Jay Clarke of UPI pays a visit to the Will Rogers Museum and the Route 66 town of Claremore, Okla.
There is this disquieting opening paragraph:
He was one of the great wits of the 20th century, a homey philosopher and the top box-office attraction of his time. Yet many people today don’t know his name, much less why he became so famous.
This is a shame. I’ll go one better and say that Will Rogers was the greatest humorist since Mark Twain. He’s like reading Dave Barry without the goofiness. Perhaps he’s fading from the American consciousness because he died more than 70 years ago. Perhaps it’s because there’s this wrongheaded notion that his writings came from an archaic era.
I find nothing archaic about these quotations:
A fool and his money are soon elected.
About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.
Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing, and that was the closest our country has ever been to being even.
Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.
Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.
I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.
If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can’t it get us out?
If you ever injected truth into politics, you have no politics.
Ohio claims they are due a president as they haven’t had one since Taft. Look at the United States; they have not had one since Lincoln.
On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.
The Republican Convention opened with a prayer. If the Lord can see His way clear to bless the Republican Party the way it’s been carrying on, then the rest of us ought to get it without even asking.
There are hundreds of sayings like this. I find Rogers nearly as relevant now as he was then because our political leaders are doomed to repeat history. With his country wisdom and wry observational skills, no wonder Rogers was one of the most popular men in the country during his lifetime.