In order to understand the Malheur occupation that is happening right now from the occupier’s point of view, I looked into the way that they use the phrase “the people.” A lot of the stances that they are upholding are rooted in a history that closely follows the use of specific words. Such words include freedom, patriots, constitution, liberty, and more. Not only do these words have strong correlations with the founding of our country, but they also have been associated with a growing conservative cause to return to “the good ol’ days.” I am looking at the way that “the people is used in the language of the occupiers, particularly the use of “we the people” and “for the people.”
Google Trends can look at the use of the phrase “the people” since 2004 to various specifications to see how it’s usages have evolved.
The program shows trends of the usage of the phrase having generally increased over the last 10 or so years. Similarly, there are regular oscillations, peaking in Oct./Nov. and April/May. There is a large drop in July/Aug. and a smaller drop in Dec./Jan. Elections and the pull to change people’s views seems to have huge effects on the quantity in which the public uses the phrase. People who search “the people” are mostly likely to also search “we the people” and “for the people.” However, the searches for “for the people” were 100% in common, while “we the people” were only 20% in common. This surprised me because I usually think of the constitution and similar ideas when I think of “the people,” which seems more likely to go with “we the people” in my mind.
Check out Kara Scherer‘s post to see some more about using the word people.
Using Voyant to analyze the use of “the people” in primary text from the occupiers, I came up with a few observations. First using a letter written to the Sheriff from the occupiers, I found that people was the most frequent word (not including banal every day words such as like or the). People was used a total of 16 times, followed by county (14) and rights (8).
Ranch, Bundy. 2016. “Bundy Ranch: January 5, 2016. Letter to the Sheriff.” Bundy Ranch. January 6. http://bundyranch.blogspot.com/2016/01/january-5-2016-letter-to-sheriff.html.
In a call to action from from the Pacific Patriot’s Network, the word “people” was used only four times, and was superseded by county, FBI, Oregon, condems, etc. In the case, while still a leading word in the framework of the occupier’s movement, it is not always the shining star of the movement’s rhetoric.
TheOxford English Dictionary noted the phrase “the people” as a usage of the law, particularly when referring to the prosecution in some criminal cases. In the usage, the word is assuming that the citizens of the U.S. are in agreement with the government. As such, the criminal that harms one person (or many), harms all of the citizens of the U.S., as well as the government. Contradictorily, the occupiers are using it in a way that wants to separate the people not with the foundations of the government, but the way in which it is being implemented today.
This contradictory usage by the occupiers is, however, in line with other usages of the word found in the Oxford English Dictionary, such as to reference the mass community of a place in juxtaposition to the ruling elite, whatever that may be. This is the direction that I see the occupiers using the word, especially as it was used as such (in contrast to England) in the formation of the current government. Where the U.S. once used it to separate from the mother country, the Malheur occupiers use it to defy the current federal government.