Liberal Talk Radio

David Brooks quotes FDR:

Biden’s speech brought to mind something Franklin Roosevelt told the country on Feb. 23, 1942: “Your government has unmistakable confidence in your ability to hear the worst, without flinching or losing heart. You must, in turn, have complete confidence that your government is keeping nothing from you except information that will help the enemy in his attempt to destroy us.”

QUESTION: When did “your government” become “the government”? Isn’t that a pretty seismic shift in rhetoric? One that can basically explain the last 30-something years of American politics?

FDR and JFK spoke of the former. Reagan spoke of the latter. Bush, perhaps realizing that he helms the largest and most expensive Government ever created by man, prefers “Washington,” or “the folks in Washington.”

So can we say that Republicans prefer to depersonalize government? Makes it easier to drown something if it’s less personal, I guess.

Note to the Democrat message-meisters (assuming that there are any): start using “your Government” exclusively. It gives people a sense of pride.