If you’re confused by the often vague and changing manifesto of this-or-that partisan group, you’re not alone. It’s challenging enough to understand exactly what Democrats and Republicans stand for, but totally impossible to comprehend the splinter groups. What does it mean to be left of center, right of center, a tea-bagger, a conservative, a progressive, a libertarian or an independent?

Fortunately, the Japanese may have rescued us from our fondness for complexity. According to the Japanese Teachers’ Network (reported by Time Magazine), two new terms have come into use amongst Japanese youths: “Obamu,” loosely translated means “yes, we can and proceed with optimism” and “kobamu” means “to refuse, object or oppose.”

If we adopted those terms and insisted that every U.S. political faction rate themselves as either obamu or kobamu, it would certainly simplify our political lexicon.