7/13/14, "Holder sees 'racial animus' in opposition," The Hill, Justin Sink
"“There's a certain level of vehemence, it seems to me, that's directed at me [and] directed at the president,” Holder told ABC. “You know, people talking about taking their country back.There's a certain racial component to this for some people. I don’t think this is the thing that is a main driver, but for some there's a racial animus.""...
----------------------------------------------
Time.com's "Top Ten Magazine Covers" said New Yorker Magazine's cover noting Obama's election on 11/17/2008 suggested, "We have our country back:"
1. New Yorker, Nov. 17, 2008, by Arthur Hochstein
"Everything's okay now — we have our country back." It's set at night, a time when creepy things happen, but also a time when people sleep, safe and sound. It is beautifully rendered. Simply spectacular.... The cover...ran immediately after the presidential election. The illustration by Bob Staake shows the moon cleverly hollowed out to form the O in the magazine's name — and in the president-elect's — casting its glow over the Lincoln Memorial."...
==============================
"Take our country back" examples prior to Nov. 2008 include John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, Al Gore, and others:
----------------------------
John Kerry:
In 2004, speaking to his VP choice John Edwards. Daily Kos notes Howard Dean earlier urged the same thing:
7/7/2004, "It's a good day to be a Carolina Democrat." Daily Kos, jonathanjo
"When John (Kerry) finally called John (Edwards), he said, “John, Teresa and I would like to ask you and Elizabeth to join us on our ticket to take back our country.”...
“Take back our country.” Damnit, is everybody going to steal Howard Dean’s rhetoric?"
==========================
Hillary Clinton:
2/5/2007, "(Hillary) Clinton: We Have To Take Our Country Back," The Hill
"In her speech at the Democratic National Committee's Winter Meeting last Friday, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) stressed taking control of the country back from the Bush administration and changing the direction in which it has been heading for the last six years....
"When I am president, working with a Democratic Congress," she said, "we will really take our country back and put it on the right track again.""
===========================
Howard Dean:
In Oct. 2004 Howard Dean published a hard cover book entitled:
"You Have the Power: How to Take Back Our Country and Restore Democracy in America,"
Howard Dean
In 2006 Howard Dean published a paperback edition of the book.
===========================
Al Gore:
1/11/2004, "THE 2004 CAMPAIGN: THE FORMER VICE PRESIDENT; Gore, in Bittersweet Return to Campaigning, Stumps for Dean," NY Times, Todd Purdum
"On Friday night, Mr. Gore sounded much more sober themes....''When I say we need to take back our country it's not only taking it back from the special interests and the politics as usual, but also from the wrong-headed, misguided policies of the Bush-Cheney administration.''
===========================
May 2014 article disputes with examples Washington Post reporter Eugene Robinson's erroneous claim that the phrase "take back our country" has only been heard since Obama was in the White House and is therefore racist.:
5/27/14, "On Obama, 'Take Back Our Country' and accusations of racism," Washington Examiner, Byron York
"One feature of political debate in the Obama years is that it is common for the president's defenders to ascribe racial motives to his critics. It's so common, in fact, that it's usually not newsworthy. But sometimes the case for such accusations is so flimsy that it's worth noting.
Take, for example, a new piece by the Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Eugene Robinson. The article is a defense of Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller's remark that some Republicans oppose Obamacare because they don't like President Obama, and they don't like Obama because "maybe he's of the wrong color."
Robinson argues that Rockefeller was not calling anyone a racist and was not even playing the race card. "Believing that some of the Republican and Tea Party opposition to Obama has to do with his race is not, I repeat not, the same as saying that anyone who disagrees with the nation’s first black president is racist," Robinson writes.
Robinson tosses a few loaded terms into the mix; referring, for example, to "the massive GOP resistance to Obama" recalls the southern "massive resistance" of the civil rights era. But as far as making racial accusations himself, Robinson writes, "I try to focus on what a person does or says rather than speculate on what he or she 'is.' How can I really know what's in another person's heart?"
"In the end," Robinson explains, "all we can do is look at what the individual does, listen to what he or she says and then draw conclusions about those words and deeds." Then, noting the words and deeds he has witnessed at Tea Party rallies, Robinson writes, "I can't say that the people holding 'Take Back Our Country' signs were racists -- but I know this rallying cry arose after the first African American family moved into the White House."
