Word: verbalism
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Verbal Overkill...
Equally inflammatory to unstable minds is the rising hyperbole of U.S. political debate. Race, Viet Nam, crime- all lend themselves to verbal overkill, not so much by candidates as by extremists: the John Birchers, the Rap Browns, the most ardent war critics, the Ku Kluxers. The evidence is everywhere. In Dallas, Assistant District Attorney William Alexander snarls on a TV show: "Earl Warren shouldn't be impeached-he should be hanged." Cries Rap Brown: "How many whites did you kill today?" Lyndon Johnson is routinely excoriated as a mass murderer. Robert Kennedy was branded by San Francisco hippies...
...Committee on Houses wasn't interested--at least not in immediate capitulation. Dean Ford announced the news with a rare verbal gaffe, commenting that he and the Committee were "tired of the issue." Dining hall politicoes were grumbling, "they jolly well better not be tired of the issue if we're interested in it," and at a sweaty four hour meeting in the Lowell House Junior Common Room about 200 students agreed to try and form an organization which might go as far as a "sleep-in" to force parietals changes...
...advisers were concerned, this was Robert Kennedy's long suit. Despite the obvious difficulties posed by his bluntness and verbal outrage, Kennedy's message had a purpose: to console and reassure America's "outs"--bitter blacks, exploited farm workers, and war-weary students. These were the groups which were falling out and had to be pulled back in. This is why Kennedy saw himself as the candidate of reconciliation. Given the circumstances, it didn't seem as important if the groups which fought him--generally the wealthier elements, hidebound Republicans, and segregationists--were a little miffed. Besides, it was quite...
...candidates did their determined best to denigrate the other's qualifications for the presidency: McCarthy, 52, came across as casual, languidly professorial, mature and even a little sleepy-an impression that was enhanced by the pouches beneath his eyes. Kennedy, 42, appeared tense, brittle and, by visual and verbal comparison, considerably younger...