this was the first time in my life i ever heard the white house being referred to as "the people's house". it was some post about how the united states destroyed the actual ancient city of babylon and the replies were like "yeah but doing renovations on the white house is worse because of FREEDOM". anyway i guess what i'm asking is, is "the people's house" some sort of shibboleth for people who get pissy about this specific tacky renovation on an already tacky house?

side note but i love the west wing slander. truly the 9/11 of television, except bad

[–] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I never googled so I didn't know the etymology. Google and Wikipedia were annoying. Eventually I found the following. Bluesky exploded in size so the percentage of lib political junkies went way down. I assume many threads have a lib Facebook-like tinge now. And I assume serious political nerd libs don't use the term "the people's house" because it has a connection to Andrew Jackson. It's funny what you learn when you look things up. Emphasis mine.

June 12, 2019
U.S. History
The White House Historical Association

The White House today is sometimes referred to as “the People’s House,” but where did that phrase come from? Some historians have attributed it to Thomas Jefferson, who certainly made the Executive Mansion more accessible to more people. However, recent research suggests that the phrase, traditionally used to describe the House of Representatives, began to shift during the presidency of John Quincy Adams.

In early 1827, Congress was debating appropriations for the President’s House, specifically $25,000 to finish and furnish the East Room. According to newspaper accounts, the request “to furnish it in a manner suitable for the ends for which it was erected, being not the President’s house, but the People’s House, erected by their order and for their dignity.”

According to the Congressional Register of Debates, on February 23, 1827, Robert Letcher of Kentucky used the phrase on the floor of the House of Representatives. An Adams supporter, Representative Letcher stated: “If you think fit to furnish the house, as it has been said, it is not his [Adams’] house: it is the People’s house; and, in whatever manner or style it is deemed proper to furnish it, it must be an affair of the least possible consequence to the President, individually.”

Opponents of Adams also used the phrase to denigrate the president: ““We are awfully afraid that the people’s house; the temple of liberty, is soon to become a ‘den of dissipation.’” As democracy swept across the United States, the people elected Andrew Jackson to serve as president in 1828. While President Jackson was not known to use the phrase, it became associated with his administration through the newspapers of his supporters.

I'm mystified why Wikipedia has basically nothing.