Semantic confusion.

Confucius thought it important that men call things by their correct names lest they be unable to correctly order their affairs. Yet, ours is an age that is awash in semantic confusion, much of it deliberate, as witness (a) the concerted effort to pass of National Socialism as a phenomenon of the right and (b) the fervor with which illegal immigrants are deemed mere "undocumented immigrants."

As one wit has it, the latter abomination is like referring to drug pushers as "undocumented pharmacists." By the same token, foreign mechanized infantry incursions from Tegucigalpa into Baja Oklahoma would be "coordinated tourism."

You see the problem.

This semantic confusion goes to the heart our difficulties. The economic system is the lungs and backbone of our nation yet within the nation vast contending forces organize to effect political adjustments and tinkerings galore while beset with a complete lack of understanding of present realities before they even pull on their socks in the morning.^[1]

Here's an excellent observation on something so basic as "capitalism," supposedly the fundamental engine of our prosperity and security:

To attribute the failure of public policy to capitalism is disingenuous as it provides justification for an increased role of the state into the private affairs of individuals.

Mises saw through such deception almost seven decades ago when he wrote,

As a rule, capitalism is blamed for the undesired effects of a policy directed at its elimination. The man who sips his morning coffee does not say, "Capitalism has brought this beverage to my breakfast table." But when he reads in the papers that the government of Brazil has ordered part of the coffee crop destroyed, he does not say, "That is government for you"; he exclaims, "That is capitalism for you."^[2]

An earlier post to the same effect: here.

Notes
^[1] As for heart, it seems to have gone out of our public life, as witness the enthusiastic response to Newt Gingrich's exhibition of a few moments of disdain for media hypocrisy.
^[2] "Mr. Rubenstein, You're No Adam Smith." By James E. Miller, Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1/27/12.