Will Rogers Quotes
You've got to be optimist to be a Democrat, and you've got to be a humorist to stay one.
Will Rogers, 1879-1935, Cowboy Humorist, Good Gulf Radio Show, June 24, 1934
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The presidential nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896 split the Democratic party. Governor Hill was a strong party man, but couldn't abide Bryan's "free silver" and other positions, so when a reporter asked him if he was still a Democrat, and would campaign for Bryan, the governor answered:
He was the one who wrote the popularization of the Lost City of Atlantis
At the time Congress was gridlocked in bitter hyperpartisan conflict. Most people called for more comity and bipartisanship and most politicians wanted more bipartisanship but blamed the other party for the rift. Mourdock,arguing for less bipartisanship and no compromise defeated Richard Lugar in the Republican Senatorial Primary election. Lugar, one of the most respected and effective Senators was a statesman who worked with any and all to find effective compromises to reach national solutions. The nation was so politically polarized that the Republican Indiana voters ousted one of their most senior senators because he was effective at developing national solutions. See {626717} and {302706} for other Mourdock outrageous comments. While this rhetoric won in the Primary, it lost him the general election in a state where Republicans had a strong majority and should have had the seat.
The sexual mores were very different then and separate beds were very common, especially among the more “proper” upper class. When this was written it was still illegal in some states to buy or sell contraceptives, and there were a few state laws regulating the position and method of sexual intercourse.
He was describing his first government experience as a a civil servant of the Department of Agriculture in the New Deal. The political party affiliation is not so critical today for most civil service posts but there are about 10,000 positions where party affiliation is very critical.
William Penn Adair Rogers was an American stage and film actor, vaudeville performer, cowboy, humorist, newspaper columnist, and social commentator from Oklahoma. He was a Cherokee citizen born in the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory.
