Posted on 04/25/2013 2:36:31 PM PDT by neverdem
"I f history were to repeat itself,” warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his 1944 State of the Union address, “and we were to return to the so-called ‘normalcy’ of the 1920s, then it is certain that even though we shall have conquered our enemies on the battlefields abroad, we shall have yielded to the spirit of fascism here at home.”
The “normalcy” of the 1920s that Roosevelt referred to was a time of peace and prosperity. The decade began with Republican president Warren Harding commuting the sentences of political prisoners jailed by the Wilson administration, including the socialist leader Eugene Debs. “Normalcy” meant the end to the Palmer raids aimed at rooting out dissidents, the end of economic rationing, the cessation of domestic surveillance and the state propaganda of the World War I years.
“A return to normalcy” was also Harding’s campaign slogan in the 1920 presidential election, which he won in a landslide over Democrat James Cox and his running mate — Franklin D. Roosevelt.
That Roosevelt nurtured resentments against the Republicans for the drubbing he received in 1920 is no surprise. That those resentments ran deep enough for him to smear Republicans in 1944 with the “spirit of fascism” at the height of the war against the real thing is nothing short of disgusting.
But it was effective.
Harry Truman recognized that when he ran for president against the liberal Republican Thomas Dewey in 1948. Truman charged that Dewey was the front man for the same sort of “powerful reactionary forces” that orchestrated the rise of Hitler in Germany.
When a communist assassinated President Kennedy, somehow the American Right got the blame. Lyndon Johnson translated that myth into a campaign of slander against Barry Goldwater, casting him as a crypto-Nazi emissary of “hate.”
After the Oklahoma City bombing, President Clinton saw fit to insinuate that Rush Limbaugh and his imitators were partly to blame.
Such partisanship is hardly reserved for partisans. The late Daniel Schorr, then of CBS News, reported that Goldwater’s planned European vacation was really a rendezvous with the German right in “Hitler’s one-time stomping ground.”
Schorr spent his golden years at NPR. No doubt he would have been pleased with the “reporting” of its counterterrorism correspondent, Dina Temple-Raston. Before the identities of the Boston bombers were confirmed, she said her sources were “leaning” toward believing that it was a homegrown “right-wing” attack, and cited that “April is a big month for anti-government and right-wing individuals.”
How so? Well, because April’s when the Oklahoma City bombing took place, as well as the Waco siege, the Columbine shootings and, how could one forget, Adolf Hitler’s birthday.
Over the last few years, the invariably unjustified rush to pin violence on the “right-wing” — particularly the tea partiers — has reached the point of parody. Remember when New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg speculated that the foiled Times Square bomber might just be angry about Obamacare?
As the Washington Examiner’s Philip Klein recently noted, among the myriad reasons conservatives take offense at this idiotic knee-jerk slander is that the term “right-wing” is routinely used to describe both terrorists and mainstream Republicans such as Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney. I can exclusively report that neither of them celebrates Hitler’s birthday.
Every Muslim terrorist enjoys not just the presumption of innocence until proven guilty but the presumption that he’s a fan of Ayn Rand, too.
Ah, but some would respond that “right-wing” is different than “Muslim” because there’s so much similarity between mainstream conservative ideology and the terror-filled creeds of the far right.
Except there isn’t. Timothy McVeigh, an atheist, wasn’t part of the conservative or libertarian movements. He wasn’t even part of the militia movement. And what on earth was right-wing about the Columbine shootings?
In plenty of cases of multiple killings, from the Unabomber to Christopher Dorner, the perpetrators espoused views closer to the mainstream left’s than McVeigh had to the mainstream right’s. Occupy Wall Street was an idealistic expression of democratic protest, but the tea partiers are brownshirts in khakis.
And, recall that Secretary of State John Kerry belonged to a group — Vietnam Veterans Against the War — that once discussed assassinating American politicians. Barack Obama was friendly with a convicted domestic terrorist. But to even bring these things up, never mind invest them with significance, is considered outrageous guilt by association.
And you know what? Maybe it is.
But if that is outrageous, what do you call the paranoid style of liberal politics that has confused normalcy with fascism for more than half a century?
