I have often wondered on what planet George Will lives, because it clearly is not the same as mine (“Like other progressives, Obama uses the millitary metaphor,” Jan. 31). In Will’s universe, a military metaphor for working together as a team becomes, in Obama’s mouth, a foreboding of dictatorship to come rather than a fairly routine image of teamwork.

Will has perhaps been reading “Presidential Speechwriting,” edited by Kurt Ritter and Martin Medhurst, as the section about FDR in his article restates the argument made there, enables him to expand on the generally sinister nature of military metaphors, and the political slant no doubt appeals to him.

Is he really so unaware that virtually all presidents use military metaphors at some point, including Presidents Reagan, G.H.W. Bush and G.W. Bush? Or is it only Democratic presidents for whom such metaphors are unacceptable?

Jenny Doughty is a resident of Gorham.

 

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