We live in an era when a carelessly chosen phrase can bring ruin. I remember as a child hearing about life in Stalin’s USSR, where people lived in fear that a casual remark would be overheard and bring with it a trip to the gulag, a firing squad, a show trial, or some other form of doom. Today’s American social justice warrior tyranny is slightly more benign. For conservatives like Curt Shilling, the penalties include loss of livelihood and ostracism.

But if you are a progressive, you can employ a careless metaphor and get away with symbolic groveling by proxy. That’s what happened to Hillary Clinton when, in the course of an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, she unthinkingly used a verboten metaphor: “off the reservation.”

Clinton was asked whether she felt she learned anything about how to deal with Trump's offensive comments by watching the reactions of Trump's republican opponents.

'I have a lot of experience dealing with men who sometimes get off the reservation in the way they behave and how they speak,' Clinton responded, hesitating slightly before pronouncing the word 'reservation.' 

She then went on to say she 'could really care less' about Trump's rhetoric and said he's welcome to continue with his 'insult fest.'  

The CNN reporter let the 'reservation' remark pass - but Native American commentators swiftly denounced the candidate's wording.

Silly me! My mind immediately went to the implication that husband Bill is the person who has gone “off the reservation” most often in Hillary’s life, in the way he behaces, and in the oft-reported screaming matches the couple engaged in overhead by White House staff during the first Clinton presidency.

But lucky Hillary.  That aspect of the verbal faux pas, along with the erroneously saying “could care less” when she meant “couldn’t care less” is now forgotten, because of the faux outrage over her use of a common metaphor.

(1/2) About the use of an expression today that has some very offensive roots...Divisive language has no place in our politics.

— Amanda Renteria (@AmandaRenteria) April 30, 2016

(2/2) @HillaryClinton meant no disrespect to Native Americans. She wants this election to be about lifting people up, not tearing them down.

— Amanda Renteria (@AmandaRenteria) April 30, 2016

I am not holding my breath waiting for demands for a personal apology, instead of by proxy from a flunky. Life is so easy when you are a neoprog.