Eighty years ago, in his essay "Politics And The English Language," the great George Orwell described how manipulated language advances ill-motivated political interests: “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” The Left long has used language to facilitate its control of society, and the American Left and its media mouthpieces have made language manipulation a political art form. This has cluttered the minds of far too many Americans who then habitually spew nonsense about politics and society.
Conservatives must stop surrendering the war of words to the Left. America is a center-right country and, with clearer thinking and more precise language, our politics can more consistently reflect this reality. Here are a few examples — among many — as to how we might accomplish this:
Conservatives recently have been drawn into a debate as to whether today’s hard left Democrats are merely “socialists” or are full-blown “communists." But why? Most Americans can’t articulate a difference between socialism and communism. And the distinction is fundamentally immaterial in any event. Like fascism and “progressivism,” socialism and communism both are variants of Marxism — the destructive ideology manufactured by a 19th-century reprobate who argued that society inherently pits interest groups against each other in dialectical existential conflict, thereby requiring a self-appointed (and self-righteous) cadre of totalitarian “experts” to control everything. Thus, all of these rancid flavors of Marxism reject individual liberty, open and honest debate, and the fundamental republican principles upon which our great nation has rested since its founding. And this is what matters.
So let’s call all of these leftists what they all are: Marxists. They can debate among themselves whether they espouse socialism or communism; for the majority of Americans who reject their toxic ideology, it doesn’t matter. But the language does; in a 2020 Gallup poll, for example, while 49 percent of Gen Z respondents had a favorable view of “socialism,” only 30 percent had a favorable view of “Marxism.” These, of course, are the young people about whom we should be most concerned. So let’s accurately label as Marxist all hard left ideologies that pollute our politics.
Similarly, we frequently hear that “capitalism” is falling out of favor with Americans. This may be true given the decades-long Marxist domination of our educational system. But conservatives should not defend capitalism per se. Indeed, we might consider rejecting that term altogether as it was invented by the Left to denigrate our economic system! Instead, we should characterize our economy in language that is both more accurate and far more likely to resonate with the American people: free markets and free enterprise. Here again, polling suggests the nomenclature matters: In an August 2025 Gallup poll, whereas “capitalism” was favored by 54 percent of those polled, “free enterprise” was favored by 81 percent of respondents. In other words, a full 27 out of every 100 Americans polled don’t like capitalism but like free enterprise! So let’s respond to Marxist attacks on capitalism by extolling the unprecedented and undeniable human flourishing brought about by free markets and free enterprise — with emphasis on the beautiful word free!
Another word that strikes me as unhelpful for conservative use is “Islamist,” which somewhat clumsily attempts to distinguish between religious and political Islam — the latter an ongoing 15-century war to violently impose Islam everywhere. But characterizing those advocating political Islam as Islamist can trigger accusations of “Islamophobia” — yet another asinine term manufactured by the Left for political purposes. We must hope there is, in fact, a real distinction between religious and political Islam — as advocated, for example, by the terrific Arizona Congressional candidate Dr. Zuhdi Jasser. But on the basis of this aspiration, let’s call these evildoers “Jihadists” rather than Islamists; they are waging Jihad for the political purpose of imposing Islam. Certainly, many Muslims are not Jihadists, and we can make that distinction clearer by avoiding linguistic reference to religion.
In the same vein, conservatives frequently use the words “terrorist” and “terrorism” to describe the September 11, 2001, attacks and so many other despicable events before and since. But terrorism merely is a tactic that can be employed by advocates of many evil ideologies, and characterizing people as terrorists says nothing about the ugly dogma that motivates them. So, again, if people are using terror to wage political Islam, then let’s call them what they are: Jihadists. This way everyone will know precisely whom we’re talking about and not merely what they did.
Our beloved country is at a political crossroads, and those of us who yearn to see our constitutional republic endure for another 250 years must use all tools to that end. This includes aligning our language to our political reality by rejecting words invented or manipulated by the Left to advance its malign interests. Let’s instead use our own language that is clear, concise, and — above all — accurate.
