Hello everyone, Mr. Lower Bond
President Biden this week again "pardoned" two turkeys:
Chocolate and fries (turkey names)
Although these two turkeys did nothing wrong
They come from a plantation in North Carolina
Stay in a hotel room and even have social media accounts~
Biden speaks on the South Lawn of the White House
"This annual event is a wonderful tradition"
This is a tradition that the President of the United States has been doing
Some students may have to ask, Why?
Haha~ good question! Let's talk about it
It's not easy to get the right answer to this question
You have to have a deep understanding of American history
Trump laughed at the pardon in 2019
When he faced the media, he casually rampage:
"Abraham Lincoln is said to be the first president to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey."
This is purely unlearned and unskilled~
First of all, the United States is a capitalist power
Therefore, the root of all social behavior must be motivated by self-interest
These two turkeys were not caught by any farm
The manipulators behind this come from a huge organization:
National Turkey Federation
The campaign is basically turkey farmer's biggest PR stunt every year!
Yes! You heard it right, the reason it was called "pardon" was just commercial hype~
The Turkey Federation ranks in the top 5% of external groups that donate to MPs, political party bodies!
According to a search of the lobbying database
Since 1998, the organization has provided approximately $340,000 annually
Three-quarters of that went to the Republican Party
And spent more than $3 million on lobbying work
The National Turkey Federation usually selects two amnesty turkeys each year
One starred, while the other served as a stand-in
to prevent the starring turkey from accidents (death or flight)
The organization selects nearly a hundred baby turkeys
Train little turkeys to stand still
Choose the best two of the best ones that aren't afraid of cameras, flashes and noisy crowds
To ensure that the presidential pardon ceremony on turkey can be steadily photogenic
The reasons for so costly and laborious are simple:
Every year on Thanksgiving, American families eat about 46 million turkeys
In normal times, Americans generally do not buy and make turkeys
Therefore, the Turkey Federation must ensure that Americans reinforce holiday food traditions!
Once young Americans faded into tradition
Then the turkey farming industry is facing a catastrophe!
To put it bluntly, this campaign can force the president to be a "turkey spokesperson"~
Every year we deepen the holiday traditions of a new generation of Americans
In this way, it is possible to ensure that the turkey farming industry is evergreen
Some students may ask:
Teacher, the turkey federation should let the president eat turkey in front of the whole country.
Say while eating: Turkey is delicious
Why let the president pardon this turkey every year?
Good question! This is a more subtle allusion
Since 1947, the Turkey Federation has been giving turkeys to presidents
But these turkeys did originally exist for eating rather than being pardoned
Haha~ I'm not talking nonsense, there are historical photos for research
In 1963, President Kennedy received turkeys from the Federation
Watch for the chicken neck hanging: Mr. President, please eat well!
True pardon of turkeys originated during the Reagan presidency
Reagan was facing the "Iran-Contra" scandal at the time
Simply put, the United States has imposed an arms embargo on Iran
But secretly through Israel sold weapons to Iran
This caused Reagan to be questioned from all walks of life
In 1987 Turkey Ceremony scene
ABC News' Sam Donaldson was on camera and suddenly pressed Reagan
Shout asks Reagan if he will pardon two key people involved in arms sales
The scene suddenly fell silent
But Reagan deserves to be a good actor, and he replied like this:
"If people had a different opinion about the future of Charlie, I would pardon it~"
The awkward atmosphere instantly disintegrated, and the reporters laughed
I personally think:
Every political system has evolved in history with some strange political tradition
If you don't comb through and flip through historical documents
Every few generations can't tell how this tradition came about~
Later presidents are imitating and abiding by the tradition of pardoning turkeys
But people wouldn't guess that this was just Reagan's improvisation
Forgiving turkeys is really just to divert attention
Thus downplaying the pressure of political scandal it faces
Even giving a turkey to the president is commercially motivated
Forgetting the origin of tradition is actually not terrible
The scary thing is that posterity will forcibly give a lot of symbolism
I've seen a lot of domestic articles analyzing US presidents pardoning turkeys
Most of them are far-fetched~