JEFF SHESOL

As problems have grown more complex, leaders have struggled to find the language to discuss them clearly, credibly and at the right emotional amplitude. Nonplussed and tongue-tied, politicians give themselves over to message gurus … who peddle the notion that poll-tested words — honed and targeted with scientific precision — can pick the lock of public opinion.

The corrosion of our public language reflects deep pathologies — societal, cultural, economic — in the body politic.

Saying the “wrong” thing, a purposefully offensive or demonstrably false thing, has become, for the disaffected, a mark of integrity.

Tensions plagued his [Woodrow Wilson’s] presidency--particularly the one between principal and pragmatism in United States foreign policy. This is perpetual and the defies resolution.

When leaders use words to bludgeon and not to persuade, when opinion supersedes fact and people stop listening to one another, we have, the perfect conditions for the true demagogue. [Donald] Trump is running hard for that role.

In Congress, that putatively deliberative body, debates devolve into stand-offs between sets of talking points — no different than the hammed-up exchanges between cable-news commentators, but with even worse ratings.

Tensions plagued his [Woodrow Wilson’s] presidency--particularly the one between principal and pragmatism in United States foreign policy. This is perpetual and the defies resolution.

In Congress, that putatively deliberative body, debates devolve into stand-offs between sets of talking points — no different than the hammed-up exchanges between cable-news commentators, but with even worse ratings.

Saying the “wrong” thing, a purposefully offensive or demonstrably false thing, has become, for the disaffected, a mark of integrity.

The corrosion of our public language reflects deep pathologies — societal, cultural, economic — in the body politic.

When leaders use words to bludgeon and not to persuade, when opinion supersedes fact and people stop listening to one another, we have, the perfect conditions for the true demagogue. [Donald] Trump is running hard for that role.

As problems have grown more complex, leaders have struggled to find the language to discuss them clearly, credibly and at the right emotional amplitude. Nonplussed and tongue-tied, politicians give themselves over to message gurus … who peddle the notion that poll-tested words — honed and targeted with scientific precision — can pick the lock of public opinion.