There is a word for “caucus” in Spanish

 The Clinton campaign appears to be trying to play down expectations for the Nevada caucuses. In part, that is because they are having trouble getting Latino voters to the caucuses. One Clinton staffer, Natalie Montelongo, went so far as to say, “There’s no way to translate ‘caucus’ in Spanish. At all.”

Uh, no. “Cónclave.” 

I find it irritating when people engage in this sort of pop linguistics to excuse failings. For example, when a bunch of Venezuelans (above) tried to convince me that there was no Spanish word for accountability. That is sort of true, but only for a pedant: “rendición de cuentas” works perfectly fine. As does, of course, “acountabilidad.” 

I won’t make any grand claims about all languages, because I am not a linguist. But for every official national language in Europe, Asia or the Americas, there is pretty much nothing that you can say in one which cannot be said in another. 

Comments

[Tom]

Is there a word in Spanish for "Pardons for sale"?

[Noel Maurer]

Tom, as trolling goes, the above is pretty boring.

[Tom]

Noel,

My apologies for the drive-by nature of my comment, which was not an attempt at trolling. I am concerned that a Clinton presidency could result in a repeat of (in my opinion) disturbing uses of this executive power like in the Marc Rich case, and the possible return of Tony and Hugh Rodham's "consulting" services if their sister was elected president.

I hope prior experience will inform HRC's future decisions but her international connections concern me in this arena.

My concerns are far less than the prospect of a Trump administration, but this post is about Hillary Clinton.