political conventions - pirates and thieves

8/3/2019 Political Conventions - Pirates and Thieves

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PIRATES AND THIEVES 123

Pirates and ThievesGood artists borrow and great artists steal. Shakespeares

history plays are right out of Holinsheads chronicles, but

that doesnt diminish his greatness. He decided what to

take and did it so effectively that the material was there-

after known as his.

Early in your candidacy is a good time to decide what

concepts to steal.

The generation of pols reading this book know John Kennedys Ask not

what your country can do for youask what you can do for your coun-

try from memory or from David Lettermans comedy routine Great

Moments in Presidential Speeches. What may not immediately come

to mind is the next sentence: My fellow citizens of the world: ask not

what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the free-

dom of man.

I suspect speechwriter Theodore Sorensen knew that this theme hadpermeated political speeches for 50 years and political thought and

writing for decades before that.

Eighteenth-century French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau said

As soon as any man says of the affairs of state, What does it matter to

me? the state may be given up as lost.

The Mayor of Haverhill, Massachusetts said in a eulogy, Here may we

be reminded that man is most honored, not by that which a city may

do for him, but by that which he has done for the city. Supreme CourtJustice Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1884 stated: It is now the moment

when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our

national life and to rejoice in it, to recall what our country has done

for each of us, and to ask ourselves what we can do for our country

in return.

Guy Emerson in The New Frontier: a Study of the American Liberal

Spirititalicized this quote late in the book: men and women are born

to put more into their country than they take out of it.Even JFK had used a version of the phrase before. At the Democratic

National Convention, he defined his New Frontier by saying It sums

up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend

to ask of them. On September 5, 1960, in Detroit, he said The New


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Politicians rightly quote aphorisms of the past, with or without giving

credit. They often modify quotes and make them their own. But they

also are thieves and pirates with their own speeches, repeating the

same remarks at stop after stop on the campaign. This bores journal-

ists, who are always struggling to find something new to report.The exception was Adlai Stevenson, who insisted on making a new

speech on every occasion. This kept his Elks Club group in

Springfield, Illinois constantly busy. His speechwriters included

Harvard professor, presidential biographer and Pulitzer Prize winner

Arthur Schlesinger Jr.; transplanted Canadian economist John Kenneth

Galbraith; and Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet Archibald MacLeish.

Richard Nixon borrowed from himself, since his forgotten man

appeal in his 1968 acceptance speech can also be found in his 1940scampaigns for congress and senate. Borrowing from a 1966 hit song

(Tell It Like It Is) and a phrase used by young people in the 1960s,

Nixon wanted the truthto see it like it is, and tell it like it isto find

the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth...

In 1972 George McGovern borrowed from Pete Seeger (and The Byrds

and Ecclesiastes) in Turn, Turn, Turnwhen he referenced the

music of our childrenTo everything there is a season, and a time to

every purpose under heaven. He also borrowed from Woody Guthrie:

From California to New York Island, From the redwood forest to theGulf Stream watersThis land was made for you and me. He didnt

credit anyone.

Echoing Kennedys inaugural, Reagan said Let our friends and those

who may wish us ill take note. In the same 1980 acceptance speech,

he quoted from Thomas Paine and gave credit, but he only credited

an American president ... of the Great Depression when he used the

phrase rendezvous with destiny or quoted FDRs railing against big

and wasteful government. Building suspense, he only named Rooseveltnear the end of his speech.

Bill Clinton brilliantly stole the Republican mantra of the forgotten

middle class for police, tax cuts and small government and against

generous welfarein 1992. He also spoke of a New Covenant

between the government and the people.

Senator Obama turns a Bill Clinton line on its head when he bemoans

those who would elevate what is wrong with America above all that

we know is right with America. He may also provide a faint echo ofa Bobby Kennedy line from the night Martin Luther King was assassi-

nated when he states, we have a choice in this country.

Theres an echo of Winston Churchills fight them on the beaches

speech in Obamas protests and struggle, on the streets and in the

PIRATES AND THIEVES 125


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courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience. But Churchill got

the format from a childrens storyThe Jungle Book.

Theres also an echo of a quote often attributed to Justice Oliver

Wendell Holmes, who may have said words to the effect, The right to

swing my fist ends at the point of another persons nose. Obamastake is that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my

dreams.

In 1932 FDR spoke of the greatest good to the greatest number of our

citizens without crediting John Stuart Mill.

Modern audiences may recall George H.W. Bushs thousand points

of light speech at the Republican convention of 1988, which helped

him cut Dukakis 20 point-lead in the polls. The phrase may have

been inspired by previously published poetry, and theres an echofrom Herbert Hoovers 1928 campaign, in which he said government

now touches at a thousand points the intricate web of economic and

social life.

126 PIRATES AND THIEVES

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