saint torum
Rick Santorum Was Not Aware That He Borrowed His Campaign Slogan From Langston Hughes
Correction: Santorum's new slogan, "Fighting to Make America America Again," was borrowed from the title of a pro-union poem by gay poet Langston Hughes, "Let America Be America Again." That's like the least Santorum-y thing in the world, so obviously Santorum had no idea until ThinkProgress reporter Lee Fang informed him yesterday.
FANG: Today, you unveiled your new campaign slogan, “Fighting to make America America again.” But was it intentional that this line was borrowed from the pro-union poem by the gay poet Langston Hughes?
SANTORUM: No, because I had nothing to do with that so-
FANG: Oh, alright thanks. Wait did you have a clarification there? Was it just a coincidence?
SANTORUM: I didn’t know that. The folks who worked on that slogan for me didn’t inform me that that’s where it came from, if in fact it came from that.
FANG: Do you like Langston Hughes? Is he a favorite poet?
SANTORUM: I’ve read some of his poems. I’m not a big poetry guy so I can’t say I have a favorite poet, sorry.
But more than just not knowing the origins of his campaign slogan, Santorum isn't sure whether he even has a campaign slogan to begin with.
When asked a short time later what the campaign slogan meant to him, Santorum said, "well, I'm not too sure that's my campaign slogan, I think it's on a web site."
It's definitely "on a website," and it looks a lot like a campaign slogan. Santorum has obviously been heavily involved in the campaign-slogan-making process so far.
