Terms and Abbreviations Heard in Practical Politics

Federal Elections Commission.

Massachusetts General Laws (often seen with periods, as “M.G.L.”).

In Massachusetts, political-party committees are regulated by legal provisions in chapter ”M.G.L. c.52”.

Municipal
Committee

A generic term which can refer to a Town, Ward, or City party committee.

Office of Campaign and Political Finance (part of Massachusetts state government, regulates elections).

Political Action Committee.

PACs are intended to be independent from campaign organizations and are forbidden from coordinating efforts with a campaign. With respect to elections, PACs typically raise funds and run advertisments intended to influence opinion.

Because PACs operate under rules in section 527 of the Internal Revenue Service regulations, they are sometimes called “527 groups”.

Palm Card

A small piece of “lit” designed to be handed to an voter, same thing as “push card”.

Phone
Banking

An activity in which a group of people (either paid staff or volunteers) are organized to make voice telephone calls to potential voters, typically following a pre-planned script and possibly assisted by some computer software or smartphone app.

The intended purpose of a phone-banking effort may be to identify voter sympathies, to promote a particular candidate, to ask for donations, or to just remind potential voters to become actual voters.

(Sometimes a campaign is tempted to use an alternative technique that substitutes impersonal machine-generated voices for the flesh-and-blood humans, accepting the possibility that voters could become more irritated than persuaded by such robo-calling.)

Push Card

A small piece of “lit” designed to be handed to a voter, same thing as “palm card”.

American Descendents of Slavery: a term popularized by YouTube video-bloggers Antonio Moore (a Los Angeles lawyer) and Yvette Carnell (a former Congressional political staffer). In 2021, Moore and Carnell engaged in a legal action versus the Harvard-Kennedy School of Government, which led to the retraction of a research publication by HKSG.

AOC

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (progressive Democrat who represents New York’s 14th congressional district in the U.S. House)

Astroturf

Named after the artificial grass developed for the first completely indoor sports stadium, the Houston Astrodome, political Astroturf  is an idea or movement which presents the appearance of having been started by a local group of “concerned citizens”, but which in reality is sponsored and controlled by some hidden organization or person — whose real agenda is also hidden.

(How can you tell if some political initiative is Astroturf, when its leaders don’t want you to know? Here’s something to watch for: whenever the group conducts a rally or public protest, check the signs being carried by the protesters. Do the signs look like displays at an elementary-school science fair? Are they unevenly lettered, wildly varied in design, and held together with duct tape? If so, it’s probably a real grass-roots movement. Or, are all the protesters holding signs that are evenly symmetric, on which the machine-generated typography is accented by sleek graphics and coordinated colors? Good chance it’s Astroturf.)

AVR

Automatic Voter Registration

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. (Often referred to as the “McCain-Feingold Act”, this federal law was promoted as a campaign-finance reform. As enacted, the law prohibited national political-party committees (e.g., the RNC) from raising or spending any money which was not limited by federal regulation — even for use in state or local elections. The BCRA originally also put severe limits on issue-advocacy advertising, but this provision was overturned as a violation of free-speech rights by the U.S. Supreme Court in its Citizens United v. FEC decision of 2010.

BDS

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (measures urged by adversaries of Israel)

Beacon Hill

The state capitol of Massachusetts (the “State House”) is located in Boston on a high point of ground called Beacon Hill. In this building are offices for the Governor of the Commonwealth and for some other members of the executive branch, plus the chambers where the two houses of the state legislature meet. We may casually refer to the whole state government by saying “on Beacon Hill”, but sometimes by this we mean just the legislature.

BIPOC

Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (a racial classification)

A “carpet bag” is a soft-sided suitcase or satchel made out of carpet. In American history, after the Civil War, some opportunistic politicians from the northern states relocated (while carrying luggage of that type) to the defeated southern states with the intention of gaining political power under the conditions of Reconstruction.

In modern usage a “carpetbagger” is any person who relocates to a different state for the chief purpose of running for political office in the new jurisdiction. The most successful carpetbagger in modern times is Hillary Clinton, who transferred her official domicile from Arkansas to New York and from there was elected to the U.S. Senate.

CLT

Citizens for Limited Taxation (Massachusetts taxpayers organization active from 1974 until December 2022; the late Barbara Anderson was CLT’s best-known activist.)

County
Committee 

In Massachusetts, very few public things are still organized according to county. The official political-party organizations exist at the town, ward, city, and state levels. (Thus county party committees, which are important in most other states, have no official standing in Massachusetts. However, a few county-level auxiliaries remain, such as the Norfolk County Republican Committee and the Middlesex Republican Club.)

CPAC

Conservative Political Action Conference.

