Members Of Congress Speak Like High School Sophomores,

[jaxx]

Members Of Congress Speak Like High School Sophomores, Sunlight Foundation Report Says
The Huffington Post | By Amanda Terkel Posted: 05/21/2012 10:07 am Updated: 05/21/2012 10:07 am

The sophistication of federal lawmakers' speech patterns is on the decline, with members of Congress now talking, on average, at the level of high school sophomores. According to a new report by the Sunlight Foundation, Congress has fallen by almost a full grade-level since 2005.

The members speaking at the lowest grade levels tend to be freshmen Republicans.

As NPR noted on Monday, "Of the 10 members speaking at the lowest grade level, all but two are freshmen, and every one is a Republican." That measurement is for all speeches since 1996.

<..> Sunlight did not reach a definitive conclusion on why lawmakers' speech patterns have become simpler over time, although Drutman wrote in a blog post, "Perhaps it reflects lawmakers speaking more in talking points, and increasingly packaging their floor speeches for YouTube. Gone, perhaps, are the golden days when legislators spoke to persuade each other, thoughtfully wrestled with complex policy trade-offs, and regularly quoted Shakespeare."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/21...1337609116

Nobody said the teabaggers were smart, but they are mean.

[NJMaverick]

they elect idiots and the smart ones have to talk like idiots to appeal to your average American hating tea bagger

[SemiCharmedQuark]

I don't think this means that the particular members of congress are stupid, but the republican surely know their audience.

[sandnsea]

(05-21-2012 11:08 AM)SemiCharmedQuark Wrote:  I don't think this means that the particular members of congress are stupid, but the republican surely know their audience.

I think that is an incredibly dangerous presumption and the kind of overly-generous thinking that has us in this predicament. Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Virginia Foxx, the list goes on and I'm sure there are men on it - are STUPID. Don't make excuses for them because you feel mean saying it. Sometimes the facts aren't pretty and sometimes they'll hurt someone's feelings. They get away with it because too many people are too nice to tell the truth.

[KonaKane]

All part of the growing idiocracy. Language skills, especially political eloquence, is in a spiral crash descent along with written skills (thank you, texting).

[KonaKane]

I totally agree. You cannot stop yourself from noting the truth - they ARE stupid, demonstrably so. The pathetic state of the language is only one bit of evidence of the fact.