| When you think about post-pandemic life, do you yearn for normalcy or ... normality? Don't worry, The Post's stylebook isn't judging you. Either word works in our pages, even if neither describes the omicronified world, alas. But a century ago, using "normalcy" might have marked you out as a supporter of Republican President Warren G. Harding, who — as Benjamin Dreyer notes — rode to victory in 1920, the first post-World War I presidential election, on the slogan "Return to Normalcy." Along the way, Harding took plenty of flak for using what many regarded as a peculiar non-word. "Well, Harding certainly hadn't made up 'normalcy' — the word had been knocking around the English language for a few decades by then," writes Dreyer (whose name may be familiar from the 2019 bestseller "Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style"). Beyond the uselessness of pretending that certain commonly used words are not actual words — "irregardless" and "impactful" are here to stay, like it or not, Dreyer says — it's especially pointless to fret about normalcy vs. normality "when talking about life before the pandemic." Why? "Whatever word you use, it seems unlikely that, any more than America and Americans did a century ago, we're ever returning to it."  (iStock) Millions of Americans also dreamed of going back to life as it was before World War I. And what is "normal," anyway? By Benjamin Dreyer ● Read more » | | | | Donald Trump's approval rating among Republicans has declined a bit. But he remains in effective control of the GOP. By Michael Gerson ● Read more » | | | | When a social media denunciation leads to a (supposedly) undesired firing, no one's to blame if everyone's to blame. By Megan McArdle ● Read more » | | | | Evidently, they believe there is political capital to be gained by saying the quiet part out loud. By Eugene Robinson ● Read more » | | | ABC's suspension of Whoopi Goldberg shows why we can't talk about race and Whiteness. By Karen Attiah ● Read more » | | | | The ADL's adoption of a new woke definition of racism has undercut the group's work to defend Jews against antisemitism. By Marc A. Thiessen ● Read more » | | | | The further we get from enactment, the worse the American Rescue Plan's extra flab looks. By Catherine Rampell ● Read more » | | | | Hypersonics are "the threat of the future." The U.S. failure to develop them helps explain why it's so hard to modernize the magnificent monstrosity that is the U.S. military. By David Ignatius ● Read more » | | | | So much for pronouncements that the president's foreign policy is a failure. By Jennifer Rubin ● Read more » | | | What option did the child have when she'd been served food she didn't choose? By Kelly Alexander and Joshua Reno ● Read more » | | | | Many of the techniques they use just make it harder for everyone to vote. Election subversion is the greater threat. By Paul Waldman ● Read more » | | | | Is expanding NATO to Ukraine really worth the risk of war? No. By Henry Olsen ● Read more » | | | | The senator from Missouri is echoing Trump's appeasement policy toward Russia. By Jennifer Rubin ● Read more » | | | |
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