People, I'm tired of the word "folks." Thanks to George Bush, the Junior, this word has mercilessly crept into the daily lexicon to the point where I must call for its elimination from political discourse (at least)! The wanton application of the term is ridiculous. At work, I hear supervisors and executives refer to staff as "folks." "Staff" seems to have become a dirty word; "employee" is better than staff; and "folks" seems to have become le mot préféré.
Onward, folks, beyond the flip...
Even Bill Clinton, the guy from little town Arkansas who felt our pain, did not go on and on about "folks" to the point of generating such common and glaring use and misuse of the word. Where have the words "people," "colleagues," "citizens," "contituents," "group," or "demographic" gone?
And worse yet, let's not forget that "folks" has become a malaprop for the bad guys. Who can forget W's infamous Fourth of July address:
Many of the spectacular car bombings and killings you see are as a result of al Qaeda — the very same folks that attacked us on September the 11th.
Or, back in August of '08 upon learning of foiled bombing attempts and subsequently getting "fussed at" by the Saudis after he called the bombers "Islamic Fascists":
the United States is engaged "in a war against a extremist group of folks, bound together by an ideology, willing to use terrorism to achieve their objectives.
These examples resonate given some recent and desperate "gotcha" comments on redstate-type blogs asserting that Obama called the bad guys "folks" during last Friday's debate. And please, any Bush supporters who might be lurking, do not try to convince me that by labeling terrorists as "folks" it diminishes them in stature and therefore robs them of their power. Bullshit. Or, if you want to pursue that line of reasoning, then do so when Obama calls those same people "folks". Altogether, I would like for Barack Obama, and the wonderful Michelle Obama, to ditch the use of the word.
Indeed, we might quibble about the use of folks v. people; however, I don't think there's any argument that W is to thank for the overuse of this word. As a clear Bushism, we must reject it. Send folks back to where it belongs: Folk music, folk art, folksy whatever. I am a citizen, a contituent, sometimes a rebel, a member of the female demographic and Mexican-American demographic - but I am not "folk". You may wish to argue that "folks" makes everyone feel cozy, connected and just oh so all-in-this-together. No, I don't think so. Using language or terms perceived to be "common" has simply been the hallmark of a person so woefully incapable of leading this country that he (and his handlers) have had to turn stupid commentary and a poor command of the English language into something perceived as Everyman. But it's a game they play, and there is no excuse for it. For example, in response to the current economic crisis:
There's no question about it. Wall Street got drunk -- that's one of the reasons I asked you to turn off the TV cameras -- it got drunk and now it's got a hangover. The question is how long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments. --George W. Bush, speaking at a private fundraiser, Houston, Texas, July 18, 2008 Watch video clip
"Fancy financial instruments?" Lands o' mercy, Daisy Mae, let's ask about them there high-falootin' things at the hoe-down after we drink us up some moonshine.
So, people, what do you think? Can we agree on the immortal words of Porky Pig (without lipstick) and say:
"Th-th-th-th-th-that's all [to] Folks!"?