"When the bus or the plane rolled or flew through the night, they sang songs of their own composition about Mr Nixon and the Republicans in chorus with the Kennedy staff and felt that they, too, were marching like soldiers of the Lord to the New Frontier"
About this Quote
A campaign bus at night turns into a traveling revival, and Theodore White knows exactly how seductive that is. The detail that they sang songs "of their own composition" isn’t cute color; it’s a diagnostic. Political staffers aren’t just repeating slogans handed down from headquarters. They’re manufacturing folk culture on the fly, improvising a shared identity and then mistaking that identity for a moral mandate.
White’s phrasing balances affection and alarm. The enemies are easy: "Mr Nixon and the Republicans" reduced to a sing-along villain, flattened into a chorus line. That’s the first tell of group psychology at work: the opposition becomes a prop in your own story. The second tell is the mingling of the professional and the devotional. "In chorus with the Kennedy staff" makes politics sound like church, and "marching like soldiers of the Lord" explicitly borrows the language of righteous combat. This isn’t policy enthusiasm; it’s purification through belonging.
Context matters: White is chronicling the Kennedy era as lived experience, not just electoral math. The "New Frontier" is a brand name that doubles as eschatology - a promised land reachable if the faithful just keep moving. The subtext is about media and mythmaking, too. White, the journalist, is both witness and participant in the machinery that turns a candidate into a crusade. The line quietly warns that when politics feels like salvation, skepticism starts to look like heresy - and that’s when a campaign stops being a contest and becomes a cause.
White’s phrasing balances affection and alarm. The enemies are easy: "Mr Nixon and the Republicans" reduced to a sing-along villain, flattened into a chorus line. That’s the first tell of group psychology at work: the opposition becomes a prop in your own story. The second tell is the mingling of the professional and the devotional. "In chorus with the Kennedy staff" makes politics sound like church, and "marching like soldiers of the Lord" explicitly borrows the language of righteous combat. This isn’t policy enthusiasm; it’s purification through belonging.
Context matters: White is chronicling the Kennedy era as lived experience, not just electoral math. The "New Frontier" is a brand name that doubles as eschatology - a promised land reachable if the faithful just keep moving. The subtext is about media and mythmaking, too. White, the journalist, is both witness and participant in the machinery that turns a candidate into a crusade. The line quietly warns that when politics feels like salvation, skepticism starts to look like heresy - and that’s when a campaign stops being a contest and becomes a cause.
Quote Details
| Topic | Freedom |
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