Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: TALKATIVE (09/08/16)
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TITLE: The Empress Has No Clothes | Previous Challenge Entry
By Marlene Bonney
09/10/16 -
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Glenda Weeks was not charismatic enough to win the election through the more accepted skirmishes of her predecessors. She had to lie, and lie big in order to gain the support of her colleagues and their political ties. It had taken years. . .years of waiting for just the right moment to emerge as a viable candidate for the position and decades of clawing her way to the summit of success. Like a determined rock climber, she took each foothold seriously and deliberately. She courted lobbyists, friends, the elitist “old money” demigods of the era, enemies, and even wealthy foreign powers. She had an innate sense of who was the most vulnerable at any given time and, like a wicked stepmother, waved her magic wand to satisfy their appetites and needs. She was the “go-to” person, known for her almost uncanny ability to get the job done and to talk her way out of any tough spot.
Ms. Weeks mantra became, “the end justifies the means,” and it was the most insidious means to salve her hardening conscience. Every benefit, every event, every luncheon, dinner, speech, or political function was an opportunity to spout her agenda forward. She had practiced in front of her bedroom mirror for endless hours, learning how to exude compassion and concern, laced with sincerity and a passion for justice. Like a master craftsman, she honed the art of deception into her everyday conversations, either verbally or electronically.
Over the weeks and months leading up to the election, Glenda’s popularity polls were steadily dropping. She became desperate enough to hire a private speech tutor. Although she could be a prolific conversationalist with her close family and friends, her lack of eloquence in public was a definite Achilles' heel for the campaign. She knew, by experience, that she had to capture the attention of the unknowledgeable masses eventually. Professor Stanley was treating her weakness with large doses of slippery-chat, a tool that did not fool her critics, but would do for the general public. She became known for her verbal sparring, silver-tongued touted phrasing having become her best friend. She learned how to be fluent in redundancy, insincere sincerity that did not quite reach her eyes and body language.
“Well, I find her to be refreshingly candid and articulate,” a staunch supporter trying to defend opponents’ criticism.
“She is conversable, all right. Once she gets started, she rambles on and on like a misguided windbag!”
So went the arguments back and forth, flying through the air like snowball fight missiles.
“Let me be clear,” a favorite phrase Glenda threw out multiple times in a controversial speech, trying to emphasize a point that was getting muddled in her verbose repetition.
Her opponents claimed that the “clearness” was an audible reminder to herself to get back to the point after running through a labyrinth of mazes. The empty substance of her speeches were clothed in obscure flowery jargon that promised everything and gave nothing. Like a ship with a bum rudder, she tried to stay on course with each appearance, but mostly just treaded water.
“I can’t recall,” was her confused reply to any accusation she could not explain away with her chatty responses. She had an excuse for everything and took responsibility for nothing.
In short, Glenda Weeks was a typical politician with “the gift of gab,” and it covered a multitude of sins. Cover-ups, subterfuges, manipulations, and subtle lies were fuel for her critics, but she could turn “snow-job” conversations into corn mazes of unintelligible phraseology and nonsense and make them sound real. Her latest lame excuse for a particularly bad speech?
“My teleprompter was hijacked.”
Consumed with the thirst for power, this woman could not tell which of her lies were believable to her listeners. This is mostly because, no matter how hard she tried, she was unable to truly empathize with the common people. Her idea of transparency was to smile and try to believe herself when she passed out platitudes like a television evangelist. She was dropping in the polls because the “unknowledgeable masses” knew a western-day medicine man when they heard one.
Only time would tell whether Glenda Weeks would realize her dream to fame, riches and glory; at the very least she would go down in history as an example of misjudged rhetoric gone sour.
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