Campaigning for Dick

Many moons ago, when I visited the Smithsonian’s American History museum as a lad, one of the things I remember most about that trip was seeing the section on political memorabilia. From Eisenhower’s “I Like Ike” ad to many customized campaign buttons, pennants, signs and noisemakers.

I don’t remember seeing these, however…

Oh, for the innocent times of the 1960s when this could be considered a valid political slogan and not a serious gaffe that would go viral on social media. And while many of Nixon’s campaign materials in later races used his last name, for a good while, it was all about Dick.

And of course, it didn’t stop there. Some of these buttons and slogans could be resurrected and used on dating sites or apps!

“My Pick is Dick”? “Click with Dick”? I feel like Scruff and Grindr, among others, are kicking themselves for not trying to bring those back–as I’m sure many of their users already have. Unfortunately, as we hit the 1970s, they moved away from “Dick” as a campaign strategy and stuck with using “Nixon”.

I wonder why? Oh well, many of us will always have fond memories of Dick.

Happy Hump Day, y’all!