Do You Know What A Mugwump Is?

[Turborama]

Run time: 02:25 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taaZeHof46I   Posted on YouTube: October 22, 2010 By YouTube Member: AlJazeeraEnglish Views on YouTube: 302   Posted on DU: October 22, 2010 By DU Member: Turborama Views on DU: 1070

 
I can't say I did until watching this...

For some Americans politics is a different language.

Bell-weather, beltways, cattywampus and stumps are just a few of the terms thrown around on any given day in Washington.

So Al Jazeera English's John Terrett hit the streets of Atlanta in Georgia, to see if voters there were up on their political lingo.

[Dennis Donovan]

1. The Mugwumps were Republicans who bolted from James G Blaine and voted for Cleveland...

...in 1884.

[Bucky]

2. Al-Jazeera's trying to return us to the 19th century.

Those d----'d whigs!

[mikekohr]

5. Its a Eastern Native American Term For "bigshots, empty shirts, ect."

also see Glen Beckerhead, Sarah Palin, Rush Limballs, Michele Bachman, et al

[luckystreak]

7. Naked Lunch

Also the creatures featured in William Burroughs' book, which may or may not refer to the political movement though I have to say that David Cronenberg's depiction of them in the movie do remind me a lot of current day repugs...

http://www.davidcronenberg.de/nakedmug.html

[MikeMc]

13. + 1. I thought of Peter Weller in Marrakech immediately.

Hanging out with beatnicks and a bag of bug y typewriter parts.

[ET Awful]

3. And here I thought The Mugwumps were

the first band that Mama Cass and Denny Doherty were in before the Mamas and the Papas

[Turborama]

4. And I was thinking like the guy who said it was something from Harry Potter

:rofl:

[Rhiannon12866]

15. That's a "Muggle," LOL.

Muggles, in the Harry Potter series, are people without magical abilities. :D

[ElsewheresDaughter]

6. well I learned about animal cruelty being committed on sheep and Liebermen's new name......

ahh the more you live the more you learn ;D

[demwing]

8. Someone who bolts from their party

goes back to Grover Cleveland days, and was used to describe Republicans who voted dem to support GC.

[deutsey]

9. Its general meaning is "independent"

I first heard the term in the '70s...it was my step-father's CB handle, if you remember such things.

According to Merriam-Webster:

1: a bolter from the Republican party in 1884
2: a person who is independent (as in politics) or who remains undecided or neutral


I was a mugwump. We, the mugwumps, a little company made up of the unenslaved of both parties, the very best men to be found in the two great parties--that was our idea of it--voted sixty thousand strong for Mr. Cleveland in New York and elected him. Our principles were high, and very definite. We were not a party; we had no candidates; we had no axes to grind. Our vote laid upon the man we cast it for no obligation of any kind. By our rule we could not ask for office; we could not accept office. When voting, it was our duty to vote for the best man, regardless of his party name. We had no other creed. Vote for the best man--that was creed enough.
- Mark Twain's Autobiography (North American Review, Dec. 21, 1906)

[SkyDaddy7]

10. Those creatures Luke Skywalker use to shoot as a child...

Was my first guess! :shrug:

I love to learn things even if they are useless trivia...This could win me a game of trivia in the future who knows?

[MikeMc]

14. +1 Thanks. NT.

[Sinistrous]

11. I have long thought that a mugwump was a person who

sits on a fence with his mug on one side and his wump on the other.

[Bucky]

12. No, you're thinking of "Splinternards"