— Jonah Goldberg is the author of The Tyranny of Clichés. You can write to him at goldbergcolumn@gmail.com, or via Twitter @JonahNRO. © 2013 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
I alternate between Wilson and FDR as the worst president in American history, but FDR usually wins hands-down. Wilson provided the foundation for FDR’s destructive welfare schemes, but it was FDR who did the damage.
Let's fair. We are just as anxious to pin the violence on the Left.
But there is still a difference: The Left has a much bigger voice than we do, the MSM. And, history is on our side - it is almost always the Left who is behind the violence.
Conclusion: It's OK for us to blame the Left. It is not OK for the Left to blame us on the Right.
:: the worst president in American history, but FDR usually wins hands-down ::
You need to consider Abraham Lincoln. He grew the isdea that the federal government must survive, even at the expense of the States demise.
But on the whole it's a good point and I agree. The Internet way seems to be to start a thread complaining about something somebody said that ends up doing the exact same thing that was complained about.
Somebody discovers some very obscure blogger or tweeter who says something outrageous and people complain about it until they are saying things that are just as outrageous, taking the original comment as license to do the same thing.
It’s a good enough article, but the thing is — people in today’s America who are crazy enough to blow up or shoot bystanders probably have some crazy views that can’t always be described as left or right. A lot of the time it’s somebody who has a very personal grievance that doesn’t fit into political schemas.
It’s classic projection. They know that they are vulnerable to being accused of fomenting violence, so they point the finger at us to preempt it.
The worst President in history was Buchanan ~ a Democrat. He nearly destroyed the nation with his outdated views.
They were anarchists ~ the very archtypes of the far leftwingtard Occupy Wallstreet!
Agree. By 1945 he appointed eight of nine justices on Scotus. Adios to the 9th and 10th Amendments.
From an e-mail I just received today:
“Good afternoon, I’m Paul and I’m your average right wing gun nut.
You know me.. Along with my fellow gun owners we are responsible for all the carnage in our streets and our schools. Never mind that Ted Kennedy’s car has killed more people than my entire collection of firearms. Most of which I have owned since childhood when I saved my pennies and nickels in order to purchase them and each and everyone is in perfect working order. It is the responsible gun owners of today that are being blamed for all the shootings. Obama calls us the right wing gun nuts, clinging to our guns and to our religion.
But lets take a little closer look. The Fort Hood shooter, a Muslim, and a registered Democrat. The Virginia Tech shooter, he wrote hate mail to George Bush and his staff and was a registered Democrat. Aurora Colorado shooter, he was a staff worker on the Obama campaign and took part in Occupy Wall Street. He was a progressive liberal and guess what? A registered Democrat. The Newtown, Conn shooter hated Christians and was a registered Democrat. The Columbine high school shooters were too young to vote, but both of their families were progressive liberals and registered Democrats.
And one more thing, not a single one of these killers were members of the National Rifle Association. So I have got it figured out how to make this country much safer; leave the guns alone and lock up all the Democrats.”
So right you are. Lincoln is first and foremost responsible for the massive expansion of the federal government, and the destruction of the 10th Amendment.
Lincoln had always championed a large federal government, to which the states must be subordinate.
The post-war amendments just codified Lincoln’s design. Certain subsequent presidents picked up the baton from Lincoln and ran with it, increasing what Lincoln had started: Wilson, FDR, LBJ, and now Obastard.
But it all started with Lincoln.
Bingo!
It was Coolidge (after Harding’s death) that helped give America prosperity.
Amity Shlaes
Author, “Coolidge”
Calvin Coolidge and the Moral Case for Economy
https://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2013&month=02
He was a fiscal disciplinarian by cutting taxes AND cutting spending.
https://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2013&month=02
We really need another Coolidge for 2016.
The fact that conservatives fight every day against the Death Penalty for pre-born future Democrat voters speaks volumes about our motivation and integrity.
I have the same problem. Wilson was also responsible for the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which even that idiot realized eventually was a horrible mistake.
They will never actually be complicit in solving a problem, unless doing so creates bigger problems.
LOL! I needed that.
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