At the end of the day, we all use cliches. We can try to think outside the box, but when you go off the beaten path, you could get thrown under a bus. So I say, double down on our use of tired cliches! Double down, and down again! We do not have to think outside the bus! We will not be thrown under a box!
Seriously though, if I here one more person use the phrase "double down" I think I will lose it. You've GOT to come up with a better phrase. Remember back in the day when Texas Hold'em got really popular all of a sudden and we started seeing poker tournaments on TV? Yeah, 2008 was pretty cool. And back then, so was the phrase "double down" because it wasn't used in every second sentence.
You know what's a good word? "Reiterated." As in, "This political figure reiterated their view on blah." Or "Continues to support"
To "double down" is to double your bet. If someone reiterates a position, that is not "doubling down." Continuing to espouse a particular view is not "doubling down." To really be considered "doubling down" one must make a statement that is nearly double one's previous statements in some regard.
For instance, Rush did not in any way "double down" on his statements about Sandra Fluke. To "double down" he would have had to go from calling her a slut to calling her a venereal disease infested two dollar trash hooker. That's doubling down. Refusing to apologize, or giving a nopology, is not. That would more accurately be labeled "folding."
Chris Christie did not "double down" by refusing to walk back his slander of a Navy SEAL. He called the man an idiot, and then reiterated, yes, he is an idiot. To "double down" he would have had to be nearly twice as offensive as before, perhaps by calling the man a "Microencephalic Down's Syndrome type Retard." What Christie did was called, in card game terns, "standing pat."
In short, I'm tired of cliches in political writing. It's lazy and annoying. It makes me want to avoid what you write: no matter how clever your ideas, if you can't cloak them in something more interesting than four year old card game cliches, you've lost me.
