Neverisms

Party attempted to blame the Great Depression on the Democrats. The attempt failed—largely because the Wall Street crash occurred four years earlier, when Hoover was president. But FDR didn’t just sit idly by as GOP leaders made the charge. In a 1933 speech, he said he had rubbed his eyes in disbelief after reading that a Republican leader said, “It was not a Republican depression but a Democratic depression.” He added:

Now, there is an old and somewhat lugubrious adage that says:

“Never speak of rope in the house of a man who has been hanged.”

In the same way, if I were a Republican leader speaking to a mixed audience,

the last word in the whole dictionary

that I think I would use is that word “depression.”

In the rest of the chapter, we’ll continue our look at political neverisms. As in preceding chapters, I will provide commentary about many of the quotations in an attempt to enhance your enjoyment or deepen your appreciation of them.

Never answer a hypothetical question.MOSHE ARENS

Arens was Israel’s minister of defense when he offered this thought in the early 1980s. The saying has been repeated by scores of politicians—including at least three U.S. presidents—and is now routinely described as a cardinal rule of politics.

Never let the other fellow set the agenda.JAMES BAKER, his rule for a negotiation

As secretary of state during the Reagan administration, Baker was on a diplomatic mission in England when London’s Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying this in 1988.

Never display agony in public in an opinion.HUGO L. BLACK, to Harry Blackmun

Black said this to fellow jurist Blackmun in 1970, shortly after Blackmun had been sworn in as a member of the U.S. Supreme Court. Black added: “Never say that this is an agonizing, difficult decision. Always write it as though it’s as clear as crystal.”

Never offend people with style

when you can offend them with substance.SAM W. BROWN JR.

In 1968, Brown was head of the student campaign for Eugene McCarthy, the Minnesota senator who was an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War. When McCarthy challenged Lyndon Johnson for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, his campaign attracted legions of enthusiastic college students, far-left radicals, and other countercultural types. One of the great triumphs of the campaign was its success in getting many scruffy-looking supporters to shave their beards and dress more conventionally. The never offend people with style saying, with its lovely ironic touch, captured the thinking behind the “Get Clean for Gene” motto. I recently queried Brown about his now-famous saying, and in his reply to me, he said, “By acting on the dictum we actually changed the country.” He also added in his note:It always struck me as downright stupid to ask people to overcome their negative first impression before you could talk to them about important issues. And in the sixties it was pretty easy to offend what was still a very culturally conservative country. So, by the simple expedient of dressing in a more conventional way and not showing up on a doorstep reeking of pot, you had a better chance to engage people in a real discussion about the war, or civil rights, than if they were put off by your appearance.

Never be afraid to stand with the minority when the minority is right,

for the minority which is right will one day be the majority.WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN

Never tell a lie to a reporter.

Everyone I’ve seen do it has gotten in a helluva lot of trouble.JOSEPH CALIFANO, as Jimmy Carter’s HEW secretary

My first rule for Democrats to live by:

Never just oppose, always propose.JAMES CARVILLE, in his 2003 book Had Enough?

A Handbook for Fighting Back

This was the seventh of “Carville’s Ten Rules for Progressives to Live By.” He added:Every election is a choice, and as progressives, our goal must be to ensure that the choice isn’t between bad and nothing; the choice needs to be between bad and good. We progressives need to define our vision of America, not just react to the right wing’s vision of America.

Never make a defence or apology before you be accused.CHARLES I, King of England, in a 1636 letter to Lord Wentworth

(note that I have retained his original spelling of defence)

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule

never to criticize or attack the government of my own country.

I make up for lost time when I come home.WINSTON CHURCHILL

Churchill said this in 1946, shortly after he had been ousted as prime minister and at a time in his life when he opposed many of the English government’s postwar policies.

Never forget that no military leader

has ever become great without audacity.CARL VON CLAUSEWITZ, in On War (1831)

The legendary military theorist added: “If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles.”

Never tell anyone to go to hell unless you can make ’em go.BILL CLINTON

In his annual U.S. News & World Report round-up, John Leo called this one of the best aphorisms of 1994. It had been presented earlier that year as one of “Bill Clinton’s Ten Rules of Politics” in Meredith Oakley’s biography On the Make: The Rise of Bill Clinton. The observation is not original to Clinton, however. As far back as the 1960s, Lyndon Johnson had been quoted as saying: “Never tell a man to go to hell unless you’re sure you can send him there.” One other Clinton rule was also phrased neveristically:

Never look past the next election; it might be your last.

Never go out to meet trouble.

If you will just sit still,

nine cases out of ten someone will intercept it before it reaches you.CALVIN COOLIDGE, to Theodore Roosevelt Jr. in 1924

Never