May 1968: "S.D.S. is out to politicize the campus."
September 1973: "It was not simply a matter of increasing numbers, but of the highly politicized manner in which additional blacks found their way into Harvard — overcoming nearly a century of racial and sociological barriers to a sizable presence at Harvard. Militancy and political threats perpetrated by Negro students in 1968-70 paved the way for major alterations in Harvard's recruiting and admissions policies. This resulted in a fivefold increase in black enrollment, but the politization surrounding this development plagued virtually all aspects of black-white relationships, dividing blacks and whites in to mutually exclusive communities." From "The black experience at Harvard," by Martin Kilson.
August 1976: Back when Jimmy Carter, a peanut farmer, was getting the Democratic nomination: "Planters [Peanuts] has been the focus of recent efforts to politicize peanuts, such as the recent Democratic National Convention to 'borrow' its Mr. Peanut mascot. 'Mr. Peanut is an apolitical figure'..."
January 1979: Pope John Paul II in Mexico City: "You know that liberation theology is a true theology... But perhaps it is also a false theology, because if one starts to politicize theology, apply doctrines of political systems, ways of analysis which are not Christian, then this is no longer theology."
September 1980: "On the Lower East Side in the late 60's, his aim was to politicize the hippies, not to make the larger world an adjunct to the counterculture." From a review of a new book by Abbie Hoffman.
December 1986: "In 1966, Mao turned to radical Shanghai students to trigger the Cultural Revolution, a decade-long upheaval intended to politicize every facet of Chinese life."
November 1992: Hugh Hefner is quoted: "I think the real question is why, after a sexual revolution began in the 50's, did the women's movement seize upon an anti-sexual theme.... A significant part of the hurtful side of feminism is failing to understand how a hurtful childhood can shape you, and instead trying to politicize all behavior. There's really no benefit to viewing sex as the enemy. The sex act is some of the best of what we are, as family, and as a civilization. The notion that sex and violence are connected like law and order is untrue. They are polar opposites. One is hurting; one is hugging."
January 1994: "Do you ever wonder if it was a mistake to politicize the private lives of politicians? Bill Clinton was rumored to have a Gary Hart-ish sexual life, yet he's turned out to be quite supportive of women's rights." From a Q&A with 3 female reporters.
May 1996: When Democratic Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts said that the Defense of Marriage bill was motivated by politics, he was accused of a "desperate attempt to politicize what is not a political issue."
September 1999: After shootings in a Fort Worth church, Texas Governor George W. Bush signed legislation permitting guns in churches, Vice President and presidential candidate Al Gore started asking ''How can we allow guns in churches?'," and a Bush spokesman said: "Americans are tired of politicians trying to politicize every tragedy.''
December 1999: "Our political leaders must be judged on how they treat everyone, including the least fortunate. We must ask ourselves: do we solve problems or simply push them away, politicize them and criminalize them?'' said Hillary Clinton, about homeless people, whom Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani was having arrested for sleeping on the streets.
April 2000: "Holding congressional hearings now would only further politicize this tragedy [of Elian Gonzalez], further inflame the passions, and do nothing to resolve the future of the child.... We should not allow this situation to degenerate further into which political party can benefit the most. Americans have made it clear that they do not want to see this issue politicized," wrote Republican Senator Chuck Hagel.
October 2004: "There have been faith-based efforts in America for years and years. There hasn't always been an effort to politicize it," said presidential candidate John Kerry speaking to a group of black pastors.
February 2012: "I think there’s been a chord struck over this issue, this issue of political organizations who are trying to politicize women’s reproductive health," said Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards.
October 2015: President Obama, after another mass shooting: "Somebody somewhere will comment and say, Obama politicized this issue. Well, this is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common life together, to the body politic."
October 2, 2015
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29 comments:
"But perhaps it is also a false theology, because if one starts to politicize theology, apply doctrines of political systems, ways of analysis which are not Christian, then this is no longer theology."
JPII and O: compare and contrast.
Ah Ms. Althouse, everyone needs a hobbyhorse from time to time, and you're definitely in the saddle on the word "politicize" today. Ride Cowboy Ride!
I first heard the word when I was a freshman in college. Some apparent female came up and spouted leftist pap for a while to me and a male friend. She was a cute lunatic. And suddenly she said something like "OK, now that you're politicized..." and left about half a minute later.
maybe the use of word "politicize" is a Rorschach test. or the reading thereof.
One of the weirdest things about Playboy in the 1980s was how left-wing and feminist it was.
We live in a political world
Where courage is a thing of the past
Houses are haunted, children are unwanted
The next day could be your last
The word politicize seems to have worked. We are all politicized now. We live in a politicized world. We drive politicized cars with politicized gas. We heat our politicized houses (the tiny ones and big ones)with politicized energy from politicized coal, gas, oil, wind and sun. We teach our kids politicized math, language and history. We let them play politicized games, and they all get politicized trophies. All POLITICIZED. I want my plain old politics back.
