Hendrik Hertzberg Quotes
Where is it written that if you don't like religion you are somehow disqualified from being a legitimate American? What was Mark Twain, a Russian?
Hertzberg, Hendrik. Politics: Observations & Arguments, 1966-2004. Penguin Press, 2004.
Bush was trying to obtain the Republican Presidential Nomination and that party had come under the influence of Protestant Evangelicals who could in effect veto any candidate in the Primary election. Bush, who was already suspect with the Evangelicals, chose to make this statement with the full knowledge that there is no Constitutional citizenship requirement to believe in a god and that a number of the leading founding patriots and founders had been atheists. However his tactics were successful and the following year he was the Republican nominee. Despite this statement, he never acted on it or made it a part of his administration’s principles. Politicians are often placed in these difficult positions where they are pressured into positions not to their liking in order to politically succeed. In this case, he never did more than make the disgraceful statement. He did not adopt any policy of take any action. However, this quotation is unique in American history as the only time an American president ever stated that American citizenship should not be recognized for religious reasons only.
Hendrik Hertzberg (born 1943) is an American journalist, best known as the principal political commentator for The New Yorker magazine. He has also been a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter and editor of The New Republic, and is the author of ¡Obámanos! The Rise of a New Political Era and Politics: Observations & Arguments. In 2009, Forbes named Hertzberg one of the "25 Most Influential Liberals in the U.S. Media," placing him at number seventeen.
