The Politics of Language–Veterans Day Edition
Although any day is a good day to discuss language use and etymology when you’re an English professor, on or around Veterans Day/Armistice Day, I like to show the class this discussion of word usage from the great philosopher George Carlin (1990-something). Let me know if you’re confused as to the satire…
Draft Eisenhower Movement
It seems fitting that we’ll start discussing Dwight D. Eisenhower the week of Veterans Day. As I’ve mentioned before, when I have a bias, I like to disclose that. We all have biases, so we should be honest when we’re discussing a subject where our opinions (including expert ones…) may influence our coverage of the subject. I am rather pro-Eisenhower. I think his #5 ranking* is well deserved on this C-SPAN Survey.
*Personally, as a non-historian, I think he should be 4th.
Eisenhower was so popular that both Republicans and Democrats wanted him to run on their ticket. He ran in 1952 and 1956 (notice the areas he won). Can you imagine such a scenario today? Gen. Colin Powell is the only other person I can think of (remember, I’m not a historian or political scientist) who also had such bipartisan support for some amount of time. Both Eisenhower and Powell were highly successful, well respected military servicemembers.
But Back to Eisenhower
- Presidential ad: “I like Ike” from Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) vs. Adlai Stevenson II (D) [1952—HOPE]
- “My Bike Likes Ike”–Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli
- DailyMotion has the full Happy Days episode (Season 2, Ep. 15, 1975)
- Campaign Speeches (15:25)
- Campaing HQ (19:30)
Thursday’s Class
This page was just to keep you motivated on the holiday. We’ll delve into Labor history, Marxism, Red Scares, and, eventually, our readings for this week. Don’t forget to do Weekly Discussion Post #9 before Friday, 11/14, 11:07pm.