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I came across the word, “The wonk gap” used as the headline of the article written by Paul Krugman in New York Times’ September 8 issue. The word reappears in the following sentence:

Senator Rand Paul --insisted, “the size of growth of government is enormous under President Obama” - which was completely untrue but was presumably what his sources had told him, knowing that it was what he wanted to hear. For that, surely, is what the wonk gap is all about. - Source

None of CED, OED, and Merriam-Webster carries “wonk gap,” nor does GoogleNgram.

However, there are dozens of descriptions incorporating “wonk gap” on Google Serach.

For an example, the article written by Steve Benen in MSnbc Maddow blog ( June 3, 2013) comes under the headline, “Avik Roy and the wonk gap,” and goes on:

“Jon Krugman, and others have detailed reports explaining why Avik Roy's analysis simply doesn't make sense, and I hope folks will follow the links to understand the underlying policy dispute. It's not just of a gray area; Roy is simply wrong. But it's the point about "why we can't have an honest debate" that resonates with me. Indeed, it reinforces the "wonk gap" thesis I've been kicking around for a while. - Source

OED defines ‘wonk’ as;

(North American informal/derogatory)

  1. a studious or hard-working person: any kid with an interest in science was a wonk
  2. a person who takes an excessive interest in minor details of political policy:he is a policy wonk in tune with a younger generation of voters.

But it doesn’t give me a clear idea of ‘wonk gap’.

What does “wonk gap” mean in essence, in a couple of words?

Do most Americans understand and use this phrase, or it’s just a politics, or press jargon, of which currency is limited to a select group of people?

Helmar
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Yoichi Oishi
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1 Answers1

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A wonk is a person who is incredibly well informed on a subject, an expert who can instantly tell what is true or false about an area of public policy. A wonk can immediately understand the consequences of any new proposed law or regulation that would affect his realm of expertise, and can instantly detect any B.S. from a neophyte politician who doesn't know what they're doing but wants to pass a bad law anyway.

Mr. Krugman is saying that republican legislators don't have anyone on their staffs anymore who know even the basics about any area of expertise anymore. They don't have any relevant facts about current events that contradict their dogmatic beliefs, because they are trapped in an information bubble & surrounded by "Yes"-men.

A wonk would skewer any politician like this who tried to debate them in their area of expertise.

The democrats staffs' overflow with wonks. This disparity of experts all on one side and none on the other is what Krugman means by "wonk gap".

Ace Frahm
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  • Why is the word "gap" used ? Should it not be more like "wonk lack" ? – Pam Sep 10 '13 at 10:35
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    the comparison is between the number of wonks on one side and the number on the other, so 'gap' is appropriate here – Rory Alsop Sep 10 '13 at 10:48
  • @Pam 'gap' focuses on closing that gap. It's goal-directed. – New Alexandria Sep 10 '13 at 13:36
  • @Ace Frahm. I accept your answer. But what is the currency of this word? Can the word pass among native English speakers without knowing context, or having explanation? – Yoichi Oishi Sep 10 '13 at 20:21
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    A native American communicator would instantly understand this, if they follow politics at all and already understand what a "wonk" is. During the cold war, we constantly heard about the "missile gap" between the US and the USSR, as way to implore us to waste more money on buying even more nuclear missiles, even though we already had enough to blow the entire world up dozens of times over. So the pattern of "______ gap" when talking about anything implies the imperative idea " . . . and so we need to catch up with THEM, we need more of ______" – Ace Frahm Sep 11 '13 at 06:38
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    I think that last comment is useful enough to make it a part of the answer. – Alex P Feb 09 '14 at 16:45
  • If I had to guess what I thought wonk meant before reading this, I would have guessed it was an effort to remove the -y from wonky to change it from an adjective into a noun. Wonky basically means insane or unreliable, so it seems odd to me that this is appropriate use of wonk according to the articles and similar to how the dictionaries currently define it. In the past though wonk had a meaning closer to geek or wanker. – Tonepoet Aug 12 '15 at 14:40
  • @AceFrahm: Would somebody born in the nineties or later understand the 'X gap' construction as readily? – yatima2975 Aug 31 '16 at 16:01
  • @yatima2975, well, there is an age-ist risk of underestimating what any particular 1990's or younger person might know, but unless they follow politics, or are history & military geeks, then the expectation that they will understand it so well is much lower. I'm guessing that probably at least 60-70% will understand it generally without an explanation, and maybe 10-20% could give a fairly good explanation of "the ____ gap" construction themselves. I recently discovered that such Generation Y persons won't recognize the theme song to "Different Strokes".

    https://youtu.be/Td7YNKhjFJw

     – Ace Frahm Oct 12 '16 at 10:22
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    @AceFrahm: Let alone 'the mineshaft gap' :-) – yatima2975 Oct 13 '16 at 11:32