Hifallutin words law

The New York Times has a rule, not found in its Style Manual, that says every story must use at least one word that the average reader must go to a dictionary to understand. And even then, it may not make much sense. An example of this was “transformational” in the following lede of a story about the Sept. 12, 2019, Democratic candidates’ “debate” :

“HOUSTON — The leading Democratic presidential candidates split sharply over the issue of health care in a debate Thursday night, exposing the gulf between former vice president Joe Biden’s careful moderate politics and the transformational liberal ambitions of Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.”

Now, you may know, or can look up, what “transformational” means, but what the hell are the “transformational liberal ambitions” of Warren and Sanders?

File under: All the news that’s…. yeah, go figure.