Rebranding the government shutdown
At least one blog suggests that a better name would make the ongoing partial shutdown of the federal government a little easier to swallow. So here are some tongue-in-cheek suggestions.
Case in point: the government shutdown, which has begun its second week. Fox News has already tried to minimize it by calling it a “slimdown,” which gave late-night comics more fodder. But the war of words persists.
Redstateblog insists that all we need is a better name, preferably a term that involves the word “super,” since Americans are already super-crazy for that particular superlative. The blog suggests “supersequestration.” It might work if making everyone glaze over is the goal, but we can do better.
In that spirit, here are our nominations for rebranding the shutdown. (Note that none has been poll-tested.)
Recess. This gets points for being innocuous. It may also be appropriate, given that members of Congress are behaving like schoolchildren, but because it already refers to periods when Congress is not in session, it’s superfluous. Maybe even super-superfluous. In rebranding, originality counts.
Become a Ragan Insider member to read this article and all other archived content.
Sign up today
Already a member? Log in here.
Learn more about Ragan Insider.
