Sunday, March 29, 2015

Cruz control

I heard a radio re-broadcast this morning of much of Cruz's horrible Liberty University speech.  He used the phrase "shining city on a hill" more than once.  If it was good enough for Ronald Reagan... (Cruz also referred in passing, and not in an uncomplimentary way, to FDR; again, shades of Reagan.)

Added later: But in both cases, it was just an appropriation of FDR for their own purposes.

Another edit: for the Biblical origins of the '(shining) city on a hill' phrase, see this 2012 post by L.D. Burnett.  
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2 comments:

hank_F_M said...

LFC

inspired (?) by you comments I listened to random parts of his talk.

He did have a nice throw away section section about aspiring to be a "beacon on the hill".

But in the usual course of things not aspiring to be a "beacon on the hill" amounts to aspiring to be an "ember in the gutter."

Not my favorite candidate. The he felt he needed to be first out the gate this early is probably sign his chances are nill.

I am sure there are better reasons to object to him.

March 30, 2015 at 8:47 PM
LFC said...

The he felt he needed to be first out the gate this early is probably sign his chances are nill.

I hope so.

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Btw, the phrase is "city on a hill" (John Winthrop, 1630) amended to "shining city on a hill" by Reagan, who, as LD Burnett pointed out in a post from a few years ago, was harking back, as was Winthrop, to the Book of Matthew, where Jesus refers to his disciples as a city on a hill and urges them to let their light shine.

I assume the relevant Biblical passages may be familiar to you -- more than they were to me before I read LD's post, which I've now linked on the front page.

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In a political context, "shining city on a hill" is objectionable, in my view, because it implies that the U.S. is or must be an example to the world. Goes hand in hand w American exceptionalism. Has become a common feature apparently in Republican rhetoric. If you like it, fine. I don't want to get into an argument about it.

March 30, 2015 at 11:58 PM

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