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Conrad Black: What would Woodrow Wilson say?
National Post ^ | January 4, 2014 | Conrad Black

Posted on 01/05/2014 9:08:24 AM PST by rickmichaels

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To: fieldmarshaldj
Conrad Black isn't a leftist. He's a Canadian Conservative. In US terms he's more or less a Nixonian. Hence the big book he wrote on Nixon, and hence (maybe) his ending up in prison.

As a Nixonian, he pretty much accepted the historical interpretation current in his formative years of Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt as great men. Hence his massive book on FDR and hence this article.

While I disagree with Black about Wilson -- he really does overdo it -- I appreciate that he's bringing a different point of view here that might make people think and reconsider opinions that have become automatic and unthinking lately.

Nowadays it's become as commonplace and automatic to damn Wilson as it once was to praise him, and when that happens, maybe it's a good idea to consider whether we've gone too far.

41 posted on 01/05/2014 12:06:38 PM PST by x
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To: rlmorel
I'd like a return to the Mercury dime. That's a beautiful coin. The habit of putting busts of Presidents on coins didn't happen until the 20th century (penny-1909; nickel-1938; dime-1946; quarter-1932; half-dollar-1964; dollar-1971). Before that, it was Indians, birds, or depictions of a feminine liberty. We should go back to that.


42 posted on 01/05/2014 12:08:57 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

I am all for that. Stop putting politicians on coins and naming ships after them. I make an exception for George Washington.


43 posted on 01/05/2014 12:13:07 PM PST by rlmorel ("A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral." A. Hamilton)
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To: x

Black may not claim to be leftist, but his piece certainly was. I don’t think we’ve gone far enough with damning Wilson. The damage he inflicted (and later followed up by his disciples) has caused enormous damage to our country. If we were to roll back most of our policies to 1913, just before he took office, we’d be better off for it.


44 posted on 01/05/2014 12:13:39 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

That is a handsome coin...


45 posted on 01/05/2014 12:13:46 PM PST by rlmorel ("A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral." A. Hamilton)
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To: rlmorel
If I got to select the coinage today from past designs, this is how I'd have it...

Penny

Nickel

Dime

Quarter

Half-Dollar (currently used on the Silver Dollar)

Dollar


46 posted on 01/05/2014 12:34:09 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Resist We Much)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

...actions speak louder then words

***
I think you meant to say

“actions speak louder THAN words”.

http://www.grammar-monster.com/easily_confused/than_then.htm


47 posted on 01/05/2014 12:35:45 PM PST by Bigg Red (Let the lying lips be dumb, which speak insolently against the righteous in pride and contempt.--Ps3)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

I like those choices...


48 posted on 01/05/2014 12:37:35 PM PST by rlmorel ("A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral." A. Hamilton)
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To: Bigg Red
Actually I think I meant to type it.

:pick pick pick:

49 posted on 01/05/2014 12:38:19 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (Proud Infidel, Gun Nut, Religious Fanatic and Freedom Fiend)
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To: rlmorel

It is a shame that FDR is even on a dime.

***
Well, maybe it’s appropriate, as soon we will all be singing that Depression song “Buddy, Can You Spare A Dime?”


50 posted on 01/05/2014 12:39:11 PM PST by Bigg Red (Let the lying lips be dumb, which speak insolently against the righteous in pride and contempt.--Ps3)
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To: x
I will rethink my opinion on Wilson right after I rethink my opinion on Mohammedans.

Evil is evil.

51 posted on 01/05/2014 12:41:10 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (Proud Infidel, Gun Nut, Religious Fanatic and Freedom Fiend)
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To: x
Conrad Black isn't a leftist. He's a Canadian Conservative. In US terms he's more or less a Nixonian. Hence the big book he wrote on Nixon, and hence (maybe) his ending up in prison. As a Nixonian, he pretty much accepted the historical interpretation current in his formative years of Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt as great men. Hence his massive book on FDR and hence this article.

