hi welcome to engvid i'm adam in today's video i'm going to talk to you about some
expressions and idioms from the world of politics now the reason i want to go over these is not so
much because you will hear these or expressions use everyday conversation but for those of you who
are interested in politics and want to discuss politics or want to read about politics you
will see a lot of these expressions in newspaper articles and you might not really understand what
they're talking about okay these are meant for people like native speakers who are used to these
expressions and they know what's going on so it's important for you to understand them so you can
read high quality articles that use these often so for example we're going to look at past the buck
and the buck stops here and very similar meaning idiom kick the can down the road so i put this
together because they mean almost the same thing a political hot potato to be full of hot air
to get on or to get off your soap box and to press the flesh okay so let's start with this when we
pass the buck we pass pass pass pass basically we're not taking ownership of something it could
be a topic it could be a decision it could be a reaction we don't want to do it we pass it on to
somebody else to do it's very similar to kick the can down the road so here's the can i don't want
to deal with it i don't want to pick it up so i just kick it down the road maybe somebody else
will get to it or i'll get to it later when i reach that spot down the road so basically
i don't want to take responsibility for something today now i think it was fdr roosevelt a president
who said i'm not going to pass the buck around the buck stops here so he was a leader he was going to
make decisions he was going to take responsibility for his position and now every time somebody says
the buck stops here it means that they're going to take responsibility they're going to show
their leadership again a lot of politicians would rather pass the buck than take the buck hold the
buck take responsibility be accountable okay a political hot potato so this again a little
bit related if you have a very controversial controversial controversial topic or issue
so if something is controversial means there's a lot of argument about it there's a lot of debate
there's very little agreement okay or it's a very sensitive topic so for example in the
states the issue of guns and gun control is a con controversial topic it's a hot potato a
political hot potato because if you decide that you're for gun control you will anger a lot of
the voters if you say you're against gun control you will anger a lot of different
voters so it's a hot potato now imagine i'm sure all of you have at some point cooked a potato or
have eaten a cooked potato especially one in a fire you put it in a fire you let it
cook when you pull it out it's very hot if you hold on to it you will burn your hand
so you juggle it nobody wants to actually hold on because if you hold it you will get burned okay
get burned now in politics getting burned means making a mistake and basically getting elected
out of office okay so a political hot potato is something you have to be very careful with
you don't want to make a quick decision you don't even want to make a decision
if possible now i don't want to be too general but from my perspective most politicians are a little
bit cowardly okay they're always afraid everybody wants to keep their position everybody wants to
keep their jobs they're always looking at the next election and they don't want to anger their
constituents their voters so they don't want to make any big decisions that might get them
burnt might get them hurt in the next election so political hot potato something very controversial
and nobody wants to take hold of now to be full of hot air if we're talking about again
politicians politicians like to talk and talk and talk so a politician who talks a lot but
doesn't actually say very much we say about him or her that they're full of hot air okay they're
full of hot air and it all comes out because hot air comes out it doesn't stay inside so
they talk talk talk talk talk and say nothing it all goes up in the air and disappears okay
it doesn't stick to get on or off one soapbox so in the old days if you had a political
opinion and you wanted to share it with other people there wasn't an internet there wasn't
even a tv or radio i'm talking about a long time ago so people would take the
wooden box that actually carried soap before to deliveries they would take it to the town square
they would put it down they would stand on it so they're a little bit higher than all the people
and then they start talking and expressing their opinions so that that's where the expression comes
from to get on your soapbox to express very strong opinion opinions and share them with somebody with
people so if you get on your soapbox means you start talking a lot and expressing opinions these
days it basically means you're complaining about something usually something political but still
so if somebody tells you to get off your soapbox it means stop complaining nobody wants to hear
it anymore nobody cares about your opinions just you're full of hot air stop talking okay
and then press the flesh so again what do politicians do
the election is coming up so now they can't hide in their office and pretend nothing's going on and
they can't avoid the hot potato they can't pass the bug they need to go out and press the flesh
press the flesh well i can't do it here but press this is flesh skin right meat press the flesh
shake hands so they go around they shake everybody's hands they kiss all the babies
they take photo ops they get elected they go back to their offices and hide there okay
so these are five we're going to look at five more that you might see in your political adventures
okay so now we have a few more we have toe the line politically correct or politically incorrect
the red tape or cut through the red tape drag someone's name through the mud and carrot and
stick approach okay so let's start with toe of the line so toe is like toe on your foot
right you have ten toes ten fingers toe the line basically you have a line all everybody's toes
