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Distract the population! Why does the President of the United States pardon turkeys every year?

author:In Lower Bond teacher

Hello everyone, Mr. Lower Bond

President Biden this week again "pardoned" two turkeys:

Chocolate and fries (turkey names)

Distract the population! Why does the President of the United States pardon turkeys every year?

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

Distract the population! Why does the President of the United States pardon turkeys every year?

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

Distract the population! Why does the President of the United States pardon turkeys every year?

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

Distract the population! Why does the President of the United States pardon turkeys every year?

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~

Distract the population! Why does the President of the United States pardon turkeys every year?

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