Political Slogans: Part Two - National

Memorable National Political Slogans

1. “Vote as You Shot”
2. “We Polked you in '44, We Shall Pierce you in '52.”
3. “Tilden or Blood!”
4. “Nothing to fear but fear itself”
5. “A New Deal”
6. “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
7. "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice."
8. “In your heart, you know he's right."
9. “In your guts, you know he’s nuts.”
10. “Contract With America”
11. “New Frontier”
12. “Morning in America”
13. “Great Society”
14. “No Child Left Behind”
15. “A Chicken in Every Pot…”
16. “Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?”
17. “A Kinder, Gentler America”
18. “Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You…”
19. “It’s The Economy, Stupid!”
20. “54-40 or Fight”
21. “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Speech, Free Men, and Fremont”
22. “Vote Yourself a Farm”
23. “Don't swap horses in the middle of the stream.”
24. “Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, The Continental Liar from the State of Maine”
25. "Ma, Ma, Where’s my Pa, Gone to the White House, Ha, Ha, Ha”
26. “A Full Dinner Pail”
27. “He kept us out of war”
28. “Return to Normalcy”
29. “Keep cool with Coolidge”
30. “I Like Ike”
31. “Nixon's the One”
32. “He’s making us proud again”
33. “Building a bridge to the 21st century”
34. “Compassionate Conservatism”
35. “Yes We Can”
36. “Acid, Amnesty, and Abortion”
37. “All the way with LBJ”
38. “Change We Can Believe In”
39. “Country First”
40. “Give 'Em Hell, Harry!”
41. “Go Clean for Gene”
42. “No Fourth Term Either”
43. “Rum, Romanism and Rebellion”
44. “Sunflowers die in November”
45. “There are Two Americas”
46. “Turn the Rascals Out”
47. ”We are turning the corner”
48. “We Want Willkie!”
49. “Had enough?”
50. “Hey, Hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?”
51. “The Buck Stops Here”
52. “Every Man a King”
53. “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too”

