The Words That Ate Democracy

How we weaponized language, reduced it to letters, and lost the ability to talk to each other.

Think of a word that bugs you. Got it? Now reflect on the statement we hear so often — especially on social media — that “words matter.” Which has become one of the cringiest defenses for blatant stupidity. Of course, words matter. Why else would you be using them, together, strewn intentionally to make a point.

Now, let’s talk about what we’ve done to certain buzz words.

The word I’m thinking about is “progressive.” A term whose meaning has been bastardized, hollowed out, stuffed with someone else’s agenda, and held up to us like some badge of honor. Like nails on a chalkboard. When I hear it uttered by a far-left sanctimonious ne’er-do-well — a fool who has been fooled into believing the label carries weight, or gravitas, and by owning the title somehow you believe in your vapid little heart such a title makes you matter — y’all make me want to scream.

Here’s what progressive intentionally and actually means, not only in theory but in politically activated practice. The more you have, the more you are able to contribute. The burden scales with the ability to carry it. The antithesis — regressive — means the less you have, the harder you get hit because — far be it from me to assume you understand English — you don’t have to contribute to society financially. A sales tax is regressive. A toll is regressive. Any system that takes a bigger bite out of the person who can least afford it is, by definition, regressive.

Which makes it almost poetic that the movement calling itself progressive has spent the last decade governing regressively — in every city, on every issue, against the very people they claimed to champion. They didn’t just steal the word. They inverted it. And then had the audacity to keep saying it out loud.

The label became the achievement. The city could decline, but its leaders remained proudly progressive. Crime could rise, but the policies remained progressive. Failure itself became proof that more of the same was required. Note to those who think that’s fabulous — it’s not. It’s bad branding — while the residents lose. Especially the residents who contribute less.

Classic example: San Francisco, which at one low point had a feces map — a literal, downloadable app so you know where not to step — that became a meme. The progressive school board members spent their pandemic hours renaming Abraham Lincoln High School, because they sense the importance of self-flagellation or something unpatriotic. The solution came when they elected Daniel Lurie — a man whose primary qualification was being born into the Levi Strauss fortune and never having set foot in City Hall. Proof that progressives are not the answer — especially in the case of San Fran.

Another pathetic example of progressive rot is right here in Los Angeles as we are heading into a general election with Karen Bass — the incumbent who was in Ghana when the fires started — and Nithya Raman, a DSA councilmember who fought against hiring more police in a city where people were being killed daily.

Spencer Pratt, who lost his home in the Palisades fire and had actual skin in the game, lost by three thousand votes. Two of their own, protecting each other, while the city burned and continues to go downhill. And seeing how California conducts its elections, don’t expect things to get better anytime soon.

New York’s DSA mayor Zohran Mamdani is already making enemies — skipping the Israel Day Parade for the first time in sixty years, vetoing buffer zones protecting Jewish schools from protesters, and endorsing congressional candidates whose deleted social media includes calling Joe Biden a rapist. Chances are Mamdani will prove to be another DSA cannonball, knocking down some of the best elements of NYC.

The right has run the same con with different words. MAGA is not a policy. It’s a vibe. Stolen elections is not an argument. It’s a spell. DEI became a conservative curse word the same way “socialist” became a progressive dog whistle — not to describe something real, but to bypass thought entirely and go straight to the gut.

We have been played. Both sides. All of us. And the argument about who started it is itself part of the trap. While we fight these meaningless battles to an inch of our lives, nobody is asking who benefits from the confusion. The answer is the criminals running our government. It always was.

And here is the darkest irony of all. The people who shout loudest that words matter have presided over the complete destruction of our vocabulary. Progressive. Regressive. Socialist. Patriot. Democracy. Words that once carried meaning, weight, the ability to start a real conversation. Reduced first to acronyms. Then to initials. Then to single letters. DEI. MAGA. DSA. CRT. Z. N. LGBTQIA — which at this point might as well be LMNOP.

Letters fired like ammunition across a battlefield where nobody is actually talking anymore. We didn’t just lose the plot. We lost the war of words. And for those who still insist words matter — you’re right. Which is exactly why what we’ve done to them is unforgivable.

For someone whose life’s mission is “Don’t Stop ‘til It Matters” — I take this conversation very seriously. Join me and learn how to matter.

If you haven’t read my memoir, this might be the best time to do so and learn how I figured out the journey to mattering. Click here.