Experts: Words Have No Meaning

Newsweek has done yeoman’s work in helping the rest of us catch up with a recent discovery by “political experts”: Words have no meaning.

The other day, Stacey Abrams, the Democratic nominee to be the next governor of Georgia, responded to a question about how to address voters’ concerns over rising prices by arguing that “having children is why you’re worried about your price for gas, it’s why you’re concerned about how much food costs.” Responding to that remark, some of us, including this writer, drew the seemingly logical conclusion that Abrams was suggesting that more permissive abortion laws (more abortions) would help alleviate the inflationary pressures on Americans.

Be thankful we have Newsweek, and the experts, to disabuse us of our mistaken notion.

Thomas Hollihan, a media and politics professor at the University of Southern California, and Bruce Mallory, a professor emeritus at the University of New Hampshire, believe Abrams’s words have been taken out of context. Never mind that the context was her being asked: “What could you do as governor to alleviate the concerns of Georgia voters about those livability, daily, hourly issues that they’re confronted with?”

On the off chance that mere mention of these professors’ names has not persuaded you of your folly, check out this tour de force:

Hollihan said he believes Abrams didn’t intend to imply abortion could solve inflation. Rather, he said she implied women without resources may take the economy into consideration when deciding to have a child.

And, as if that wasn’t enough:

Mallory told Newsweek that twisting an opponent’s words is a common debate technique.

Newsweek, after consulting with these luminaries — one of whom donates to out-of-state Democrats — comes to the conclusion that any suggestion that Abrams was floating abortion as a fix for inflation can be classified as “misleading material.”

“While it’s true that Abrams said having a child is directly related to worries about the economy, she didn’t say that abortion could solve inflation as Republicans suggested or implied in captions to the video,” submits senior writer Anna Skinner. “Picking out the soundbite from the wider point about a direct connection between one’s economic well-being and family planning, which Abrams was trying to make, may be politically useful, but also misleading.”

There’s the rub. Abrams was only drawing a connection, and we all erred in noticing what she thinks that connection is.