What Did He Say?

It is human nature for a politician to latch onto a catchy phrase and to stick with it until it becomes a part of the vocabulary. That’s how cliches are born--and sometimes survive to find their way into Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations.

President Reagan has a repertoire of phrases extracted from American history, sometimes in slightly mangled form or meaning. His particular favorite, it seems, is a quotation from that Revolutionary firebrand Thomas Paine. The President insists on using it over and over, even though he once was severely upbraided for this practice by George F. Will, the conservative columnist and former philosophy professor.

Will pen-lashed the President in Newsweek last Oct. 22 when he said, “Reagan is inexplicably fond of--he is constantly quoting--that stupendously dumb statement by Tom Paine: ‘We have it in our power to begin the world over again’.”

“Oh no, we don’t,” Will said. “Paine’s statement is the most unconservative statement that ever issued from human lips.”

But the President was not about to shed the words of the gadabout pamphleteer. In his recent inaugural the President referred to Jefferson and John Adams as “members of that remarkable group who met in Independence Hall and dared to think they could start the world over again.” In a speech to his aides Friday, he urged them to rest over the weekend “because Monday the world starts over again.”

The President did not say what exactly would happen today except that his staff would begin the real work of the second term--fulfilling, presumably, Reagan’s Painesian desire that: “We can change America forever.” Now, that is something of a radical notion. Most conservatives do not particularly want to change America forever.

At the Executive Forum on Friday, White House counselor Edwin Meese III said that the goal of the Administration is to institutionalize the Reagan Revolution. But chief of staff James Baker said to those who have watched changes under Reagan, “They ain’t seen nothing yet.”

The President said, “What has gone before is prologue.” (Bartlett’s 15th edition, p.247). He added, “That’s some great and beautiful music we’ve been playing the past four years. But the way I see it, from here on it’s shake, rattle and roll.”

Maybe we’ll stick with Paine. And please check the White House flag staff this morning for a banner that says “Don’t Tread On Me.” (Bartlett’s p.920).