The world of politics has always shown a strong influence over modern language usage. A key figure in an issue or a campaign can change the way that a nation uses a word or phrase. Lately, the example that bothers me the most is the phrase "Drinking the Kool-Aid" as it has come to be used in modern parlance.

Historically, the phrase references the 1978 mass suicide of nearly 1000 people in Jonestown, a religious community in Northern Guyana. Most of them had sold everything they owned, shut out their families, and moved to South America to be with their spiritual leader, Jim Jones. When times seemed their darkest, the sect committed mass suicide, by drinking a flavored beverage mixed with potassium cyanide.

In modern spoken English, the phrase has come to mean that someone has completely and unquestioningly accepted an ideology. But, that is fairly obviously a misuse. Presumably, that meaning would be better served with "moving to Guyana." "Drinking the Kool-Aid" should specifically refer to an act that knowingly and purposefully causes your own death.

Believing in nationalized healthcare, or liberalism, for instance, is really not an act of deliberate suicide, regardless of how biased the speaker may be. It's clear that joining a political party, or becoming personally involved in party politics is a religious leap of a much less dangerous kind. But, some pundits have clearly moved to Guyana already, and there is nothing you can say to convince them.