'We Have Some Optimism'

Not long ago, conservative pundits started using the word "hijacking" whenever Democrats took an idea or an opportunity from someone else. On MSNBC's "Scarborough Country," for example, a segment about liberal graduation speakers was entitled, "Liberals Hijack Grads."

This was, of course, a not-subtle attempt to link liberals with the types of bad people who commit hijackings. And let's remember what "hijacking" means -- to stop and rob a vehicle in transit. As in, boarding a plane, threatening or killing people with box cutters, seizing the controls, and leaving air traffic controllers to wonder who this new pilot is, uttering the chilling words, "We have some planes." That's hijacking.

NPR is supposed to be too intelligent to carelessly throw around loaded terms. But there was Linda Wertheimer last night, saying during NPR's coverage of the Democratic National Convention that Ronald Reagan had "hijacked optimism" as a campaign theme from Democrats. How does one violently seize a cheery outlook?

This is part of a broader and disturbing movement toward the cheapening of meaningful words. When everyone who offends the United States is described as a terrorist, it undermines the threat posed by real terrorists -- the types who hijack planes, not optimism.

Take "eco-terrorists." Are people who vandalize Hummers really as bad as people who crash planes into buildings? Would you tell a 9/11 widow and someone who gets their car messed up that they've suffered a similar loss? Or that they inhabit the same universe of loss?