Perhaps Robinson has forgotten that the phrase "take back our country" was a feature of American politics well before the Obamas came to Washington. In fact, it was a rallying cry just a few years ago, in a different context with a different president. In the mid-2000s, and especially in the 2004 presidential campaign, it was common to hear prominent figures in the Democratic Party and on the left in general express a desire to "take back our country." If Robinson heard it for the first time after the first African-American family moved into the White House, he wasn't listening.
Some examples. In the 2004 race, Democratic nominee John Kerry sometimes asked supporters to help him "take back our country." "It's time to take back our country," Kerry declared at a rally in Manchester, N.H. in late October. When Kerry called John Edwards to invite him onto the Democratic ticket, aides revealed that Kerry's words to Edwards were, "John, Teresa and I would like to ask you and Elizabeth to join us on our ticket to take back our country."
Early Democratic frontrunner Howard Dean used the phrase "take back our country" too many times to count. In fact, Dean wrote a campaign book titled "You Have the Power: How to Take Back Our Country and Restore Democracy in America."
Former Vice President Al Gore said it, too. "We need to take back our country," Gore declared in endorsing Dean in January 2004.
At a Democratic fundraiser in December 2003, Hillary Clinton pledged to work "on behalf of a campaign to take back our country." After the election, in 2005, Clinton declared, "We are ready to go forth and fight to take back our country."
From the podium of the Democratic National Convention in July 2004, Rep. Louise Slaughter declared, "We will take back our country." Also at the convention, Sen. Debbie Stabenow said, "We're here to take back our country."
And Los Angeles leader Antonio Villaraigosa, chair of the party platform committee, declared, "We Democrats have come to this convention…to take back our country!"
And it didn't stop with the 2004 campaign. Clinton used "take back our country" countless times in her 2008 presidential race. And when Clinton finally conceded defeat and endorsed Obama, she said, with Obama right next to her, "We are not going to rest until we take back our country."
And those are just examples, culled from Nexis, of uses of the precise phrase "take back our country."
There were many, many other times that top Democrats urged voters to "take back this country" or "take back the country." And a major organization on the left, the Campaign for America's Future, held a yearly conference called "Take Back America," at which leading Democrats and activists regularly appeared.
Of course, the phrase "take back our country" was heard long before the 2004 campaign. Pat Buchanan famously used it in yet another context in the 1990s, and in 1992 Ross Perot wrote a book, entitled, "United We Stand: How We Can Take Back Our Country." All the while, of course, there was no African-American family in the White House.
The point is, if writing that "this rallying cry arose after the first African American family moved into the White House" is an effort to suggest that use of the phrase is evidence of racism — and that is surely Robinson's point — then doing so ignores the fact that "take back our country" was heard many, many times before Obama became president. It will likely be heard long after he moves out of the White House, too."
============================
Rush Limbaugh noted Howard Dean examples:
7/14/14, Rush Limbaugh transcript: "Let's go back, 2004. The Democrat primaries, a montage of former Vermont Governor Howard Dean.
Dean: "We are taking our country back piece by piece from the Rush Limbaughs. You have the power to take back our country so that the flag no longer represents solely Rush Limbaugh. You have the power to take back our country so that the flag never again is the sole property of Rush Limbaugh....Move over. I want my country back again because the flag of this country does not belong to Rush Limbaugh. You have the power to take back the flag so it does no longer belong solely with Rush Limbaugh. Aaagggghhhh!"
RUSH: Howard Dean in 2004 going crazy on the stump talking about taking his country back. Eric Holder said when he hears that, that's code language, and there's a racial component to that."...
7/14/14, "Holder Sees "Racial Animus" in Opposition to Obama," Rush Limbaugh transcript
==============================
5/29/14, "Eugene Robinson's false accusation of racism," American Thinker, Karin McQuillan
==========================
===========================
1/13/2009, "Holder Nomination Has Bipartisan Support," leahy.senate.gov
"Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) was joined by former Senator Republican Senator John Danforth and Former Republican Congressman Asa Hutchinson in a conference call with reporters Tuesday morning to discuss the broad, bipartisan support for Eric H. Holder, Jr.’s nomination to be Attorney General of the United States. Danforth and Hutchinson have both endorsed Holder’s nomination, and have joined a growing list of former Republican officials that support Holder’s nomination. A confirmation hearing to consider Holder’s designation is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 15."...
.
No comments:
Post a Comment