Charlie Brown

The American Story

Christopher Flannery

Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 941 Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2022

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There is more of Charlie Brown in most of us than there is Abraham Lincoln or Michael Jordan. We identify with his failures and suffer with him. But it isn’t just his failures. Charlie Brown is resilient. He never quits. Despite setbacks and moments of despair, he is at heart an optimist — and one of America’s greatest success stories.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the American Story.
0:04.8	Stories about what it is that makes America beautiful and worthy of our love.
0:10.1	This is Chris Flannery with the Claremont Institute.
0:13.7	I call this one Charlie Brown.
0:19.2	Like most people, Americans love winners.
0:22.6	The Greats of politics, war, sports, and entertainment.
0:27.6	Lincoln, Patton, Michael Jordan, Tom Hanks.
0:32.6	They especially love Horatio Alger rags to riches stories,
0:36.6	winners who come from lowly places, like Ben Franklin.
0:41.3	Then there is Charlie Brown.
0:45.3	The central figure in the comic strip Peanuts,
0:48.3	Charlie Brown is the ultimate loser.
0:51.3	His baseball team is a disaster. As a pitcher, he is literally undressed
0:57.0	as line drive after line drive whistles back through the mound.
1:02.0	Most kids of his generation worshipped Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays.
1:06.0	Ted Williams famously hit 400.
1:10.0	Charlie Brown's favorite player, Joe Slobotnik,
1:13.6	hit .004, and made spectacular catches out of routine fly balls.
1:20.6	Charlie Brown's kite, if it isn't attacking him, is perenningly stuck in a tree.
1:26.6	Year after year, he lands on his back
1:29.3	as his nemesis Lucy pulls the football away just as he is about to kick it.
1:34.3	He is the last one to be invited to parties.
	...

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