Merit Quotes
From a 2009 interview.
As enlightened and progressive that his views on Blacks were, he was amazingly racist when it came to Native Americans. See {588991}.
This quotation illustrates how public approval of politicians has radically changed over the years bouncing up and down like a Yo Yo. In 1872, when this was written, the standing of politicians was low. During and after Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, the public more admired politicians. Opinions deteriorated and hit a new low with Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression only to rise again with FDR and WWII. Often the view of the presidency colors the public perception of all politicians, but sometimes there is a differential. During President’s Barack Obama’s first term, he was reasonably popular, but the public approval of the Congress had eroded to 10 percent, the lowest in recorded history.
This was another of the radical reforms of Queen Victoria. Most counties were terribly sensitive about the language used by their citizens. Where there were different ethnic language groups, the dominant group tended to make the use and teaching of other languages illegal. So it was in Great Britain where Gaelic, traditionally spoken in Scotland and Welsh, spoken in Wales, were discouraged and not taught in the schools. The Queen shocked the right wing language nationalists with this letter making a major language and cultural reform in Great Britain. Victoria herself had learned a number of languages when she was a young girl and realized that the schools were the ideal place to develop multiple language facilities. Lansdowne promptly instituted the queen’s desired language reforms to the delight of the Scots and the Welsh. Rather than create disunity, the Scots and Welsh became more loyal to the Nation that recognized them, their culture and their rights.
See 358821 for another expression of this idea.
