"Call them out." That phrase has recently flooded political discourse to such an extent that it appears to have swamped such staple clichés as "that being said" and "at the end of the day."
If you regularly watch or listen to broadcast news or visit Internet blogs and discussion groups, you are bound to encounter it. "Call them out" means to call attention to people whose statements or actions, usually political, are deemed untrue, unfair or contrary to the public good. Sometimes it implies that offenders should be scorned and that a public outcry is warranted.
I don't have any documentation to show who inspired this "call them out" flood, but President Obama is a likely suspect. He seems fond of the phrase. His use of it first caught my attention in a speech that he made shortly before or shortly after he was elected. He has used it several times since.
For instance, in a speech to a meeting of mayors on February 9, 2009, he said this about the government's economic stimulus package: "If a federal agency proposes a project that will waste that money I will not hesitate to call them out on it and put a stop to it. And I want everybody here to be on notice that if a local government does the same, I will call them out on it and use the full power of my office and our administration to stop it."
Last September, in his speech to Congress, Obama said, "If you misrepresent what's in this plan, we will call you out." That was the speech in which, moments later, Rep. Joe Wilson shouted, "You lie!" One commentator observed that Wilson's outcry demonstrated that the caller out can also be called out.
In a speech to a gathering of Democrats last February, Obama said: "I told my Republican friends I want to work with them where I can, and meant it. And I told them I will also call them out if they say they want to work on something, then when I offer a hand, I get nothing in return."
Political columnists and political publications have been quick to pick up on the phrase. For instance, last September a column by John P. Hannah in The Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine, said that President Obama should stand up for the Iranian people and against the Iranian regime at the U.N. The headline said, "Call Them Out, Mr. President."
Internet bloggers and participants have also latched on to "call them out." A few examples:
"Fine. Let's see them (Republicans) filibuster. Call them out on filibustering that one (a bill dealing with organized labor)."
"They (Republican Senators Jon Kyl and John McCain) lied (about the crime rate in Arizona), and got called out on The Rachel Maddow Show. We need to call them out -- call them and ask why they lied."
"If we don't call them (Fox News) out, how will people ever know the truth?"
"Will the religious call out the religious right? Will the religious right call out the far right extreme fringe?"
You may have noticed that all the examples of "call them out" that I have cited are from Democrats and liberal-leaning sources, except for The Weekly Standard. So far, I have found no instance of its use by a Republican politician.
Some people have started using the phrase in nonpolitical contexts. For instance, a participant in a discussion forum asked, "Is it better to ignore a child's hypochondriac behavior or call them out?"
Another participant responded, "Somewhere in between. My dad, when we'd complain about a minor arm injury, for example, would say, ‘Well, do you want me to cut it off?' Sounds mean, I know, but it made us stop whining about something so small."
Whatever the political stripe of those who use it, "call them out" has spread so fast and so far that it may be at the top of my list of clichés for this year.
Richard Creed is a retired Journal editor. He can be reached at richcreed@triad.rr.com.
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