“Running Into the Spears of Opposing Opinion Absolutely Willingly”; A Political Campaign That Is “Kind of Hamlet Without the Prince!” —Use of Visual, Evocative Expression to Emphasize One’s Point

Here are some recent examples of highly effective communicators using a vivid, evocative expression while emphasizing something and thus making their assertion indelible--examples which, I hope, will inspire the rest of us into similarly imaginative analogies, especially when we are trying to break through the clutter.

• (From the Oct. 29 edition of “Face the Nation”) While commenting on the Republican tax plan which, at the time, was still being formulated, panelist Ben Domenech of “The Federalist,” a conservative publication, saying: “Republicans are always more comfortable talking about taxes than almost any other subject. This is the one area where they’ll run into the spears of opposing opinion absolutely willingly because they think it’s their issue—they think they own it.”
• This is with reference to last month’s gubernatorial election in Virginia. Recall that the losing candidate, Republican Ed Gillespie, ran on Donald Trump’s agenda (i.e., tough on illegal immigration, tough on crime...) but did not mention Trump’s name even once during his entire campaign. So, on the eve of that election, BBC’s Laura Trevelyan said to a guest: “The Gillespie campaign has been Trumpism without Trump. It’s kind of Hamlet without the Prince. How difficult a balancing act is that?”

© Copyright 2017  V. J. Singal