![Hillary Clinton by Gage Skidmore [CC BY-SA]](https://2paragraphs.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Hillary_Clinton_by_Gage_Skidmore_2_cropped-620x375.jpg)
Hillary Clinton joined the chorus of Democrats cheering the return of Rep. Justin Jones to the Tennessee legislature. Jones made a triumphant reentry into the House Chamber just days after his controversial expulsion by a Republican majority led to nationwide outrage — and charges of racism and anti-democratic GOP machinations in Nashville.
Clinton, who remains a powerful voice in the Democratic Party despite losing the 2016 presidential race to Donald Trump, had earlier chastised the legislature for the expulsion, saying:
“We don’t have to put up with these shockingly anti-democratic actions that deny voters’ voices and aim to cut off the progress we need. You can stand with expelled Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson.”
We don’t have to put up with these shockingly anti-democratic actions that deny voters’ voices and aim to cut off the progress we need.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 7, 2023
You can stand with expelled Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson by donating to their re-election campaigns here: https://t.co/Q62sPcrn8F
Sharing a Reuters article about Jones and his reinstatement, Clinton wrote: “You (truly) love to see it.” The former Secretary of State did not explain her odd use of parentheses around the word truly.
The University of Arizona explains parentheses usage this way: “Parentheses ( ) are used to enclose nonessential or supplemental information in a sentence. In formal academic writing, it is a good practice to use parentheses sparingly.”
Clinton’s critics will have a field day with her instinct to put “truly” in parentheses, with the description above describing parenthetical material as “nonessential.”
But Clinton’s purpose in her odd grammatical choice probably more closely aligns with the following grammatical advice, from English Current. She appears to have meant to emphasize, not to downplay, the word truly — which case an em-dash, sometimes called a “parenthetical dash” was what she was looking for.
You (truly) love to see it. https://t.co/f87Lf9517i
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 11, 2023
English Current: “Sometimes you want to emphasize the extra information. Though it’s not grammatically necessary in the sentence, it may be important. In these cases, use an em-dash, which is also called a parenthetical dash.“
.jpg){kind=link}