The trouble with political metaphors is that they can gain a lot of traction without having much substance at all. They’re catchy analogies, vividly illustrative but imprecise and potentially ...

“Drain the swamp.” For decades this phrase has been used by various politicians as a metaphor for getting rid of wasteful bureaucracy, government corruption, terrorism and even capitalism. I suggest ...

Since Donald Trump heard the venerable phrase “drain the swamp” a few months before he was elected president, he has regularly used the metaphor as Trumpian shorthand for cleaning up government ...

Technically speaking, the nation’s capital was built on a tidal plain, rather than a swamp. The swamp metaphor, however, is appropriate. Lobbying in Washington has almost doubled since 2000, with ...