Intentional Misunderstanding Month

Intentional Misunderstanding Month
by Bud Malmsten

"Welcome to Intentional Misunderstanding Month!"

This is the month all intentional misunderstandies live for.

Most of the time we simply practice an annoying form of humor.

Example: from The Red Robin restaurant: "Didja know? The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable."
I.M.: "Yeah? So, what's the word?"

This minor irritant becomes the staple of most arguments.

Husband: "Hi Honey! I brought you some flowers."
Wife: "Now what have you been up to?!?"

Parent: "Be home by midnight."
Teenager: "You just don't want me to have any fun!"

Then this pervasive ingredient of family fun has become the foundation of political discussion. Sit in on any legislative session from town council to U.S. Congress, and you will find the spirit of intentional misunderstanding, sometimes cleverly disguised in the rhetoric, lurking in the shadows of disagreement.

But every four years, in the heat of the summer, it bursts forth in full bloom when political parties hold their quadrennial festivals - the Presidential Nominating Conventions.

This week the Republicans have gathered in Philadelphia to articulate the image of the Party under the general banner of "Compassionate Conservatives." If you were hoping to catch some of the deliberations on network TV, forget it. You could follow it live on C-SPAN and a few Internet web-sites, but the media pros prefer to filter what was said and report only what is "important."

However, there was no shortage of available commentary. Every talk-type show from early morning to Politically Incorrect at midnight had a collection of mouths available to analyze every nuance of each day. Did you notice the ubiquitous resident Democratic "Strategist" who always had some very sincere advice about how the GOP should have handled the day. And since this advice had been neglected, the absolutely certain result could only be the demise of the entire movement.

If you were listening carefully, you could pick up the thoughts that terrified the Democrats the most. These were the concepts that flesh out the Compassionate Conservative theme. If one cannot compete with an idea, the next best defense is to ridicule it. You might recognize some of these sentences:
· "What is a compassionate conservative, anyway? Ha ha. That is an oxymoron!"
· "Colin Powell? He's not black!" [Note similar observations about Justice Thomas.]
· "There were more black dancers on the stage than black delegates in the Hall!"
· "They are just parading out these African-Americans, Hispanics and other minorities for show. This is tokenism. Republicans don't really care about them!""
· The amazing thing about these Republicans is that they actually think someone is going to believe this stuff!"

A few of observations for the record.

· "Compassionate" needs to be attached to "conservative" to counteract years of prefacing the word with "mean-spirited," "cold hearted," or "cruel."
· Colin Powell and Justice Thomas are black [or African-American].
· It is not tokenism to entrust someone with the highest levels of leadership.
· If something is the truth, why should it not be believed?

If this sounds one-sided, remember, it is no secret that I identify myself as a Republican. But stay tuned. Next week it is the Reform Party's turn [["Party of one, Ross Perot"], and the following week it will be the Democrats. Will it still be tokenism? Will they expect to be believed? Will the GOP challenge and even ridicule them? Of course! After all, it is "INTENTIONAL MISUNDERSTANDING MONTH!"