WHAT'S IN A CATCHPRASE?
Roughly 100 years ago, American presidents and their handlers started the practice of coining (usually)two-word "catchphrases" for use in their campaigns, phrases that were often maddeningly oblique, to summarize their political philosophy (or lack thereof?), or to summarize what they would "give" the American people if elected. Sometimes, phrases were invented just for "catchiness'" sake:
1904: Theodore Roosevelt (running for Presidency as Republican): "Square Deal"
1908: William Howard Taft: "Get on the Raft With Taft"
1912: Theodore Roosevelt (running on "Bull Moose" Ticket): "New Nationalism"
1912: Woodrow Wilson: "New Freedom"
1916: Woodrow Wilson: "He kept us out of war." (Wilson was also opposed to suffrage for women, leading many womens' groups to mock him by adding a twist to this slogan: "He kept us out of suffrage.")
1920: Warren Harding: "A return to [sic] normalcy ." (Harding meant to say "normality.") Democratic VP candidate responsible for 1932 quote below.
1924: Calvin Coolidge: "The business of America is business."
1928: Herbert Hoover: "A chicken in every pot" (Hoover maintains that this quote is apocryphal. He would.) Hoover was also described as the "Great Engineer."
1932: Franklin Roosevelt: "New Deal"
1936: Roosevelt, defending the New Deal, attacked his critics as "Economic Royalists"
1940: Wendel Wllkie: "Democrats for Willkie" (many Democrats voted for Willkie simply because they did not want FDR to serve a third term.
1944: Thomas Dewey: "Looks like the groom on a wedding cake" (Alice Roosevelt Longworth)
1948: Harry Truman "Fair Deal"
1952: Dwight Eisenhowe: "I Like Ike."; Adlai Stevenson: "If the Republicans stop telling lies about me, I'll stop telling the truth about them."
1956: Adlai Stevenson: "The Republicans are trying to tell us that the only person who can save us from Eisenhower's foreign policy.... is Eisenhower"
1960: John F. Kennedy: "New Frontier"; "missile gap"
1964: Lyndon Johnson: "Great Society"; Barry Goldwater: "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice;" "moderation in the defense of liberty is no virtue"; "a choice, not an echo"
1968: Richard Nixon:: "Law and Order," "The Silent Majority," "Peace With Honor"; Hubert Humphrey described Nixon as "Richard the Chicken-Hearted" because Nixon refused to debate him; third-party VP candidates George Wallace and Curtis LeMay were called "the bombsy twins" by Humphrey because both wanted to bomb Vietnam forward to the Stone Age.
1972: Nixon: "Nixon, now more than ever." "Democrats: the party of acid, abortion and amnesty."
1976: Carter: (actually, this one was not invented by Carter or his handlers): "Jimmy Who?" Ford: "I'm voting for Betty's husband."
1980: Reagan: "Government isn't the answer to our problems. Government IS the problem (his certainly was)."
1984: Reagan: "Morning in America" (a bright, shining mushroom cloud?) Mondale: "Either candidate, if elected, will raise your taxes. I'm the only one who will admit it."
1988: G.H.W Bush: "A thousand points of light," "a kinder, gentler nation" (leading Nancy Reagan to say, "Kinder and gentler than whom?" Dukakis: "This election isn't about character, it's about competence." Nastiest election in modern history; set the stage for Bush's loss in 1992
1992: Clinton: "It's the economy, stupid." Bush: "My dog Millie knows more about foreign affairs than these two bozos." Perot: "The other two candidates say experience is important. Well, I don't have any experience in running up a four-trillion dollar debt. I don't have any experience in gridlock government."
1996: Clinton, referring to Dole's tax plan: "It's a risky, five-billion dollar tax scheme." Dole: "Bozo's on his way out"
2000: Bush: "the soft bigotry of low expectations (this phrase has taken on such an irony); audience member to Bush during second debate: "Was it me, or were you smiling excessively when talking about putting three men do death as governor of Texas?"
2004: Bush" Freedom freedom terror terror 9/11 /911" Kerry: "Let America be America again."
If I had to pick a two-phraser for Bush for both 2000 and 2004 (i.e. like Square Deal), I need not think very hard. Indeed, Joe Conason of the NY Observer has already written a book (about how Bush wanted to destroy Social Security) with a title that has the same three two words as my two phraser:
"The Raw Deal"
Congress has occassionally gotten into the act. Various Congressmen of various political parties helped to coin the phrase "the American System," a term that applied to a political philosophy in the 1820's-1840's that favored territorial expansion, free trade, and improvement of national infrastructure.