CRT

Critical Race Theory (an academic discipline that describes most public activity in terms of racial prejudice; the term is often extended to denote the political community of activism based on the academic theory)

CTR

Click-Through Rate (a measurement of the effect of a multiple-recipient email message, which imprecisely indicates how many recipients actually read the content of the message, rather than just deleting it unread)

A word brought into the English language from Russian, a direct transliteration of the word “Dezinformatsiya”, part of the tradecraft of the KGB spies of the old USSR.

The word came into frequent use during the “Russian Collusion” accusation frenzy mounted against President Trump (until the Mueller Report shattered it). Ironically, the Russian Collusion charges themselves are now known to have been entirely constructed from Disinformation (the “Steele Dossier”) generated by agents hired by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Here’s how the KGB defined “Dezinformatsiya”, in its own 1984 lexicon:

“Misleading by means of false information; A form of intelligence work in the Active Measures field, which consists of the secret channeling towards an adversary of false information, especially prepared materials and fabricated documents designed to mislead him and prompt him to take decisions and measures which fit with the plans and intentions of the Intelligence Service.”
(That is, the plans and intentions of the KGB.)

More generally, Leftist partisans frequently attempt to discredit and censor any report they dislike by labeling the report as Disinformation.

Doxxing

Term derived from "docs", as in "documents". The practice of discovering private, possibly sensitive, personal information about an adversary and then (without permission) revealing it to the world via Internet social media. The person being doxxed may then suffer various consequences, ranging from mere embarrassment up to financial and even physical harm. (See also “OSINT” below.)

However, false-flag operations sometimes can be recognized in political conflict. In 2017, a documented, literal instance was launched at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Two agents of Americans Take Action, an organization working to promote the impeachment of then-President Donald Trump, sneaked into the convention hall, carrying 1,000 red-white-and-blue flags which were imprinted with the name “TRUMP”, and distributed them to Trump-supporting conference attendees, who waved them enthusiastically. The trick was that the free flags were the flags of the Russian Federation — and the operation was intended to link Trump with the then-alleged “Russian Collusion”.

An April 2024 episode in Ireland also showed signs of being a kind of false-flag operation.

(A related political term: “Dirty Tricks”.)

FAQ

Frequently Asked Question (or a list of such questions)

FARA

The Foreign Agents Registration Act is a law in the United States (22 U.S.C. § 611-621) enacted in 1938 to require individuals doing political or advocacy work on behalf of foreign entities in the United States to register with the Department of Justice and to disclose their relationship, activities, receipts, and disbursements in support of their activities.

FITN

First In The Nation: slogan adopted by New Hampshire, acclaiming its Presidential Primary Election, and also used by Iowa, acclaiming its Presidential Caucuses.

FOIA

The Freedom of Information Act is a law in the United States (5 U.S.C. § 552) which requires the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased or uncirculated information and documents controlled by the U.S. government, state, or other public authority upon request. (Although certain categories of information are exempted from disclosure.)

FOUO

For Official Use Only (a government directive for handling sensitive information)

In public life, a gadfly is a person who is always asking questions and pointing out problems, but who seldom contributes ideas or effort for solving the problems.

General
Court

Here’s a frequent point of confusion. The official name of the state legislature is the General Court of Massachusetts. That’s right, in the government of Massachusetts, the representative body that makes the laws is called a “court” — even though we normally think of a court as a body that interprets existing law.

The odd name is an inheritance from a 17th-Century practice in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, when the colonial assembly did, in fact, sometimes serve as a kind of judicial court of appeals. In 1780, when John Adams was drafting a new state constitution for Massachusetts, he only slightly modified a name which had been already in use for over 150 years under several different systems of colonial government.

In the 21st Century, in day-to-day use, most people just say "state legislature" to describe the law-making part of the state government, which consists of the State House of Representatives and the State Senate. However, when you go to vote in a Massachusetts state election, look carefully at your ballot and you’ll see that you are voting for candidates for the offices of “Representative in General Court” and “Senator in General Court”.

(On the other hand, the highest Massachusetts governmental body that does interpret the law is called the “Supreme Judicial Court” or “SJC” for short.)

Goo-Goo

In public life, a Goo-Goo is a person who advocates loosely defined “Good Government” or “Good Governance”.

The term came into use in 1894, when “Good Government Clubs” were formed in New York City to oppose the Tammany Hall (Democrat) political machine.

GOP

Grand Old Party (historic nickname for the Republican Party of Lincoln, founded in 1854 in Ripon, Wisconsin).

