Those who grew up in the late ’40s and 1950s might recall a popular comedy quiz show hosted by comedian Groucho Marx called “You Bet Your Life.”

A subplot to the show involved the “secret word,” which was revealed to the audience at the outset of each episode.

If one of the contestants said the word during the course of Groucho’s comedic interplay, a toy duck wearing Groucho eyeglasses and mustache dropped from the ceiling with a $100 prize.

Democrats of today have taken an opposite approach. Instead of a secret word, they try to keep cohorts on the same page and saturate their friends in media with a quick phrase or buzz word.

Late last week the talking point was “hostage taker.” Commenting on the government shutdown over the border wall funding, Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono called President Trump a “hostage taker” since federal employees did not get paid on time.

“We do not negotiate with hostage takers,” she said of the stalled negotiations.

Other Democrats were soon using the same term. Fox News often strings these talking heads together in a short sound bite which would be humorous if it weren’t so sadly political.

It makes you wonder how many lawmakers can think for themselves and vote their conscience rather than toeing the party line.

Another example we heard was that the border wall was Trump’s “vanity project.”

In a CNN interview, California Sen. Kamala Harris stated: “It is a false choice to suggest we’re going to hold 800,000 federal workers and all of the services that they provide hostage for this president’s vanity project.”

Other Democrats were soon mimicking the same talking point on CNN and MSNBC.

Democrats used the word “cruelty” to describe Trump’s border policy.

“There’s nothing cruel about the border wall,” countered Laura Ingraham, host of The Ingraham Angle on FOX. “If anything, leaving an open invite for people to make the dangerous trek north to our border is the real cruelty. Just don’t tell mainstream media. They’ve received their marching orders.”

A few days earlier House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described Trump’s call for a proposed border barrier as “immoral.” Again, Democrats followed in lockstep, chirping that same word incessantly.

President Trump even referenced the parroting Democrats during his speech to the nation last week on a border wall.

“Some have suggested a barrier is immoral,” he stated in the live address. “Then why do wealthy politicians build walls, fences and gates around their homes? They don’t build walls because they hate the people on the outside, but because they love the people on the inside.

The only thing that is immoral is the politicians to do nothing and continue to allow more innocent people to be so horribly victimized.”

Another phrase that followed Trump’s border wall address was that the government impasse was a “manufactured crisis.” Talking heads on CNN and MSNBC used that sound byte constantly.

Democrats who copy themselves in trying to convince us that there is no crisis at the border ignore the facts and the obvious threats facing our border agents. Just ask the family of California Police Cpl. Ronil Singh who was gunned down during a traffic stop the day after Christmas.

The man accused of killing Singh, Paulo Virgen Mendoza, was in the United States illegally.

That’s a fact we didn’t hear much about from the talking parrots in Congress or from left-leaning reporters in Washington’s political zoo.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com