Today, I want to teach you some advanced vocabulary words related to politics.
Hey everyone, my name is Wes. This is Interactive English,
which is all about helping you practice and improve your English skills and
today is a vocabulary lesson about politics and I know that some of you may be
very excited about this because you love talking about politics.
Other people may be like, Oh no, I don't like talking about politics,
but still this is very important because even if you don't like to to talk about
politics, you are going to hear other people talk about it.
Maybe your friends or even if you're listening to the news or your where you may
read about it. So this is very important for your comprehension.
I want to let you know that that these words specifically refer to American politics.
Now you may also be able to use them when talking about other countries and
It really just depends and you can also use some of these words and phrases even
when you're talking about things outside of politics.
The other thing that I want to warn you about is that many of these words and
phrases, uh, have a bit of a negative connotation.
When people think of government, when they think about politics,
many people have a negative view.
Oftentimes they may view it as a necessary evil and that's the first expression
and phrase that I want to talk to you about when talking about government.
People may say that it's a necessary evil and it kind of means exactly what it
says. People don't like governments.
Maybe they don't agree with everything.
All of the laws that are being passed and they,
they might just describe it in the extreme case as evil,
It's important you must have it because if you don't have government,
then the alternative is much worse. So people might describe it and say,
you know, you know it's a necessary evil.
You can also use this expression to describe other things as well.
If there is some situation could be at work in a business environment,
you don't like it, you don't agree with it, but it's important.
You must have it. You could say, well it's a necessary evil.
The next word is impeachment and this word means a a serious charge against a
public official for some misconduct and that misconduct,
it may not be criminal and it could just be some unethical behavior,
something that's just wrong and others within the government may try to impeach
this public official and you can use it as a verb to impeach someone or as the
And again it's a serious charge because if someone is impeached then they may be
So this is a word that that does apply to American politics but it's also a word
that may apply to other countries.
Their political system as well. Impeachment,
it is a serious charge against the public official for misconduct.
Then we have quid pro quo and quid pro quo means the that you are giving
something in exchange for something else.
And when I say something I'm talking about something of value so it could be
giving something in an exchange for money perhaps in exchange for information
there. There is some kind of transaction there and it is a quid pro quo.
We use this when when talking about politicians in government,
they do favors for businesses or other individuals and they get something in
return. We'd say that is a quid pro quo. Again,
this is another expression that you can use outside of politics.
If you're talking about something in exchange for something else.
Let me give you an example, okay?
I am willing to teach you some more advanced vocabulary words,
but you need to do something for me. All right?
This is going to be a quid pro quo. I want you to hit that like button.
You do that for me and I will continue teaching you some vocabulary words.
Then I have a word that I think many of you may already know,
but when thinking about politics and government,
it is something that is so important and that is compromise.
And what it means is to work together in order to reach an agreement.
So for example, if somebody has this position right here,
this is what they want. The other person has this position.
You kind of need to work together and you need to meet in the middle so that
work can get done. People need to compromise,
politicians need to compromise and unfortunately,
especially in American politics,
it seems like fewer and fewer politicians are willing to compromise and work
with other people. They just say, Hey, this is what I want.
well then nothing will get done and this is one example as to why people might
refer to government as being a bit evil because people don't compromise,
they don't get things done, but still it's a necessary evil and again,
this is a word that you can use in so many different situations at home or at work.
If you have people who disagree about some issue or some situation,
then they need to compromise, they need to reach some sort of agreement,
then we have leak and often it's used as a verb to leak something and that
something is referring to secret information and you make it known public.
It's generally known among everyone.
You are leaking this information. It happens in politics,
but it can also happen perhaps in business.
If a company has some secret information they don't want the public to know
about that information may be leaked by somebody inside.
Generally speaking, leaking information may be criminal.
It's not something that I think many people want to happen because they want to
believe that governments and businesses are acting appropriately,
but if somebody inside feels that, okay, this is wrong,
Another word which kind of relates to that is that if they decide not to leak
information because it's illegal,
they may try to become a whistleblower.
And that's the next word I want to talk to you about because a whistleblower is
a person that tries to expose a government for some wrong doing and what they do
is that they would tell a person in authority that that something is happening
and this is wrong and oftentimes it's used in politics and it's talking about
something in government that is wrong and somebody becomes a whistleblower.
And in this case there are channels that you can use so that it is legal,
that it is appropriate and somebody becomes a whistleblower.
The next word that I have for you or or words, because it's a phrase,
two words and that is big brother and this is just a,
an expression that's used to refer to a government that has complete control and
they limit people's freedom, even their freedom of thought. And,
and this expression comes from George Orwell's amazing book,
1984 and it's talking about, you know,
this government that just has complete control over every aspect of a person's life.
Nowadays, I think it's used a little more informally when talking about a part of
Something that may be happening that you don't think is right.
You could refer to it and say, ah, you know, big brother,
big brother's watching you. You gotta be careful.
I think there was even a TV show out there called big brother in which they just
put these cameras up all over a home and people live there.
