Progressives are rightfully celebrating the fact that the bill to repeal the so-called "Estate Tax" tanked in the Senate.

Many imagine that this is just No. 2 (Gay Marriage being No. 1) in a series of senseless defeats that the Republicans will bring on themselves as part of their urgent need to show just how out of the mainstream they truly are.

While this is a noble expectation and the Republicans deserve everything they can possibly bring on themselves, part of the restauration of sanity ought to include a "reformation" of our language. And there's no better place to start than with the "Estate Tax".

The Republicans, no doubt prodded to action by the "18 Families", would have you believe that the tax is really called the "Death Tax". This is completely inaccurate since people die all the time and don't have to pay it. Progressives on the other hand demand it be called by its proper name, the "Estate Tax".

I think when we allowed our language to be changed, quite literally under our feet, that's the moment when the initiative slipped out of our hands. One of the first steps in truling regaining power in this country is cleaning up the mess that the Republicans have left behind not simply in government but in the language itself.

For that reason, from now on, let's all agree that it's the "Estate Tax" and not the "Death Tax", that it's Anti-Abortion and Anti-Choice and not Pro-life (since the sanctity of life for these people so obviously ends with birth). Let's also agree that it's not "Entitlements" for God's sake but "Social Programs" that protect and nurture our young, old, and infirm.

Also in general, when faced with an insinuation or insult, we immediately have to challenge it. The Rightwingers can barely finish a sentence without some snark about how liberals are unpatriotic or elitist. They do this so quickly you hardly notice, as if it were mere background and not the substance of whatever other point they were trying to make. And having heard it so often, we barely notice, and let it slip by.

But this is where we ought to stop them dead in their tracks. There's no way we should yield an inch on matters of patriotism, egalitarianism or anything else -- especially when, politically speaking, we're in the "cheaps seats" and all the criticism is coming from the skybox and brimstone crowd.

Allowing your opponent to define the issues puts you at an enormous disadvantage. The rightwingers have understood this for years (just ask Frank Luntz). It's time we got serious about this for the same reason: if you own the language, you control the debate.