Althouse: When Biden's slogan — "America is an idea"

April 25, 2019

When Biden's slogan — "America is an idea" — was Bono's.

24 comments:

Marcus Carman said...: known plagiarist; 4/25/19, 8:09 PM
Rob said...: Why is Biden's tag lower-case? Ann has reduced him to a common noun, which may be legit. He's not really a person, he's an idea--and a common one at that.; 4/25/19, 8:11 PM
Wince said...: Biden believes America is an idea conceived in liberty, from behind.; 4/25/19, 8:15 PM
Bob Boyd said...: America is a nation. It started as an idea, but now its a nation with a constitution and laws and a history and traditions and a border and citizens.; 4/25/19, 8:17 PM
Fernandinande said...: "America is an idea" -biden = conflicting opinions.

"There is no national church. The American worships as he pleases. America is too big to be measured by dress or food or religion. America is an idea, the Democracy of Life, the right of men to live freely, fully; the brotherhood of men." -- The Red Cross Magazine, 1919
1919; 4/25/19, 8:17 PM
Fernandinande said...: That's from an essay "Americanisms" by Angelo Patri. It was also printed in Merchant Plumber and Fitter: Devoted to Plumbing, Heating, Ventilating, Lighting and Vacuum Cleaning.; 4/25/19, 8:19 PM
Fernandinande said...: Congressional Record, 1951: "We forget, moreover, that despite all the materialism which each of us must admit in our own daily thinking, America is an idea and an ideal. There are very few nations, and fewer people, that are not conscious of America's great wealth."; 4/25/19, 8:21 PM
Anonymous said...: Greatest Idea Ever!

Narr
But we shouldn't brag; 4/25/19, 8:30 PM
mockturtle said...: Few things are as tiresome as a foreigner 'defining' America.; 4/25/19, 8:31 PM
buwaya said...: "Few things are as tiresome as a foreigner 'defining' America."

Guilty, sometimes. But I have seen enough to have an opinion.; 4/25/19, 8:53 PM
Milo Minderbinder said...: Uh, oh, it’s that plagiarism thingy again. Come to think of it, has Biden ever had an original idea?; 4/25/19, 9:24 PM
mockturtle said...: "Few things are as tiresome as a foreigner 'defining' America."

Guilty, sometimes. But I have seen enough to have an opinion.

Nothing wrong with opinions, buwaya, and I certainly value yours. It is when non-Americans attempt to capture the essence of what is a unique experiment that has worked out amazingly well based on limited exposure and shallow understanding that I take issue.; 4/25/19, 9:40 PM
The Gipper Lives said...: Neil Kinnock said it first.; 4/25/19, 9:49 PM
chickelit said...: Well, Biden is a known plagiarist.; 4/25/19, 11:04 PM
Lurker21 said...: Funny thing, I find a number of versions of that quote by the musician Bono, but also a more compact version attributed to Edward De Bono, the "lateral thinking" guru from a few decades back.

But it seems like everybody said it at one point or another: Condoleezza Rice, Jennifer Granholm, Bharati Mukherjee, Jamaica Kincaid, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lindsey Graham, Paul Ryan. Another funny thing: pick a name at random and do a search for "Gingrich 'America is an idea'," and you'll find Newt Gingrich wrote it in a book. It doesn't work for everybody, but the first name I thought of worked.

The idea probably goes back further than that. When people started to say it, people most likely did think more alike than they do today. They probably had many other things in common. Because the country was unified, they could afford to indulge themselves with the idea that the country could accommodate greater change and variety if only it clung to the unifying idea.; 4/25/19, 11:43 PM
Ken B said...: Didn't Bono also say the world needs more Canada? Canada isn't just an idea, it's a country with laws and customs and borders and restrictions on immigration.; 4/25/19, 11:59 PM
Unknown said...: i thought it was an idea

but it was just gas

and it passed

-- bonor; 4/26/19, 5:43 AM
Unknown said...: it the ideal progressive slogan

an idea can never go bankrupt, like for a Green New Deal

an idea can't have borders - Mexicans have the same idea!

an idea has no meaning beyond what the Progs say it is

an idea is never wrong

an idea can be exclusive - you don't belong if you don't share the idea

nobody is responsible for achieving an idea - the war on poverty becomes the war on inequality - there is STILL a bottom 10%!!!!

America was founded on ideas - men become women if they cut off their wanker, due process is unfair to female rape defendants, white males are the devil; 4/26/19, 5:53 AM
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Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: U2 - the band and the boredom. Not interested.; 4/26/19, 7:13 AM
Jack Klompus said...: Boy, October, War and The Unforgettable Fire are great albums. The Joshua Tree might be the most overrated album in the history of popular music.; 4/26/19, 7:36 AM
Lurker21 said...: Ken B said...
Didn't Bono also say the world needs more Canada? Canada isn't just an idea, it's a country with laws and customs and borders and restrictions on immigration.

Yes and no. Compared to the US, Canada does look like a real, particular, specific country because of the mixture of English and French. Quebec even proclaims itself a "distinct society." But no country has been trying to turn itself into an idea as much as Canada has with widespread immigration, multiculturalism, and the move away from the older standards and traditions and customs of Anglo-Canada. So yes, Canada does have its own laws and borders and restrictions on immigration, but if you listen to some Canadian politicians they rather regret all that.; 4/26/19, 8:06 AM
Danno said...: Bono is one of the rock stars that is a legend in his own mind. Whatever he says means nothing to me, since I have no respect for these so-called celebrities that think they are smart. For that reason, Bono can FOAD.; 4/26/19, 8:16 AM
Known Unknown said...: I never tire of the visceral reactions to anything Bono says.

Actually, I'm lying. Thanks for the bait, Professor.; 4/26/19, 2:23 PM