What is a "bully pulpit"?

[kentuck]

And what is it used for?

Can it be used to educate the people or to inform them of your intentions?

Can it be used to fight the opposition?

Can it be used to inspire your supporters?

What good is it if it is not used?

[H2O Man]

1. Good questions.

The President of the United States has the option of using his office to address the public directly. (Too often, we forget that not only does the President have this ability, but that Congress is also tasked with educating the public. It is only the judicial branch of the federal government that has no such duty.)

The bully pulpit should be used to educate, by focusing on the President's agenda, and to contrast it with the errors in the opposition's thinking and actions.

It is worthless, unless used.

[HopeHoops]

2. A place for a preacher with a bad attitude to chastise people.

No, that's not at all what it means, but that's certainly what it sounds like.

[hayu_lol]

6. Teddy Roosevelt coined the phrase 'bully pulpit' ...

made of the president using his office as a strong platform for advising and educating the public directly. Clinton frequently used his office as this sort of platform to educate the public and to repudiate his opposition. Congress has somewhat the same access to a 'bully pulpit' ... to educate and advise the electorate.

Teddy would be rolling in his grave to see what we have done with his country vis-a-vis the corporate personhood.

[HopeHoops]

7. More like "corporate fascism".

[jberryhill]

3. "Bully" used to have a more common meaning in English as a superlative

As in, "We went to the opera, and it was a bully good show."

Unfortunately, that totally unrelated and now archaic meaning of the word "bully" is conflated with the modern American usage, which totally changes the meaning of the phrase for some people.

Roosevelt might as well have said "dandy pulpit" or "good pulpit". His use of "bully" was simply meant as a positive adjectival modifier.

[Jackpine Radical]

8. Oh, you hopeless pedant.

You beat me to posting the same explanation of "bully."

[jberryhill]

11. You didn't catch "dandy pulpit"....

I left that hanging out there for someone more hopeless than I to point out the other sense of the word "dandy", as it would have been circa 1900.

But I'm sure you and I could engage in some bully gay intercourse.

[NRaleighLiberal]

4. I think it's been rendered useless by the volume of noise already out there...

...belief systems, teflon hearing, Faux noise, etc.

I suspect back in FDR's day it was very effective (his "I welcome their hate" speech)...but that was then, this is now. Plus, the public at large seems to have no ability to critically think, separate facts from beliefs, or remember anything that happened a day ago. (the DU community really is a slice of sanity in a very bizarre current situation, I think!)

[dionysio]

5. Bully Pulpit

Like anything, it needs to be used responsibly. It can easily be misused, of course and in those cases it is very wrong.

[kentuck]

10. When can it be used responsibly?

And when is it wrong to use it?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

9. A good platform from which to be heard, to lecture, to morally persuade

Teddy Roosevelt used "Bully" the way we use "awesome" or "brilliant."

"Mister President, we are having roast beef for dinner."

"Bully!"

[Igel]

12. It's good if used.

It's not a form of compulsion: Often its use has no effect, and sometimes it has an unintended effect.

Frequent use to no effect renders the bully pulpit as effective as the stand at Marble Arch: It makes the speaker and a few people feel good, but otherwise attracts little attention while being easily ridiculed.

If overused, it loses any effectiveness at all.

If this question is posed wrt American politics, I'd venture to suggest that the bully pulpit's been used fairly often in the last few years but many actively want to avoid acknowledging it's been used at all. To do so would require admitting that either it was used to no effect or that the effect has been for it to lose any effectiveness. Either would pose a problem.

The bully pulpit, like all pulpits, is best used to exhort. Wheedling, cajoling, needling, attacking, blaming, accusing, and other such activities are poorly suited to the pulpit and tends to drive the "congregation" out the door. It can be used to pander and entreat, but that wears thin.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

13. It is a device for hiding and cringing and for catching tears

You can stand safely behind it as you try to find new ways to capitulate and compromise with bullies.

It can be used to snivel in front of the people and inform them of your weakness.

It can be used to embolden the opposition.

It can be used to discourage and disgust your supporters.

:hi:

[Poboy]

14. Bully Pulpit- The thing Bushyboy used to ram every thing he wanted

down our throats, and the thing Obama is afraid to go near.