Who does this sound like?:
“Our country is filled with a socialistic, I.W.W., communistic, radical, lawless, anti-American, anti-church, anti-God, anti-marriage gang, and they are laying the eggs of rebellion and unrest in labor and capital and home; and we have some of them in the universities. I can take you through the universities and pick out a lot of black-hearted, communistic fellows who are teaching that to the boys and sending them out to undermine America. If this radical element could have their way, my friends, the laws of nature would be repealed, or they would reverse them; oil and water would mix; the turtledove would marry the turkey buzzard; the sun would rise in the west and set in the east; chickens would give milk and cows would lay eggs; the pigs would crow and roosters would squeal; cats would bark and dogs would mew; the least would be the greatest; a part would be greater than the whole; yesterday would be day after tomorrow, if that crowd were in control.”
I cheated. That is interesting….
I just now noticed the strange inclusion of one particular reversal of the natural order of things: “…the least would be the greatest.”
The relationship between populism and social justice movements is fascinating to me. You’d think, on the surface, that the two would go hand-in-hand. But I suppose that there are different sorts of populism, and each is largely segregated by class.
On the off-chance that I have ever heard of the author, I give up Davey, who is it?
Billy Sunday. I had a speech professor who loved the guy. Wikipedia’s got more.
It’s funny that his list of horrors includes “the least would be the greatest” and “the turtledove would marry the turkey buzzard” . . . (and “the lion would lie down with the lamb”?)