Grass Roots

What “Astroturf” pretends to be: an effort or group which grows organically and is based on the lives and views of ordinary people, as grass grows naturally in soil, rather than being an artificial construct installed by outside agents.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (United Nations organization for publishing climate reports)

The Lobbying Disclosure Act is a law in the United States (2 U.S.C. § 1601) enacted in 1995; the law requires lobbying firms and organizations to register and file reports of the lobbying activities and of certain contributions and expenses with the Secretary of the Senate and with the Clerk of the House of Representatives.

LIV

Low-Information Voter (“Low-Info” Voter).
A person who may describe himself or herself as “not really political” and who learns about public issues by passively consuming news and opinion only via the most easily accessed media.

LPV

Low-Propensity Voter (“Low-P” Voter).
Individuals who are eligible to vote but who usually don’t.

LWV

League of Women Voters.
Formed during early 1900’s, the League’s original emphasis was to promote the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which allowed women to vote. Over the following century, though describing itself as “non-partisan”, the League’s projects have often aligned with progressive causes, and much of its advocacy since 2020 has opposed measures for assuring integrity of elections.

Marjorie Taylor Greene (Republican who represents Georgia’s 14th congressional district in the U.S. House)
(in non-political contexts, “MTG” may refer to the popular board game “Magic: the Gathering”)

Non-Fungible Token: a unique digital identifier recorded in a cryptographic blockchain, possibly (but not necessarily) linked to something of value. Although NFTs are not the same thing as cryptocurrency (e.g., Bitcoin), NFTs have become a factor in campaign finance.

NGO

Non-Governmental Organization: a non-profit entity formed outside of a government, possibly an ordinary club or association, but also possibly one of several types of politically active organizations, which could be special-interest advocates, lobbyists, or information-disseminating organizations.

Nominee

A party chooses its single “nominee” from among multiple “candidates”, by means of a caucus, convention, or primary election. The party’s nominee goes on to contend in the general election against the nominees of other parties.

NRCC

National Republican Congressional Committee (focuses on electing the U.S. House of Representatives).

NRSC

National Republican Senatorial Committee (focuses on electing the U.S. Senate). See also “RNC”.

A model for understanding how, over time, ideas in society change and influence politics. (The concept was proposed by the late Joseph P. Overton of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan.)

The Overton Window is defined as containing all the public-policy ideas which an active politician can potentially endorse, while still gaining or maintaining sufficient public support to get elected or re-elected. If a policy idea is so unpopular that it would doom any candidate who promotes it, that idea is “outside the Overton Window”.

Non-office-seeking participants in public-policy debates may, over time, be able to “move the window” and make a previously unacceptable policy idea become acceptable. However, the normal case is that the policy options available to a politician have been shaped by an entire society’s ideas, movements, and shared norms and values.

OVR

Online Voter Registration

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a multidisciplinary scientific journal often cited during public debates about climate and environment.

Push Polling

A negative campaigning technique which seeks to influence voter opinion while claiming to merely be measuring it.

By telephone, a caller poses as a pollster conducting an objective opinion survey, but actually poses mostly loaded questions which are cleverly worded to imply negative information (which may, or may not, be true) about some candidate, party, or cause which the organization conducting the push poll opposes.

Republican National Committee (focuses on electing the President of the United States, with the NRCC and NRSC is one of the three national party committees).

Secretary of the Commonwealth, who has responsibility for overseeing elections in Massachusetts. (Most of the other states have an officer in the state government called the “Secretary of State”, but Massachusetts is a “Commonwealth”.)

Stalking
Horse

In politics, a stalking horse is a candidate who runs for a position which he has no chance of winning, so as to divide the opposition to a particular faction, or to distract attention away from another candidate which that faction really does want to win.

State
Committee

The Massachusetts Republican State Committee is the governing body of the party in the state. The committee normally has 80 members, with one state committeeman and one state committeewoman elected from each of the 40 state-senate districts. (Informally, the state committee and its staff may be referred to as the “MassGOP”.)

“There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch” (acronym for an economic principle described by science-fiction author Robert Heinlein in his 1966 novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress)

(the meaning most frequently encountered while reading Internet web pages )
Urchin Traffic Monitor, parameters inserted into a web URL that permit Google Analytics to easily track web-browser activity.

A term that has become popular in the 21st Century, but is rarely defined. One definition is that persons who are “woke” view the world through a lens of “Critical Consciousness”, as developed by the Neo-Marxist educational theorist Paulo Freire, seeing all human interactions as some type of oppression, and subsequently sorting all people into one of two categories: the Oppressors and the Oppressed. In the political world, the “woke” point of view is a Leftist perspective.

Confusion can arise when conservatives attempt to speak using an older idiom with similar words, as in saying, “Voters should wake up to the consequences of high taxes.” In the 21st Century, this is likely to be misunderstood.

Beyond the list above, some other political terms are explained on the TRTC’s "Frequently Asked Questions" page.