Linguistic Cliches: Progressive Edition
Now that we have a Democratic Congress and White House, the linguistic cliches have changed. On the one hand, this is an enormous relief, as I was heartily sick of the GOP’s cliches. But pol-speak being what it is, relief is short-lived. So here’s a progressive cliche that has always puzzled me: working families.
What is a “working family” supposed to be?
It should mean the staff you might have seen at a Greek diner or Korean grocer: Mom working the register, little brother unpacking fruit or cleaning tables, deadbeat uncle purportedly keeping an eye out for customers with suspicious demeanor – that sort of thing.
But I don’t think it means that. As used, I think it’s supposed to mean something like “working class families” but of course we don’t have class in America so you can’t say that.
So what you wind up with is a literally meaningless phrase that is supposed to imply support for work and support for families and support for the kinds of hard-working people who are just trying to put food on their families, and could really use a hand up not a leg out.
Anyway, in the same way that James Fallows would like to see our word-savvy President abandon “God Bless America” as the all-purpose speech-closer, I would like to see the phrase “working families” replaced by something with a plausible literal meaning.
/curmudgeonly rant
God bless working families.
— Tony Comstock · Feb 24, 10:59 PM · #
The “working families” construction, like many others in the modern liberal lexicon, is a phraseology designed to defang certain frames developed by Reaganite Republicans, most notably the “welfare queen”.
— talboito · Feb 24, 11:19 PM · #
A working family is a family whose members are in the working class, our euphemism for the lower class.
— Freddie · Feb 24, 11:34 PM · #
From what I can tell, by definition, a working family is something you “fight” for.
— Joe · Feb 25, 12:27 AM · #
I rather like “working class” as a substitute for “lower class,” since it recognizes that class and income are not precisely correlated in this country. A union carpenter makes more that a liberal arts major working in a bookstore, but I think we would all agree that the former is likely working class and the latter isn’t.
I agree that “working family” is an unnecessary substitute for “working class,” except that talk of families is cuddlier that talk of class, perhaps defanging charges of class warfare, as talboito might put it.
Also, Noah, I would love to hear what cliches from the past administration annoyed you most. I’m sure I could think of a few if I put my mind to it.
— Blar · Feb 25, 12:35 AM · #
Eh, it’s not a terrible shorthand to refer to people who don’t have much of a safety net (in terms of assets, professional connections, etc.) to rely on. The people living close to paycheck-to-paycheck who would be particularly screwed if they lost their job, even for a short while. “Families” broadens the scope to include children (for whom employment status is largely irrelevant), and eschewing reference to class (with its implications of permanence) isn’t really a bad thing.
It’s a cliche, but a useful one that does have meaning, even if it’s more idiomatic than literal.
— Matt F · Feb 26, 12:27 AM · #
To me the term just suggests a household with one or more working adults taking care of one or more dependents. But that’s just my take—if the term generally means different things to different people it probably isn’t that useful.
— sacman701 · Feb 27, 01:48 AM · #