Political Analogies Are Like Toothbrushes

The New Republic: This Election Cycle, Everyone's Using 'Em! (The New Republic) This column was written by Michael Schaffer. There's a challenge in writing about the overuse of analogy in contemporary political journalism: There's no perfect analogy for the device. Are analogies the new adjectives? (It's hard to describe anything without them.) Are they the office-seeker's version of the Social Security number? (Without one, it's hard to prove you exist.) Are they the narratives of our time? (Control it, and you control the campaign). Whatever you compare political analogies to, this much is clear: We sure seem to use a lot of 'em. Just like computers! (Or did I mean toothbrushes?) Analogies have always been with us. For the past eight years, though, it was easy to believe we had arrived at the golden age of political... [read full story]