While I disagree with Black about Wilson -- he really does overdo it -- I appreciate that he's bringing a different point of view here that might make people think and reconsider opinions that have become automatic and unthinking lately.

Nowadays it's become as commonplace and automatic to damn Wilson as it once was to praise him, and when that happens, maybe it's a good idea to consider whether we've gone too far

I recall vaguely that Nixon was a big fan of Woodrow Wilson. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but it seems like that I read that somewhere.
52 posted on 01/05/2014 12:44:52 PM PST by Ticonderoga34
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

:)


53 posted on 01/05/2014 12:45:02 PM PST by Bigg Red (Let the lying lips be dumb, which speak insolently against the righteous in pride and contempt.--Ps3)
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To: Bigg Red

Sigh. I sure wish I didn’t agree with you.

My brother, who is a lib, recently said to me about The Great Depression: “It could never happen again in this country.’

I was astonished. I opined that the country was full of people in 1928 who thought the good times would never end.


54 posted on 01/05/2014 12:47:34 PM PST by rlmorel ("A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral." A. Hamilton)
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To: edpc

He was also a supporter of eugenics:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2855930/posts


55 posted on 01/05/2014 12:55:11 PM PST by tsomer
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To: x

You are projecting rubbish into our current era.

The sentiments you see here on FR weighing against Wilson’s legacy were even more vociferously leveled against Wilson in his second term.

He rode into Washington wildly popular among democrats as Obama-like but was able to win the presidency by challenging a divided Republican party; sound familiar? GWH Bush v. H. Ross Perot v. William Jefferson Clinton redux. Wilson received just above 40% of the popular vote.

During his second presidential campaign he had lost a lot of support as it became evident to people that he was not a practical man, just an idealist, a dreamer, good talker, as they say in Texas “All Hat and No Cattle”. He narrowly won his second term in the Electoral College and he received less than 50% of the popular vote.

Wilson approached party leaders to inform them he would seek a third term as president and they told him in effect to get lost.

He left office as a very unpopular president.

His greatest legacy was indirect in that it left voters desiring to bring in a practically minded president and that they did by electing Harding and Coolidge who both won overwhelmingly the popular vote.

The writer fails to mention the above points.


56 posted on 01/05/2014 1:03:13 PM PST by Hostage (ARTICLE V)
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To: Ticonderoga34

Nixon was not a conservative.


57 posted on 01/05/2014 1:06:33 PM PST by Hostage (ARTICLE V)
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To: Ticonderoga34
Nixon used what he thought was Wilson's desk (and had listening devices installed in it). Apparently it wasn't actually Wilson's desk, but Nixon didn't know it at the time.

You can read Nixon's remarks on the opening of the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars here:

Along with most Presidents of the past half century, I have long been a student of Woodrow Wilson.

Nixon's Quaker mother was a great admirer of Wilson, and he definitely tapped into that. Popular culture in the 40s was saturated with the idea that we could have avoided WWII if only we'd listened to Wilson, and Nixon, like many in his generation, picked up on that notion and clung to it.

A lot of Nixon's interest in foreign policy related to Wilsonian grand schemes for peace building. He wanted to build international institutions and some kind of system to ensure peace, and he saw Wilson as a precursor. Garry Wills's book on Nixon pursues the idea that Nixon was the last Wilsonian liberal.

58 posted on 01/05/2014 1:39:21 PM PST by x
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To: rickmichaels

What would Wilson say?

“Hey, you know that Marx guy has some great ideas. Let’s nationalize it because the little people are too stupid to make their own decisions.”


59 posted on 01/05/2014 1:44:48 PM PST by Organic Panic
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To: fieldmarshaldj

I was laughing at first, but it did not take long for my eyes to glaze over. Everything written about Wilson sounds like its pre-programmed from past college days. This is largely a regurgitation of the kinds of things you will see in a history book without any self discovery about who Wilson really was.


60 posted on 01/11/2014 6:15:08 AM PST by ProgressingAmerica (What's the best way to reach a YouTube generation? Put it on YouTube!)
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