And then, in 1994, the Republican Congress put forward its "Contract With America," which was quickly dubbed "Contract on America."
1904: Theodore Roosevelt (running for Presidency as Republican): "Square Deal"
1908: William Howard Taft: "Get on the Raft With Taft"
1912: Theodore Roosevelt (running on "Bull Moose" Ticket): "New Nationalism"
1912: Woodrow Wilson: "New Freedom"
1916: Woodrow Wilson: "He kept us out of war." (Wilson was also opposed to suffrage for women, leading many womens' groups to mock him by adding a twist to this slogan: "He kept us out of suffrage.")
1920: Warren Harding: "A return to [sic] normalcy ." (Harding meant to say "normality.") Democratic VP candidate responsible for 1932 quote below.
1924: Calvin Coolidge: "The business of America is business."
1928: Herbert Hoover: "A chicken in every pot" (Hoover maintains that this quote is apocryphal. He would.) Hoover was also described as the "Great Engineer."
1932: Franklin Roosevelt: "New Deal"
1936: Roosevelt, defending the New Deal, attacked his critics as "Economic Royalists"
1940: Wendel Wllkie: "Democrats for Willkie" (many Democrats voted for Willkie simply because they did not want FDR to serve a third term.
1944: Thomas Dewey: "Looks like the groom on a wedding cake" (Alice Roosevelt Longworth)
1948: Harry Truman "Fair Deal"
1952: Dwight Eisenhowe: "I Like Ike."; Adlai Stevenson: "If the Republicans stop telling lies about me, I'll stop telling the truth about them."
1956: Adlai Stevenson: "The Republicans are trying to tell us that the only person who can save us from Eisenhower's foreign policy.... is Eisenhower"
1960: John F. Kennedy: "New Frontier"; "missile gap"
1964: Lyndon Johnson: "Great Society"; Barry Goldwater: "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice;" "moderation in the defense of liberty is no virtue"; "a choice, not an echo"
1968: Richard Nixon:: "Law and Order," "The Silent Majority," "Peace With Honor"; Hubert Humphrey described Nixon as "Richard the Chicken-Hearted" because Nixon refused to debate him; third-party VP candidates George Wallace and Curtis LeMay were called "the bombsy twins" by Humphrey because both wanted to bomb Vietnam forward to the Stone Age.
1972: Nixon: "Nixon, now more than ever." "Democrats: the party of acid, abortion and amnesty."
1976: Carter: (actually, this one was not invented by Carter or his handlers): "Jimmy Who?" Ford: "I'm voting for Betty's husband."
1980: Reagan: "Government isn't the answer to our problems. Government IS the problem (his certainly was)."
1984: Reagan: "Morning in America" (a bright, shining mushroom cloud?) Mondale: "Either candidate, if elected, will raise your taxes. I'm the only one who will admit it."
1988: G.H.W Bush: "A thousand points of light," "a kinder, gentler nation" (leading Nancy Reagan to say, "Kinder and gentler than whom?" Dukakis: "This election isn't about character, it's about competence." Nastiest election in modern history; set the stage for Bush's loss in 1992
1992: Clinton: "It's the economy, stupid." Bush: "My dog Millie knows more about foreign affairs than these two bozos." Perot: "The other two candidates say experience is important. Well, I don't have any experience in running up a four-trillion dollar debt. I don't have any experience in gridlock government."
1996: Clinton, referring to Dole's tax plan: "It's a risky, five-billion dollar tax scheme." Dole: "Bozo's on his way out"
2000: Bush: "the soft bigotry of low expectations (this phrase has taken on such an irony); audience member to Bush during second debate: "Was it me, or were you smiling excessively when talking about putting three men do death as governor of Texas?"
2004: Bush" Freedom freedom terror terror 9/11 /911" Kerry: "Let America be America again."
If I had to pick a two-phraser for Bush for both 2000 and 2004 (i.e. like Square Deal), I need not think very hard. Indeed, Joe Conason of the NY Observer has already written a book (about how Bush wanted to destroy Social Security) with a title that has the same three two words as my two phraser:
"The Raw Deal"
Congress has occassionally gotten into the act. Various Congressmen of various political parties helped to coin the phrase "the American System," a term that applied to a political philosophy in the 1820's-1840's that favored territorial expansion, free trade, and improvement of national infrastructure.
And then, in 1994, the Republican Congress put forward its "Contract With America," which was quickly dubbed "Contract on America."
posted by EnterCenter at 4:30 PM
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