should be on the line basically means everybody has to be going in the same direction everybody
in a team or a group needs to be working towards the same target okay everybody needs to conform
conform means don't try to be different don't argue with the team do what everybody
else is doing toe the line okay this is not only in politics we have this in business
especially this is what the team is doing whether you disagree or not if even if you
disagree i should say you start to toe the line you still have to do what you're told do what
the rest of the team is doing even if you think it's wrong because if you don't toe the line you
probably will get fired okay now i'm sure you've heard this expression many times politically
correct politically incorrect political correctness if you want to do it without the
and then just add the nest political correctness now basically what this means
is speaking or expressing opinions in a way that doesn't offend anyone
so if you're politically correct means you're not offending anyone
you're not saying anything that somebody will find hurtful or insulting or whatever
if you're politically incorrect you just don't care you say you express your opinions whatever
they are if somebody gets offended too bad now a lot of people think that these days
we have or at least western liberal democracies as they're called have become too politically correct
nobody expresses an opinion nobody is allowed to say anything because somebody will be offended
okay it's become a problem in many cases but at the same time you don't want to be insulting
anybody like if you are if you allow political incorrectness you're basically allowing racists
and misogynists like people who hate women men who hate women to say so to say negative things
that will hurt people and create a bad environment so people try to be politically correct but again
there is such a thing as too much political correctness red tape is basically bureaucracy
it's basically all the paperwork that you have to do so governments these days have become so
bureaucratic that nothing gets done you need to for example you want permission to build a
new building in this street so you have to go to this department of the government and get a form
and fill it out once it's filled out you have to take it to that department and get a stamp
once you have that stamped you take it to that department and they give you a license to do
something then you have to take that license go hire the people you need then you have to go to
the government make sure that they approve of those people then once you get that approval you
go to another department and get this stamp that stamp that snap that stuff so if you cut through
the red tape means you go straight from point a to point b without too much bureaucracy so a lot
of governments have become so bureaucratic again that nothing gets done so a lot of new leaders
new elected leaders are trying to cut through all the red tape and get the government working again
okay government has become too big nothing gets done it's time to cut through the red tape now
to drag someone's name through the mud it's basically like it sounds you know mud like if
if it rains on the ground and the ground is like dirt it becomes mud right like very brown
liquid if you drag someone's name through the mud you are basically hurting their reputation
maybe you're embarrassing them maybe your humility humiliating them you're causing other people to
lose respect for them you are hurting their reputation and basically their careers could
be over again not only in politics this happens a lot in the entertainment industry in the music
industry people say bad things about each other and they drag each other's names through the mud
but generally speaking if you try to drag someone's name through the mud
it's very difficult for you not to get any mud on your shoes as they say which means you're going
to be hurt by this as well because you did this to somebody it doesn't look good on you
either so keep that in mind lastly carrot and stick approach so when it comes to diplomacy
for example one country is trying to get another country to do something there are two ways to do
this you can offer them a carrot or you can offer them the stick so basically this comes
from a mule like a donkey an animal looks like a horse but not they're very stubborn animals
if you want the the mule to move and it doesn't want to move you have two options you can put a
carrot on a stick and put it on a string again in front of the donkey and the donkey wants to eat it
so it will start moving towards the carrot but the carrot keeps moving but there's an incentive okay
so you can offer an incentive or you can offer a reward for doing something or you can use the
stick so if the donkey doesn't move and the carrot doesn't work then you take that stick and you hit
the donkey on the bum and the donkey starts to move because it's in pain so
there's punishment or at least the threat of punishment so carrot and stick you can offer
them incentives to do something you want or you can offer them punishments threaten
them with punishments if they don't do something you want and both approaches
have their time in place sometimes the carriage will work sometimes the stick will work sometimes
you'll need to use both okay so that's the carrot and stick so again you're not going to hear these
expressions in everyday conversation necessarily but if you are interested in politics and you do
want to read washington post the new york times cnn fox whatever your political leanings are
you're going to need to know these expressions because you're going to see them and you're going
to hear them in political discussions quite often okay so it's good to know them if you want to test
your knowledge of them go to engvid.com there's a quiz there that you can take and test your
understanding if you have any questions about this lesson please ask in the comments section
of english and if you like this video please subscribe to my youtube channel and come back
for more helpful lessons to help you improve your everyday english and i'll see you again soon bye