Very nice job. My main usage of the word has been in fields like food - e.g. eating salt or transfats - never a political issue in the past - now "politicized." Not true with any of the issues in the Bill of Rights. The reason the amendments were passed is that the issues had been politicized. The purpose of the amendments is to depoliticize them - take them off the table. Althouse draws a salary because that did not work.
ya know....sometimes you get buried in parsing words for meaning.
Cities are politicized.
A word is just a word. The thing itself has been around since before we could speak.
Power games, not word games.
Although clichéd and simplistic, the saying "a hammer sees every problem as a nail" fits here.
...
Damnit, that's not the saying.
I was too happy I copied and pasted "cliched" with the little thing over the "e" I didn't look up the saying.
But Obama should feel compelled to act constitutionally to prevent mass murder.
It is suspicious that Obama's man in Chicago Rahm talked about using crisis' to do things you otherwise couldn't do. I presume acting constitutionally is something one can choose to do all the time, before, during, and preceding through decency crisis' approach.
The famous examples of Lincoln and habeous corpus and interning Americans of Japanese ancestory confirm my presumption. It's the examples not famous that worry me. The known unknowns.
"The known unknowns."
Yup. But lets look at the trees, er, I mean the words.
@Guildofcannonballs: the version I prefer is, If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. This a particularly useful corrective to the tendency of lawyers to see the solution to every problem as passing another law.
The Planter's people have successfully pushed back against the attempt to politicize their mascot. Score one for the patriarchy. You really need a masculine mascot for a product that looks like a scrotum. They did have a feminine mascot--Chiquita Banana--for a banana, but a more macho mascot might have worked better. .....You could probably use a feminine mascot for pistachio nuts, but you can't be too obvious if you catch my drift........Kiwis are obscene. That's probably why they never caught on.
William mused: Kiwis are obscene. That's probably why they never caught on.
Like fica in Italian -- not to be confused with fico which means fig.
rhhardin said..Cities are politicized.
No more so than Naples or Gallipoli are politicized.
You know what's politicized? The police.
Pointless semantics, as though althouse would like to remain at a respectable remove from the cultural mudfight.
President Obama, after another mass shooting: "Somebody somewhere will comment and say, Obama politicized this issue. Well, this is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common life together, to the body politic."
Well, shiver me timbers and blow me down: the use of politicize in both transitive and intransitive forms--with politic thrown in, to boot!
Dang and then some, is all I wanna say.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC-Q8-i-7hA
A simpler method is to just query the Google Ngram website, which tracks the use of words in books over time.
Here's the history of "politicize":
http://is.gd/bN1Otx
The use of "politicize" in books first started increasing in the 1940s and 1950s. But it really started becoming widely popular, starting in 1960.
"Well, shiver me timbers and blow me down: the use of politicize in both transitive and intransitive forms--with politic thrown in, to boot!"
Actually, both uses of "politicize" are transitive.
1. "Obama politicized this issue." The object is: "this issue."
2. "Well, this is something we should politicize." The object is: "something."
"A simpler method is to just query the Google Ngram website, which tracks the use of words in books over time."
Thanks. It's a simpler method, but not a method of doing the thing I set out to do, which was to find out if Obama was doing something new in using the word in a positive way. Also, I was trying to find out when the usage shifted from politicizing people to politicizing issues, which happened late.
I suspect that the word was edited out of books and newspapers for a long time, that it was considered a made-up word like "finalize," which I know I was taught in the 1960s was not to be used in serious writing.
But thanks for reminding me of Ngram!
Perhaps it was a new situation that was being turned over to politics in that death is supposed to be beyond politics and to be a point at which we unite - "Regardless of politics, we all mourn the loss ..." This has now become "Take away the guns".
Then this politicizing swung onto high gear when the President urged news organizations to publish comparisons of deaths from terrorism vs. deaths from gun violence.
Do you think that chart looks bad? What about publishing a comparison of deaths from guns to deaths from abortions after twenty weeks. There are 12,000 gun deaths a year - this is terrifying high according to the chief supporter of gun control, Barak Obama, and there are 14,000 deaths from abortions after twenty weeks and this is miniscule, insignificant according to the chief supporter of PPFA, Barak Obama.
He'd break the Constitution over 12,000 gun deaths but he'd do nothing about 14,000 late term abortion deaths because in one case the number (12,000) is large while in the other, a larger number (14, 000) is miniscule. Go figure
Fuck all of those people. Especially Mao, Obama, and Mr. Peanut.
False Grackle
Politicize = Politics = Democracy (In the USA).
The thing which jumps out at me when I look at the handy timeline for the use of "politicize" is that up until Obama just used it, it has been a primarily pejorative expression.
I think the left has made a habit out of trying to politicize everything, but at least they pretended it was bad or that the other side started it. The mask is slipping off now. Obama is proud to politicize everything and his fanboys love it.
The rest of us are sick of it. I want a normal president, one who does his job--makes sure the agencies under his administration are efficient, lawful and show some discretion. And mostly, one who doesn't feel like he has to chime-in on every. single. thing. all the time. So tiring.
Politicize = use (if you like, for political purposes, but "use" says it all)
Of course Obama want to use everything. He's a user.
Which is about the dirtiest epithet my family has for a person.
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