Hillary Clinton and the Fake Tocqueville Quotation

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Weekly Standard:

Hillary Clinton recycled a misquotation of Alexis de Tocqueville Thursday night, minus the misattribution. “[I]n the end, it comes down to what Donald Trump doesn’t get: that America is great—because America is good,” she said.

As the line came around again a couple of decades ago, John Pitney pointed out in THE WEEKLY STANDARD that candidates and presidents from Eisenhower to Buchanan to the previous Clinton have all misquoted American history’s favorite tourist.

As Pitney, a professor at Claremont McKenna, put it:

The authenticity of the passage came into question when first-year government students at Claremont McKenna College received an assignment: Find a contemporary speech quoting Tocqueville, and determine how accurately the speaker used the quotation. A student soon uncovered a recent Senate floor speech that cited the “America is great” line. He scoured Democracy in America, but could not find the passage. The professor looked, too — and it was not there.

[…] Whatever its origin, the passage found its way into circulation. President Reagan used it in a 1982 speech, though his speechwriter hedged by attributing it to Eisenhower’s quotation of Tocqueville. Two years later, Reagan declared that Tocqueville “is said to have observed that ‘America is great because America is good.'” Thereafter, his speechwriters grew less careful, and several subsequent Reagan addresses quoted from the passage without any qualifications. At this point, it started showing up with greater frequency in political rhetoric.

Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America introduced a young America to herself in 1835. His philosophical prophecies, essential to the establishment of a national self-awareness (a collective individuation, if you will), are as canonical as can be.

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THE VAST SPURWING PLOVER CONSPERACY,SQUAWK,SQUAWK,SQUAWK pardon me for laughing i could,nt help it

BREAKING: Hillary Busted Plagiarizing DNC Speech, Media REFUSES to Report

Plagiarism: It’s a major concern if you’re a presidential candidate or the family member of a presidential candidate. Unless you’re a Democrat. In that case, whatevs yo!

That’s the message from the Democrat National Convention, where more plagiarism went on than at the Republican National Convention. There was, of course, Barack Obama’s copying of Donald Trump Jr.’s speech. Then there was Joe Biden’s line copped from Kanye: “We ain’t going nowhere but got suits and cases / A trunk full of coke, rental car from Avis.” (I may have been asleep for one of these speeches.)

But I certainly wasn’t asleep when Hillary Clinton gave her speech last night, and copied from an author most Americans know by heart.

“But here’s the sad truth,” Hillary said. “There is no other Donald Trump…This is it. And in the end, it comes down to what Donald Trump doesn’t get: that America is great — because America is good.”

That’s an amazing line! In fact, it sounds almost like one her husband used back in 1994, according to Sean Hannity:

(Snip)

Wow, she plagiarized her husband from back in 1994… who took it off of Alexis de Tocqueville back in 1835. Except Bill quoted him:

“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers — and it was not there,” de Tocqueville wrote. “(I)n her fertile fields and bound less forests — and it was not there. . . . in her rich mines and her vast world commerce — and it was not there … in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution — and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”

Wait, back-up, what was that again? Obama plagiarized Donald Trump Jr?! Stop the presses!!! Front page headline: “Sitting President steals lines from last week’s RNC nominee’s son!”

BOOM: Don Trump Jr. Catches Obama Plagiarizing HIM, Issues Unforgettable Statement

However, when President Barack Obama liberally stole from Donald Trump Jr.’s Republican National Convention speech during his endorsement of Hillary Clinton this week, very little media attention was to be found.

It was based on Trump Jr.’s statement that, “That’s not the America that I know.” It was used frequently, in the same way, by the president during his speech at the Democrat National Convention.

However, Trump had a much different response to the plagiarism than liberals had to Melania’s alleged plagiarism: He responded with grace and a touch of irony.

Donald Trump Jr.

@DonaldJTrumpJr

I’m honored that POTUS would plagiarize a line from my speech last week. Where’s the outrage? #DemsInPhilly


8:15 AM – 28 Jul 2016

@Ditto: she plagiarized her husband from back in 1994… who took it off of Alexis de Tocqueville back in 1835. Except Bill quoted him:

“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers — and it was not there,” de Tocqueville wrote. “(I)n her fertile fields and bound less forests — and it was not there. . . . in her rich mines and her vast world commerce — and it was not there … in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution — and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”

These lines are uplifting and poetic. They are also spurious. Nowhere do they appear in Democracy in America, or anywhere else in Tocqueville.

The authenticity of the passage came into question when first-year government students at Claremont McKenna College received an assignment: Find a contemporary speech quoting Tocqueville, and determine how accurately the speaker used the quotation. A student soon uncovered a recent Senate floor speech that cited the “America is great” line. He scoured Democracy in America, but could not find the passage. The professor looked, too — and it was not there.http://www.weeklystandard.com/the-tocqueville-fraud/article/8100

wonder when she is going to plagiarize Heralitus? “The way up and down is one in the same.”