'If you like your plan, you can keep your plan'?"
Posted on 09/09/2018 12:21:42 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America is a beloved, canonical text; the urge to quote from it is understandably great. Politicians ever seek to demonstrate familiarity with it, from Bill Clinton to Pat Buchanan. One of their favorite quotes runs as follows:
I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers—and it was not there. . . . in her fertile fields and bound less forests—and it was not there. . . . in her rich mines and her vast world commerce—and it was not there. . . . in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution—and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.
These lines are uplifting and poetic. They are also spurious. Nowhere do they appear in Democracy in America, or anywhere else in Tocqueville.
The authenticity of the passage came into question when first-year government students at Claremont McKenna College received an assignment: Find a contemporary speech quoting Tocqueville, and determine how accurately the speaker used the quotation. A student soon uncovered a recent Senate floor speech that cited the "America is great" line. He scoured Democracy in America, but could not find the passage. The professor looked, too -- and it was not there.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
“But he was the first to say “Diversity is strength””
Right!
Wasn’t he also the first to coin the phrase, “It takes a village”?
Can’t post this but, here
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LCwInY_7uXY/Tc8KyNBmhOI/AAAAAAAAAKI/2kXkCBwV8VM/s1600/LincolnBinLadenWeb.jpg
'If you like your plan, you can keep your plan'?"
"I never had sexual relations with that woman...Miss Lewinsky."
RE: I believe this observation has great merit and if not already attributed I would like to claim credit.
Be my guest :)
When I was a very young soldier serving in some army, or other. I told a Persian general who asked me for my weapons
“Molon labe”. I see I get quoted alot nowdays.
I refer to Tocqueville often in my posts, both on conservative and liberal web sites. It has been a long time since I read Democracy in America.
What has stuck with me through the years as I remember Tocqueville is VOLUNTARY.
Voluntary association of people in churches, fraternal and athletic and all types of voluntary associations creates a voluntary form of social control that makes big government unneeded.
Democracy is an extension of the Catholic doctrine of subsidiarity, which is an extension of Joshua’s speech on the Jews about to re-enter the promised land.
Choose ye this day whom ye will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
When knocking door-to-door and I see that on a plaque on the door, I know those are my most solid voters.
Voluntary social control is the only way that society can work ... and society can avoid coercive big government.
Our nation is on the verge of fracturing and the Weekly Standard tosses this out for discussion. They are truly irrelevant.
Thanks JonPreston.
I admit to using the Great/Good phrase many times, even here. I first heard it during a radio interview I was professionally recording (I was not the interviewer) where a supposed Alexis de Tocqueville historian used the quote. I was 19 at the time.
My current Tagline reads, in part: "let's fly, Michigan." I heard Senate candidate John James make that statement in 2018!
I’ve wondered whether he might have said something more colorful but less printable for the masses
- Alexis de Tocqueville
Thanks. I wouldn’t have believed this, but there it is, right on the internet. Lincoln really did kill Bin Laden!
That has crossed my mind too.
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