At a campaign rally in Humble, Texas yesterday, Ted Cruz said of the Texans who support his challenger Beto O’ Rourke, "they want us to be just like California...right down to tofu and silicon and dyed hair....not on our watch.” Ted’s wife might have some grumbling words for him about her own Olay stash, and Texas’ many soybean farmers might not appreciate tofu’s disparagement, but the word I’d like to focus on is “silicon.”
I have watched the video and that’s what he said, though it is obvious he was aiming for “silicone.” Silicone is a synthetic polymer that has myriad uses in electronics, medicine, construction and other applications, but its popular familiarity in an easily titillated America lies in its use as breast implants. It is often confused with “silicon,” which is what Cruz has done here. Silicon is much harder and more brittle than silicone, and is a critical component in the manufacture of computer chips, hence the term “silicon valley,” a nickname for the southern San Francisco bay area where much of America’s high technology development occurs. There being no colloquial Texas pronunciation resembling "silicon," it is safe to say Cruz committed this common error.
It being a common error, you might regard my pointing it out here as finicky, but Cruz is a Harvard-trained debate star and a professional communicator, so I think it fair. One literal way to interpret his utterance is this: “There is NO WAY Texas will invest in high tech…not on our watch.” If you are inclined to forgive it as mere mispronunciation, its redux is thus: “Why spend money on fake boobs when you can elect a real one?”
