Guest columnist Jack Tulloss: Words Matter

Thomas Paine in a 1793 portrait.

Thomas Paine in a 1793 portrait. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

By JACK TULLOSS

Published: 05-01-2025 1:19 PM

The year 1776 was not a capital one for George Washington. Having lost the Battle of Long Island to the British Army in August, General Washington and the Continental Army retreated across the East River into Manhattan, only to be forced from New York in November, across the Hudson River into New Jersey, and then southward into Pennsylvania.

The misery endured by the Continental Army during this period is nearly inconceivable. Military defeats, expiring enlistments, desertions, disease, shortages of food, clothing, and shelter, scarce matériel, deplorable weather, an impotent Continental Congress, and declining morale collectively threatened to accomplish what the British Army could not: annihilate Washington’s army.

On December 19, 1776, Thomas Paine published “The American Crisis, No.1,” acknowledging the dreadful yet heroic suffering of the Continental Army in its quest for independence. Beginning with the elegant sentence, “These are the times that try men’s souls,” General Washington ordered that the essay be read to his troops on Christmas Eve. Then, on December 25 and 26, George Washington led his army across the Delaware River, attacking and defeating the Hessian mercenaries quartered in Trenton, New Jersey. This decisive victory marked a watershed moment in the battle for freedom from British despotism. The impact of Thomas Paine’s inspiring writing at this critical moment in history cannot be overstated. Words matter.

One hundred sixty-four years later, Hitler’s madness engulfed Europe, and Britain’s declaration of war on Germany in 1939 foreshadowed prolonged suffering for England. To prepare his fellow citizens for the impending hardships, Prime Minister Winston Churchill spoke before the House of Commons on June 4, 1940, affirming, “We shall go on to the end; we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” Words matter.

Inspirational speeches need not be lengthy. During the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, German forces encircling the 101st Airborne Division demanded the division’s surrender. In one of the most succinct and rousing addresses ever delivered, American commanding officer General Anthony McAuliffe replied, “Nuts!” Words, or in this case, a single word, matter.

In 1950, Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith stepped onto the Senate floor motivated by devotion to her country and delivered her “Declaration of Conscience” speech, denouncing fellow Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy’s self-aggrandizing political terrorism. This address, exposing McCarthy as a scoundrel, initiated his undoing and is as essential today as it was in 1950. Words matter.

Donald Trump embodies Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s most terrifying vision: ignorance in action. The intoxicating lure of Trumpism rests on its greasy, half-witted guarantee of unrealistic, simple-minded solutions to staggeringly complex national and international challenges. While the inspiring eloquence of a latter-day Thomas Paine, Winston Churchill, General McAuliffe, or Margaret Chase Smith may well immunize the nation against this political disease, until that oracle emerges, it remains everyone’s moral duty who values our democracy to express their concerns.

Ranking presidents by their leadership competence is an art, not a science. Still, presidential historians from across the political spectrum evaluating Donald Trump’s fitness for office routinely place him at or near the bottom of the list, suggesting that scholars will eventually assess him as the nation’s most inept president. However, until he leaves office, challenging the tyrannical appetites of a man so manifestly unsuited to the requirements of the position demands relentless rebukes of his loathsome, corrosive, and ruinous incompetence. Words matter.

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Jack Tulloss lives in Belchertown.