Answers

1. This campaign song of the 1840 Log Cabin Campaign praised Whig candidates William Henry Harrison (the "hero of Tippecanoe") and John Tyler.
2. This was the 1852 presidential campaign slogan of Franklin Pierce; the '44 referred to the 1844 election of James K. Polk as president.
3. The 1877 slogan of presidential candidate Samuel Tilden referred to the election conflict that led to the Compromise of 1877, a deal that resolved the disputed 1876 US Presidential election. Republican Rutherford B. Hayes became president defeating Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. After taking office, Hayes removed federal troops from three southern states.
4. This line is from the first inaugural of President Franklin Roosevelt (1933).
5. New Deal was the name President Franklin Roosevelt gave to a series of programs launched after his first election that were meant to pull the nation out of the Great Depression.
6. The term is used to describe the foreign policy of President Theodore Roosevelt.  Roosevelt’s view was that the U.S. had the right to oppose European meddling in the Western Hemisphere. Roosevelt also believed the U.S. had the right to intervene in the domestic policy of its neighboring countries if they were not maintaining peace and sovereignty on their own.
7. Senator Barry Goldwater spoke these words in accepting the GOP nomination in 1964.
8. This was a political slogan in Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign.
9. President Lyndon Johnson’s campaign responded with this slogan in the 1964 election.
10. The Contract with America was a document Republicans used to lay some of their positions in the 1994 Congressional election campaign. The document promised that Republicans would take specified actions if they became the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
11. “New Frontier” was a political slogan used by Senator John F. Kennedy in his acceptance speech at the 1960 Democratic Covention. It later became a label for the Kennedy Administration.
12. This was a political slogan used in the 1984 campaign of President Ronald Reagan and often mentioned in Reagan’s television ads.
13. “Great Society” was the term used by President Lyndon Johnson to describe a series of domestic programs he started to eliminate poverty and bolster civil rights.
14. This slogan was used by President George W. Bush to describe his education reform legislation.
15. “A chicken in every pot. A car in every garage.” This slogan was used in the1928 Republican presidential campaign of Herbert Hoover and was intended to imply that a better economy was in store if he won the election.
16. President Reagan posed this question to America’s voters in a 1980 televised debate with President Jimmy Carter.
17. This was the America Vice-President George Herbert Walker Bush promised in his acceptance speech at the Republican Convention in 1988.
18. President John F. Kennedy put this challenge to the American people in his 1961 inauguration address.
19. The campaign slogan was prominent in the 1992 presidential campaign of Governor Bill Clinton. It is often attributed to Clinton advisor James Carville.
20. The slogan “Fifty-four Forty or Fight!” is often incorrectly associated with the 1844 presidential election, but the slogan didn’t appear until 1845. This slogan was used by Democrats to imply that the U.S. was prepared to go to war with the United Kingdom in order to move the Oregon border north to annex the entire Oregon Country, at latitude 54°40′N.
21. John C. Fremont used this slogan in the to point out the anti-slavery stand of the Republican Party. Fremont, backed by Radical Republicans in the Congress, launched a presidential campaign in 1864, but later withdrew from the race when he reconciled with President Abraham Lincoln.
22. In the 1860 presidential campaign, Abraham Lincoln used this slogan to remind voters that the Republican Party supported a law granting free homesteads to settlers of the western frontier.
23. This was President Lincoln’s advice to the voters in the 1864 presidential election.
24. In the 1884 presidential campaign this slogan used by the supporters of Grover Cleveland, James Blaine's opponent.
25. This 1884 presidential slogan was used by James Blaine supporters against his opponent Grover Cleveland. It referred to Cleveland fathering an illegitimate child in 1874. After Cleveland won the election, his supporters added the line, "Gone to the White House, Ha, Ha, Ha!"
26. This Republican campaign slogan in the 1900 presidential campaign emphasized the prosperity of William McKinley's first term. McKinley had the support of business and this slogan was aimed at working class voters.
27. This slogan was used in Woodrow Wilson’s 1916 presidential campaign. In April 1917, President Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of War, bringing the U.S. into World War One.
28. Presidential candidate Warren Harding’s 1920 campaign slogan was thought by many at the time to be a malapropism, and that “normality” would have been more appropriate. As it turned out, normalcy was listed in dictionaries as far back as 1857.
29. Supporters of 1924 presidential candidate Calvin Coolidge thought this was a cool political slogan.
30. A lot of people liked Dwight D. Eisenhower.
31. Richard Nixon used this slogan in his 1968 presidential campaign.
32. After the Watergate scandals, Gerald Ford was a breath of fresh air.
33. This was Bill Clinton’s idea in the 1996 campaign.
34. George W. Bush ran for president under this banner in 2000.
35. Barack Obama, 2008.
36. Richard Nixon’s campaign put this tag on the 1972 campaign of his opponent, Senator George McGovern.
37. The year was 1964 and Lyndon Johnson was on his way.
38. Senator Obama believes it.
39. “Country First,” says Senator John McCain.
40. Supporters shouted this at Harry Truman in 1948.
41. College kids took a bath and put on clean clothes to campaign for Gene McCarthy in the 1968 Democratic primary.
42. Wendell Willkie used this in 1940 against FDR. It didn’t work. FDR won a third term and then a fourth, although he died a few months after winning number four.
43. In the 1884 election Republicans attacked the Democrats for their views on three sensitive issues of the day, prohibition, Catholicism, and the Civil War.
44. The sunflower is the official state flower of Kansas. When Alf Landon challenged FDR in 1936 the Roosevelt campaign came up with this slogan. Landon was from Kansas.
45. This is John Edwards' view of America.
46. “Throw the rascals out” was used in the 1872 campaign aimed at President U.S. Grant.
47. Herbert Hoover tried this one in 1932 in the depths of the Great Depression. It didn’t work.
48. They got him in 1940.
49. Republican slogan used by the Republican Party in the midterm-year congressional elections of 1946.
50. This was one of many slogans emloyed by anti-Viet Nam war protesters.
51. This slogan was used by Harry Truman to show that he was in charge and could make the tough decisions.
52. Louisiana Governor Huey Long used this slogan in 1934 to describe his program of income redistribution. It was part of a broader program which had the slogan, "Share Our Wealth."
53. 1840 U.S. presidential slogan of William Henry Harrison adopted this slogan in the 1840 election. Tippecanoe was a famous 1811 battle where Harrison defeated Tecumseh. John Tyler was Harrison's running mate.

For more on the history of slogans in North Carolina campaigns, don't forget to view the exhibition of “Soapboxes and Tree Stumps: Political Campaigning in North Carolina” at the North Carolina Collection Gallery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The exhibit runs until January 31, 2009. The North Carolina Collection is housed in the Louis Round Wilson Library on the campus of UNC. Visiting hours are from Mondays through Fridays, 9:00-5:00, Saturdays, 9:00-1:00, and Sundays 1:00-5:00. Admission to the exhibit is free.

More information and guided tours on “Soapboxes and Tree Stumps” can be arranged by calling 919-962-1172.

Updated October 27, 2008