Sen. Rand Paul’s use of the phrase “We’ve come to take our country back” drew applause from supporters Tuesday and lit up social media.
The phrase in recent years has struck some as a racially charged dogwhistle in the era of a black president. Attorney General Eric Holder in an interview with ABC last July cited “people talking about taking their country back” when he said that he and the president are subject to a certain level of “racial animus” from some of their critics.
Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson wrote last summer that he couldn’t say that people holding “Take Back Our Country” signs during a tea party rally protesting Obama’s signature health care law were racists, “but I know this rallying cry arose after the first African American family moved into the White House.”
However, a surprising roster of politicians has been using the phrase for years, regardless of who was in the White House. One member of Obama’s own team even used it well into Obama’s own presidency.
Examples:
– “Time to take back America,” Vice President Joe Biden, September 2014 Labor Day speech in Detroit.
– “Our conservative convictions will win this country back if our tone shows that we’re comfortable with our own ideas,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry, speaking to Christian conservatives in June 2013 in Washington.
– “It’s time to take our country back,” 2008 vice presidential Republican nominee Sarah Palin, at the 2010 Iowa Republican Party Reagan Day Dinner.
– “My friends, it is time to take back the country we love,” Hillary Clinton, Aug. 26, 2008, at the Democratic National Convention.
– “This is the year we take our country back,” Al Franken, then a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat from Minnesota, in October 2008.
– “Looks like folks are ready to take back America, take it back. . . . It’s going to be because of you that we take our country back,” then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, addressing the Take Back America 2007 conference.
– “Today, we stand in common purpose to take our country back!” Howard Dean, a Democratic presidential candidate in 2003, declared at an event. He later wrote a book titled “ You Have the Power: How to Take Back Our Country and Restore Democracy in America.”
And it’s not just politicians:
– “We’re gonna take back this country. Hey Barack pack your bags, head to Chicago, take your teleprompter with you so you’ll know where to go,” Hank Williams Jr.’s “Take Back Our Country,” 2012.
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