Foreign Disservice

Two items this weekend reminded me of the Foreign Service Exam. To be considered for the U.S. diplomatic corps, applicants have to pass a test which includes a challenging section on English usage. An English professor of mine once said he'd known college deans who couldn't pass it. Too bad passing it isn’t a requirement for American heads of state.

First, Barack Obama spoke briefly at the North Carolina Democratic Party's annual fundraiser dinner [1] on Saturday night here in Asheville, NC. He said Americans are tired of a foreign policy "that's all about talking tough and acting dumb."

Next, Maureen Dowd's Sunday New York Times column lampooned [2] Sarah Palin's "pompom patois and sing-songy jingoism."

Being mush-mouthed helped give the patrician Bushes the common touch. As Alistair Cooke observed, “Americans seem to be more comfortable with Republican presidents because they share the common frailty of muddled syntax and because, when they attempt eloquence, they do tend to spout a kind of Frontier Baroque.”

Darn right. And that, doggone it, brings us to a shout-out for the latest virtuoso of Frontier Baroque, bless her heart, the governor of the Last Frontier. Her reward’s in heaven.

[. . .]

We could, following her strenuously folksy debate performance, wonder when elite became a bad thing in America. Navy Seals are elite, and they get lots of training so they can swim underwater and invade a foreign country, but if you’re governing the country that dispatches the Seals, it’s not O.K. to be elite? Can likable still trump knowledgeable at such a vulnerable crossroads for the country?

Together, the quotes reminded me of that English section on the Foreign Service Exam – tougher than anything seen on the SAT or GRE. Because leading a great power takes great skill. The point of the test is, diplomacy requires careful, precise language, because simple misunderstandings or incautious words can lead to shooting wars.

But precision and care are unnatural for speakers of Frontier Baroque. Smoke ‘em out. Bring it on. Shoot first and ask questions later. Dead or alive. “Talking tough and acting dumb" is their foreign policy of choice because they have no other choice. They have no other skills. Skills are elitist.

Bless their hearts.

International relations based upon diplomacy, not just force, is unavailable for people with little respect for or command of the English language. Do Americans really want to place such people in command of the armed forces and international relations of a great power? A nuclear power?