Debate & Switch: So On and So Forth

So, am I the only one who found Elizabeth Warren's prefacing every evasive answer to debate questions with the word "So" so very irritating?

I started noticing the emergence of the word "so" as a trendy verbal tic several years ago, and it's become a real pet peeve of mine. For starters, its not as anodyne or natural as beginning one's answer with an "um," which merely signals that the respondent is gathering her thoughts. But using "so" to answer a question sends the warning to brace yourselves for a meandering, wildly tangential, off-topic, or evasive reply, or worst of all, a big fat whopper. As a former schoolteacher, Warren should know better than to misuse the word "so" like this. Back in the olden days, it was used mainly to continue one's own narrative or to expound upon one's own preceding thoughts. I personally often use as a synonym for "therefore." But saying it to preface an answer to a clear-cut question not only comes across as an insult to the questioner, it's an insult to good grammar.

As the dictionary says:

adverb

1. 1.

   to such a great extent.

   "the words tumbled out so fast that I could barely hear them"

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2. 2.

   to the same extent (used in comparisons).

   "he isn't so bad as you'd think"
3. 
   
   

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4. 
   
   

   
   

conjunction

1. 1.

   and for this reason; therefore.

   "it was still painful so I went to see a specialist"

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2. 2.

   with the aim that; in order that.

   "they whisper to each other so that no one else can hear"

Warren began her answers with the word "so" so many times during the debate that I lost count of them.

But she was particularly evasive when asked if middle class taxes would go up under her alleged Medicare For All/Some/Who Knows plan. She could have explained, like Bernie Sanders managed to so (correct usage) cogently do, that the increased taxes for single payer health care would be far, far less than what the middle class currently pays private insurance predators in premiums, co-pays, and deductibles.

But like Bartleby the Scrivener, she preferred not to.

A prime example:

LACEY: Senator Warren, we've proposed -- you've proposed some sweeping plans, free public college, free universal childcare, eliminating most Americans' college debt. And you've said how you're going to pay for those plans. But you have not specified how you're going to pay for the most expensive plan, Medicare for all. Will you raise taxes on the middle class to pay for it, yes or no?
WARREN: So I have made clear what my principles are here, and that is costs will go up for the wealthy and for big corporations, and for hard-working middle-class families, costs will go down. You know, the way I see this is, I have been out all around this country. I've done 140 town halls now, been to 27 states and Puerto Rico. Shoot, I've done 70,000 selfies, which must be the new measure of democracy....

And the follow-up:

LACEY: Senator Warren, to be clear, Senator Sanders acknowledges he's going to raise taxes on the middle class to pay for Medicare for all. You've endorsed his plan. Should you acknowledge it, too?

 WARREN: So the way I see this, it is about what kinds of costs middle-class families are going to face. So let me be clear on this. Costs will go up for the wealthy. They will go up for big corporations. And for middle-class families, they will go down. I will not sign a bill into law that does not lower costs for middle-class families. 

Just An Intimate Modest Fireside Chat With the Folks

And so it went. I have to say, though, that I liked it when Warren began that one sentence with the twangy word "shoot." It simply oozed the down-home heartland sincerity that every voter craves.

I won't give you a blow-by-blow of the rest of the Gong Show, because life is too short. For example, I won't do a recount of how many times Kamala Harris referenced her mother sitting at the kitchen table in the middle of the night. The woman apparently never slept.

 Bernie Sanders looked and did great during the few intervals that he was allowed to talk. Joe Biden was his usual goofy old self. He mumbled something incoherent about "clipping coupons at the stock market." He yelled a lot about his grifting son's honesty and America's mighty reputation as Noble Global Imperium. He also took very false and very paternalistic credit for getting Warren's consumer protection bureau started.

The best performance of the evening, in my view, was Tulsi Gabbard's. She scathingly critiqued the New York Times and CNN moderators and the whole establishment right to their faces for their organizations' smears of her:

"Donald Trump has the blood of the Kurds on his hands, but so do many of the politicians in our country from both parties who have supported this ongoing “regime change” war in Syria that started in 2011, along with many in the mainstream media, who have been championing and cheerleading this regime change war. Not only that but, The New York Times and CNN have also smeared veterans like myself for calling for an end to this regime change war. Just two days ago, The New York Times put out an article saying that I’m a Russian asset and an Assad apologist, and all these different smears.

This morning, a CNN commentator said on national television that I’m an asset of Russia. Completely despicable. As president, I will end these regime change wars by doing two things: ending the draconian sanctions that are really a modern-day siege, the likes of which we are seeing Saudi Arabia wage against Yemen that have caused tens of thousands Syrian civilians to die and to starve, and make sure we stop supporting terrorists like Al Qaeda in Syria, who have been the ground force in this ongoing regime change war."

It's no surprise that in its own coverage of Gabbard's remarks, the Times doubled right down on its original smears while denying that equating her with Trump and questioning her patriotism and the unusual crossover support that she's getting from some conservative voters was even a smear in the first place. Disingenuous is too good a word for this increasingly reactionary Democratic mouthpiece.

The overarching corporate agenda for this debate was to elevate the centrists - Mayor Pete Buttigieg and the very low-polling Amy Klobuchar - by giving them inordinate amounts of time with which to attack an ascendant Warren from the right. They also served as surrogates for the faltering Uncle Joe, who got a bit of a break and less of a chance to mess up or lose his teeth or suffer an embarrassing eye bleed. 

The media-political complex seems to have written Bernie Sanders off at its peril, especially with his latest record fundraising haul and the newly-announced and very coveted endorsements of three members of The Squad: Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

I could be wrong, but I think the bubble-encased pundits might be in for a yuge shock come Iowa and New Hampshire and beyond.