REFORM REFORM

James Joyner | Thursday, July 10, 2003

Slate’s Jack Shafer wants reporters to ban the word “reform” from their vocabulary:

“Reform” may have once meant something in American politics, but overuse has so neutered it that both parties routinely compose legislation in its name. Congress has passed scores of bills containing the “R” word in their titles in the last couple of decades, and dozens more await action. There’s the First Responders Funding Reform Act; the Veterans’ Prescription Drug Reform Act; the Captive Supply Reform Act; and the Citizenship Reform Act, just to name a few. My favorite reform bill is the Government Reform Act. Why settle for piecemeal reform of veterans’ prescription drugs, captive supply, or citizenship when reform of the whole shebang is just one bill away?

Having co-opted the R word and drained it of its original meaning—”altering for the better … some faulty state of things,” as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it—politicians can insert the word into their speeches and bills no matter what the program. The word gives a pleasantly positive spin to whatever they’re pushing and makes their critics look like foes of reform. And who could be against reform?!

Indeed.

About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.

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