Thursday, September 24, 2009

Giving back a lame slogan


(Just checking in with a scheduled post that we trust has not yet staled with the passage of time)

For nearly all of the 8 years of the two Bush administrations, we heard the incessant rallying cries of liberals and Democrats that followed the general theme: "Let's take our country back!"

It struck a wrong chord in us then and it sets even more uneasily with us now that the Democrats have ruling majorities in the Senate and the House and have their guy in the White House as it is our side that has taken to the streets and is employing the same slogan to voice opposition to the Democrats' and the President's legislative agenda.

Why does this slogan bother us? It's simple. "Take" implies some sort of unsolicited unilateral action that is not in keeping with democratic principles. There should be nothing in campaigning or sloganeering that infers a group of people is going to "take" anything away from anybody else. Aren't we over here on the right the ones bitching about the unsolicited overreach of the Government into our lives?

And taking the statement as a whole... where are we taking the country? Yes, it's a figure of speech and we realize that there is not a literal place we are "taking" the country but there is an exclusiveness to the slogan that implies wherever we are taking it, you (on the other side) are not welcome to stop by and visit.

Now, we might be able to be talked into the reasoning that this slogan was meant to imply a blanket rejection of big government and that it is our personal freedoms and liberties that we are "taking back". While that may be true, we were soured on the slogan from jump street for the reasons given above. And besides, the liberal-Left was using it first so recycling lame slogans from the other side is a two-time loser.

Of course, we could be wrong so we welcome opinions to the contrary.