocabulary. Conservatives lap it right up. Ive never heard a liberal say conservatives hate America. Or that people who dont agree with them should leave America?

Perhaps its about time for liberals to reach deep down into their guts for rhetoric that appeals to conservatives.

Sayre anguished that he is done with hearing politicians calling criminals virtuous. Apparently hes forgotten that it was his beloved president who responded that some white nationalists and neo-Nazis involved in a United the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., were very good people.

He had just condemned white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, and neo-Nazis, thus he effectively softened his condemnation.

Sayre wrote, Im done with being told our problems are systemic by people who dont know the definition of the word.

Does Sayre know the definition? Or is he just in denial that systemic racism exists in American institutions?

Systemic defines characteristics relating to an entire system. In this instance, American government and business.

The medical use describes something that relates to, or affects, the entire body.

Sayres rejection of systemic racism is a classic example of liberals problem with rhetoric. The word systemic doesnt rise from the gut. It is an intellectual word formed in the brain.

Thats not to say there arent intellectual conservatives.

There certainly are, but they dont express themselves with intestinal rhetoric: words and phrases like Stalinist Communist Party thugs, as applied to liberal Americans. A favorite is the socialist label applied to capitalistic programs like health insurance. Rhetoric is speech or writing intended to persuade. The challenge for liberals is to tone down their highfalutin rhetoric, which serves mainly to turn off the audience to whom they address.

It is irrational to address conservatives who have made it abundantly clear that they communicate from their guts with intellectual rhetoric.

Terence L. Day is a retired Washington State faculty member and a Pullman resident since 1972. He encourages email to terence@moscow.com.

Read this article:

His View: Republicans are winning the rhetorical war - Moscow-Pullman Daily News