Conservative Candidates: Stop Butchering My Second Language

 
Open Letter From An East Coast Immigrant Elitist Who Can Still Tell (and Spell) The Difference Between the Plural and the Possessive.

Please, stop the linguistic madness. I can't take it anymore! Andy White, William Strunk, Maxwell Perkins, and James Thurber are donning tutus, doing pirouettes in their respective six-foot holes.

Let's begin with the most obvious, most covered, and widely ridiculed abberation of the last eight years: Nukular. I fully realize the cute alternative is "nukes" but please don't superglue part of the diminutive to the real word. Make an effort and push that tongue up to the roof of the mouth for the "Lee" sound: do it with me, come on now; I've had to learn your bloody language from scratch at age 10 in spite of awful harassment from asshole 5th graders with bowl haircuts and Toughskins jeans, and if a schlub like me can do it, surely you can too: New-klee-uhr. One more time, use that tongue skillfully (there's a nasty joke involving congressmen and subordinate male pages in here somewhere). Atta boys!

Next is our favorite bottom dweller: The Pundit. Not "Pundant," not "Punit," just... PUNDIT. This is someone who offers to mass-media his/her opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically political analysis, the social sciences, or sport), on which he/she is presumed to be knowledgeable. You've dealt with this despicable specimen all your political lives; you ought to be able to say it correctly by now: PUN-DIT. Atta girls!

Third down the list is Candidate. You are one of these, therefore you must pronounce it correctly. Don't be lazy now---"Canadates" are social or romantic interludes with our neighbo(u)rs to the north; we love them, even though they have a lousy sense of humo(u)r (yes I mean you, Herb Dixon!) . CanDIdates are self-centered egomaniacal ecclesiastics like yourselves, running on baseless promises and fear tactics.

Lastly, in articulating words such as Winning, Saying, Writing, Campaigning, and Reading, the last letter/consonant "g" is NOT silent; it is pronounced. While y'all may be fond of all the hootin' and hollerin' at y'alls rallies, and shootin' at North American elk from various dirigibles and flyin' machines, enunciatin' yer vernacular like Tom Joad does not make you part of the workin' class. Neither is folksiness an endearing personality trait when staring down a pissed-off Ayatollah with his finger on the Launch button.

So, please people...with one day left in this electoral mud-slinging maelstrom, let's go out there and do it right for The Gipper. Ronnie would've never truncated or butchered this great, American language of ours. Its the right thing to do.
I mean, "it's."
No, "its."
Whatever.