Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
The following appeared in the DC Examiner earlier this week:
House members are dumbing down their speeches, or they are just getting dumber themselves.
That's a conclusion suggested in a new analysis by the Sunlight Foundation, which used an interesting website called Capitolwords.org to analyze the most popular words lawmakers utter on the Senate and House floor every day.
According to Sunlight, Congress speaks nearly a grade level lower than lawmakers did in 2005. Sunlight concluded that Congress speaks at the level of a mid-year high school sophomore. Back in 2005, lawmakers were speechifying like high school juniors
...
The report also calculates that the nation's most historical documents are far, far more sophisticated than any recent floor speech.
The U.S. Constitution, for instance, written at a 17.8 grade level, the Federalist Papers at a 17.1 grade level, and the Declaration of Independence at a 15.1 grade level.
But President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address comes at an 11.2 grade level and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is at a 9.4 grade level.
First, a word in defense of our inarticulate elected officials. It's apples and oranges to compare speeches with written documents such as the Federalist Papers or the Declaration (the Constitution is an even worse example, since its primary function is as a legal document). And based on the Sunlight Foundation's research, it looks like they're still lapping the public at large:
Lawmakers of both parties still speak over the heads of the average American, who reads at between at 8th and 9th grade level.
That's a statistic that will come to mind every time that proposals for expanding voter participation (a topic we've touched on recently) come up.
It seems to me incontrovertible that over the history of our nation we've increasingly valued the democratic over the republican. We've instituted the direct election of senators, made the Electoral College essentially a bizarre quasi-ratification of the popular vote, and in places like California we're approximately 18 months away from deciding that the best method for determining the proper way to cook a roast is to put it to a popular referendum. In essence, we've done everything we can to promote the demotic in American life. The result: elected officials that share the idiom of people who pre-purchase tickets for the "Twilight" movies. Let me go on record now as saying that any public policy that arrests that downward spiral is fine by me.
By the way, one bit of fun for your Friday: Sunlight also has a page showing which SAT words are used most in congressional chambers and which members employ them the most often. An examination of the list shows that Patrick Leahy is the legislator most prone to using the word "asylum." Seems to me that there's some poetry in that fact.
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Apr '12
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
As a certain Democratic Congressman used to frequently end his one-minute speeches, "Beam me up, Scotty. There's no intelligent life here!"
I, too, have a low opinion of democracy and a much higher opinion of a constitutionally-limited republic.
Jun '11
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
Simple Jack for Congress!
May '10
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
Making people pass the citizenship test to vote or run for office might not be a bad idea
Mar '11
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
There is an interesting tool on the Sunlight website that sorts all Congressmen based on the average grade level of their speeches throughout their Congressional career.
Depressing facts: the 10 Senators with the highest grade level vocabulary are all Democrats save for Richard Lugar and Olympia Snowe. The bottom 10 are all Republicans except one (Barbara Boxer).
The Senator with the lowest vocabulary level? Dr. Rand Paul (8th grade level).
Edited on May 25, 2012 at 9:06pmOct '10
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
Here's a pretty good debunking of the whole measurement tool:
http://yhoo.it/MCIqdH
And a quote from the writer:
"Mulvaney was an honors scholar at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, he attended Harvard Business School and he got a law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This is the man who the Sunlight Foundation now says uses the diction and syntax of a seventh-grader? The least evolved speaker in Congress?Something is flawed here. I’m beginning to think that the Flesch-Kincaid test, which invented the “reads at an nth-grade-level” metric, is a crock."
May '11
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
I believe the lowest ranking member of the house was Mick Mulvaney and when asked, he shrugged and said short words can be just as effective as long ones. If you have ever heard him give a speech, you would not consider him inarticulate.
Edited on May 25, 2012 at 9:08pmMay '11
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
Oops, once again I got Ricoflayed. Took too long to make a point and someone else made it better.
Oct '10
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
Nah, mine was just a cut-n-paste job! I just happened to have seen the other column just yesterday.
Mar '11
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
I doubt there is much correlation between vocabulary, intelligence, and/or how articulate one is. Saying that Congressmen are "dumb" based on floor speeches is even more absurd - did Thomas Jefferson use the same vocabulary when giving a speech to his constituents as he did when writing drafts of the Declaration of Independence?
Nonetheless, Congress holds debates on some of the most important issues of our day, and vocabulary provides both a needed precision and an air of gravitas to the discussion. I am often embarassed when foreigners actually watch the deliberations of the "world's greatest deliberative body" - it's not the best advertisement for Jeffersonian Democracy.
Edited on May 25, 2012 at 9:22pmAug '10
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
So they're measuring word and sentence length?
It's easy to dress up inadequate ideas with big words and convoluted sentences.
On the other hand, being able to put big ideas into plain words is quite a talent. Dr Sowell does it well. I would hardly call Sowell's ideas unsophisticated just because he's good at expressing them in everyday language.
A large vocabulary extends expressive power: the right word can make everything clear. But it also extends obfuscatory power: a barrage of overdone verbiage often serves the same purpose as a squid's ink -- cover while you get away.
