Block Those Platitudes!

“My fellow Americans. . . .”

So presidential candidates woo voters with those three little words that simply mean . . . what do they mean?

In “Beyond Hypocrisy: Decoding the News in An Age of Propaganda (Including A Doublespeak Dictionary for the 1990s),” Edward S. Herman, who teaches media analysis at University of Pennsylvania, offers this definition: “The opening line of a political speech, meaning, ‘Ignorant children, for whom my contempt is about to be shown by a stream of contradictory banalities.’ ”

In the book, Herman--who will vote in November, as always, on “the lesser evil principle”--dissects cliches, buzzwords and platitudes used to sell everything from wars to Presidents. Among them:

* Best man: “The man best qualified to serve my political and ideological needs of the moment . . .” as in George Bush tapping Clarence Thomas as “the best man available for the job” on the Supreme Court.

* Constituency: “Formerly, the people who voted for a candidate in his or her own district; now, those who pay for a candidate’s electoral campaign.”

* Party system: “An arrangement in which two or more parties compete to convince the vested interests that they are more likely to fool the public this time.”

* Crisis of democracy: “The emergence of the majority from a state of political apathy, along with their threatening attempts to understand, organize and participate in their own governance.”