Capitol Words

I got directed to something kind of cool via a Facebook ad in my right margin. I know, I know. That little chunk of pixels to the right of my feed finally paid off, what are the odds? Usually just a barrage of TV show and t-shirt ads, today I saw the heading "baby, abortion, fetus." What was this? A sample set list of a horrible first time comic at Scarlet and Grey Cafe? A morose "which of these does not belong" game? Nope. It was the heading for an advert for the site capitolwords.org. Capitol Words is a site that lists the top words or phrases used by individual politicians or the collective of the politicians in a state.

"Baby, abortion, fetus?" The top words of Rick J. Santorum. Not his top 3 though. His top 3 are actually "partial-birth, abortion, and procedure." Just barely cracking the top 20--"inserting". His 20th favorite word--usually the cause of words 1 and 2. In the top 10--"wade." I'm guessing the compatriot of "roe v." But maybe he's a Heat fan. I knew there was a reason I hated this motherfucker.

You can also view by state as opposed to a particular politician. What about my great state of Ohio? Well, the first city mentioned in the word list, at #2, is Cleveland. It's also mentioned in 3 of the top 5 two-word phrases. Yay, go Cleveland! My hometown, fresh on the lips of Ohio's politicians. Must be because it is such a good time, top spot city. However, this could be because politicians know Cleveland is a good place to get some free money and cheap power. The 20th most popular five-word phrase? "We recognize the tremendous hard." Also, a possible cause of Santorum's 1 and 2.

Besides city names and the similar, Ohio has cool, political words you'd expect a great swing state with a few booming metropolises to have: "amendment, medicare, nuclear, republican, nafta." Now, while no New York or California, you can see the difference in word selection from a relatively dense and flourishing state like Ohio and a "fighting off the sweet release of suicide everyday" state like North Dakota. A sample of their top 20: "forks, folks, wheat, somebody, anybody, ought." If that sample isn't just dripping with...well nothing. I don't think I could ever live in a state where the 8th most used word by politicians is "wheat." But maybe I could. In May 2012, that word was used 83 times by Democrats and only 2 times by Republicans country-wide, and since 1997, the word has been used by Democrats more overall. They must be talking about Whole Foods. Fucking hippies.

Anyways, I found this site to be pretty interesting and fun to nerdily waste time on for a little bit. There is even a search function. I used it to find out that, of all the states, "Justin" is the most popular in Ohio. Thanks Capitol Words, but I could have told you that.