If I had the choice, I'd rather have politicians who put clear, honest thinking into plain speech than politicians who put muddled, dishonest thinking into fancy speech.
Edited on May 25, 2012 at 10:12pmAug '10
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
Mendel:
The Senator with the lowest vocabulary level? Dr. Rand Paul (8th grade level).
I think he tries to compensate for the stereotypical "heartless Martian" image of libertarians by being folksy and cute.
Unfortunately, libertarianism... isn't folksy and cute. It's not heartless. It's not Martian. But it isn't folksy and cute. Which is why his strategy backfires on him so often and he comes off sounding much more like a raving loon than he actually is.
Edited on May 25, 2012 at 9:40pmJan '11
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
Thanks to Troy, who has brought to our attention a serious problem, for which there is only one remedy: more speechwriters.
More speechwriters ... more speechwriters?
Hey, wait a minute ... Troy ... what did you used to do in the White House, exactly?
Apr '12
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
Mendel: There is an interesting tool on the Sunlight website that sorts all Congressmen based on the average grade level of their speeches throughout their Congressional career.
Depressing facts: the 10 Senators with the highest grade level vocabulary are all Democrats save for Richard Lugar and Olympia Snowe. The bottom 10 are all Republicans except one (Barbara Boxer).
The Senator with the lowest vocabulary level? Dr. Rand Paul (8th grade level). · 46 minutes ago
Edited 34 minutes ago
That just means that Republicans are trying to communicate, not showing off their erudition. G. W. Bush got his clock cleaned in his first election, because he was articulate above the level of the constituency. He was just some smart "college boy" with no sense. When he later ran for governor and POTUS, he had fixed that error.
Mar '11
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
The purpose of good political speech is communication. The purpose of bad political speech is obfuscation.
The former should be a lot simpler than the latter.
Jul '10
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
While I completely agree with your comment about Dr. Sowell, on the other, other hand, the 85 essays written by “Publius” (James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay) for two New York newspapers to promote the ratification of the Constitution, were read and debated by bakers, cobblers, wheelwrights,etc., in addition to the highly educated. The question becomes: How many of the general public could read and debate the Federalist Papers today? Even high school graduation tests in the mid 1800’s and early 1900’s are too difficult for current seniors – and even college seniors for that matter – to pass. Methinks education standards play a large role in this issue.
Aug '10
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
Troy...
You'll be happy to know that your post was written at a 13.2 grade level (6.7). You'll be happy that is if your intention is that only those with a college level education or higher would be able to easily and readily understand your article (15.2).
One wonders whether having representatives who score highly on the Flesch–Kincaid readability test, much like Professors using the obfuscating language of critical studies and the Frankfurt school utilize, would be in the best interests of preserving our democratic republic, or whether we would be better served by having elected officials who speak plainly without pedantry or a need of hermeneutic analysis to decipher meaning (31.5).
Aug '10
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
Oh...
And the Coolidge quote that Peter so heartily recommends above? 6.9
Mar '11
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
Midget Faded Rattlesnake:
Dr Sowell does it well. I would hardly call Sowell's ideas unsophisticated just because he's good at expressing them in everyday language.
Certainly a sign of good thinkers is whether they can formulate their thoughts in a clear and concise manner.
But be honest: who does the average Congressional floor speech remind of you of more, Thomas Sowell or Maury Povich?
I think most politicians can obfuscate just as well at a 7th grade level as at a 12th grade level.
Edited on May 25, 2012 at 10:32pmRe: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
I agree with those who are wary of the methodology. I had to chuckle when I saw that sentence length was one of the criteria. Anyone who's ever spent time in a Congressional gallery knows that the problem isn't an insufficient commitment to long-windedness from the speakers.
That being said, no one seems to be challenging the bigger premise -- that political rhetoric, on average, has become depressingly pedestrian. I understand those of you who are emphasizing clarity -- it's an excellent point -- but Churchill and Lincoln managed to be perfectly clear with a lot more sophistication. And let's be honest -- if you listen to most of these members of Congress, their simplicity doesn't translate to Sowellesque insight. It's pablum.
If you have the desire, spend part of your Memorial Day weekend with the rhetoric of the Founding Fathers; the floor speeches of Webster, Clay, and Calhoun; The Lincoln-Douglas Debates; Calvin Coolidge & FDR; JFK & Ronald Reagan. You'll find a firmness of prose in each. But, more importantly, you'll find robust thought underpinning them. That, my friends, is the real casualty of this trend.
Aug '10
Re: Empirical Proof: Congress is Getting Dumber
Mendel
Certainly a sign of good thinkers is whether they can formulate their thoughts in a clear and concise manner.
But be honest: who does the average Congressional floor speech remind of you of more, Thomas Sowell or Maury Povich?
Who's Maury Povich? I think that gives you my answer right there.
Mendel
I think most politicians can just as easily obfuscate at a 7th grade level.
Obfuscation at any level is possible. But I think a flashy vocabulary does make it easier to razzle-dazzle 'em, especially those folks who aren't deep thinkers but take pride in their own vocabularies. (Many educated people fall into this category.)