Kevin Kruse brings the historicizing to Mitt Romney’s effort to unite us, under God.
The concept of “one nation under God” has a noble lineage, originating in Abraham Lincoln’s hope at Gettysburg that “this nation, under God, shall not perish from the earth.” After Lincoln, however, the phrase disappeared from political discourse for decades. But it re-emerged in the mid-20th century, under a much different guise: corporate leaders and conservative clergymen deployed it to discredit Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.
This opposition of God to the New Deal is of course specious: God was a member of FDR’s Brains Trust and in His incarnation as Jesus Christ and author of the beatitudes He directly influenced the New Deal’s relief provisions. As for the public works, He explained, “Yes, I could have built ’em quicker, but only by robbing the economy of much-needed stimulus.”
5 comments
January 19, 2012 at 6:51 am
Lurker
I’d like to argue that Lincoln’s usage of “under God” does not really mean the same thing as in “one Nation under God”. In the latter, it is implied that the US is a single nation, under the protection and guardianship of God. In the former, the words “under God” are simply a way to make Lincoln’s bold claim palatable to religious mind: everything vanishes eventually, and the wellbeing of the nation is dependent on Allmighty’s will. Thus, the Lincoln’s claim of an everlasting Republic would be blasphemous, unless he added to it the softening words, “under God”.
Thus, I would argue that in Lincoln’s speech “under God” has the meaning of “inshallah”, while the phrase “one Nation under God” is theocratical.
January 19, 2012 at 8:59 am
ari
I think you may be confusing Kevin’s claim, or perhaps reading it backwards. I think he’s saying that when the c20 theocrats began using “under God” they were, at least in part, referring back to Lincoln. And so, while the meaning of the phrase may well have been different, the lineage remained intact.
January 19, 2012 at 1:18 pm
margarita
Kruse seems to accept the “inshallah” intent of Lincoln’s “under God,” since he writes of Lincoln’s “hope” that the nation shall not perish.
But if you want to quibble, the canonical Gettysburg Address technically has Lincoln resolving that “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.” The shall-not-perish bit comes at the end of the Up With People closer.
January 19, 2012 at 2:33 pm
politicalfootball
You’re mixing up FDR’s Brain Trust with the anticompetive Brains Trust. The latter was outlawed by the Sherman Act, to the relief of hungry zombies everywhere.
January 28, 2012 at 12:02 pm
urbino
A lot you know. God was a goldbug.