They had no privacy and it was like, you know, big brother was watching.
Then we have a verb which is to lobby,
and this is a word that is very common in American politics to lobby a public
official, and when you lobby somebody,
it means that you are trying to persuade or influence this public official to
take a particular action or maybe even to change a law to lobby someone and
you're doing it for pretty much your own personal gain or or somebody else's interests.
You may also hear this word used as a noun when referring to a group of people
like and they refer to it as a lobby or as a person who does this for a living,
and this is their job. They may be called a lobbyist,
so a lobbyist would lobby a politician in order to influence them so that they
They might change some law or they may vote a certain way to lobby someone.
This is something that I really don't like about American politics.
There is way too much lobbying going on and people looking out for their own
interests, companies, individuals instead of the country as a whole.
if you are a company or a very wealthy person,
you can pay a lobbyist to represent your interests and they would lobby the
politicians to do what you want.
And there's kind of that quid pro quo because if the politician votes a certain
way or tries to change a certain law, then that that individual,
that company will donate to their campaign,
they will try to help them get reelected and donate to their campaign.
Which in a way is a quid pro quo.
And campaign is actually the next word that I wanted to talk to you about it
campaign is a group of people working together to achieve a certain goal and
usually that goal is to get someone elected. So a politician,
if they want to get elected, they need a campaign,
they need to get a group of people working for them to to get donations to do
advertising. And these people work together.
and this is a word that you will hear often in American politics because all
politicians, when they want to get elected, they have a campaign.
They have people working for them that are trying to get them elected to office.
We can also use it as a verb to campaign and say that a politician,
a public official is campaigning. They're out there,
they're traveling the country, they're talking to people.
They are campaigning because they want to get elected.
They want people to vote for them.
Then we have the word pundant and this is referring to a person.
It is a person who knows a lot about a particular topic and they're usually
asked to give their opinions about this topic. Mostly because they,
They sound like they know what they're talking about and you would say that that
I think you could refer to people in the media who talk a lot about politics.
People refer to them as political pundits. They talk about politics,
they share their opinions. They are political pundits.
Next is red tape and this refers to rules or processes that seem unnecessary and
just often caused delay. So if you want to do something, uh,
in the community, you may need permission from the government.
You may need to go talk to your local politicians and they may tell you, well,
you have to do this and this and this and this, and you think, wow,
there is a lot of red tape. There are things that I have to do.
It's completely unnecessary. I don't why I'm doing it.
And that is what you would call red tape.
It's often used when talking about government politics.
When you want to do something, you know, you'd say, well, I want to,
I want to throw a parade, but there's just, there's a lot of red tape.
but in order to do so that there's a lot of red tape that I have to go through.
Next is a word that is, it is more informal,
maybe even a little bit of slang and that is shady.
It is an adjective that you can use to describe someone who is just dishonest
and they do unethical things. Perhaps illegal things. You could say,
well you know this person is a bit shady.
Politics and the U S you know it can be a bit shady.
Some politicians may be very shady so when we describe somebody as shady,
it's just somebody who is dishonest and can't be trusted.
We can use this not only when talking about politics but other situations as
well. Just people in our everyday lives.
You could say that that somebody is shady or maybe even somebody looks shady,
they look like they can't be trusted shady.
Then we have cynic and this is just describing a person.
Somebody is a cynic and if a person is a cynic it means that that they believe
that other people are only looking out for their own self interest and that that
just the common good can not be done that that things are not going to get
better because most people involved or just trying to get ahead and trying to
You could say that that person is a cynic and it's often used as an adjective as
well to describe a person and say that somebody is cynical and if somebody is
cynical then then they believe that very thing people are motivated by their own
self interest. To be perfectly honest,
I can be cynical when it comes to politics and politicians because I might see
the way that that somebody is voting or what they're doing and I might think to
myself, how, how can they possibly be doing that?
They're not looking out for the interest of the country.
They're looking out for their own self interest and perhaps, I don't know,
perhaps there's some quid pro quo that they are getting something from a lobbyist.
Somebody who's lobbying them to do something that that's not in the best
interest of a country and that just goes back to, you know,
thinking that you know, perhaps government perhaps it is,
it's a necessary evil and I'm trying to use these words and phrases in just a
regular context, but also to show you that they are very common.
We use them all the time. Then we have a word,
but it's used when talking about politics and that is treason.
And if we're talking about treason, we're,
we're saying that somebody is working with the enemy,
with the enemies of a government to try and often illegally overthrow the
current government. And you would say that somebody trees,
and we use it with that verb to commit treason. And if somebody commits treason,
If that person could be punished very severely,
but it means they're just working with an enemy government to undermine or
overthrow the, the current government to commit treason. So there you have it.
These are some advanced words and phrases that you can use the next time you
want to talk about politics, especially American politics.
Or you may even hear this vocabulary.
If you are listening to the news or reading a newspaper about politics,
I hope you enjoy this lesson and learn something new. If you did,