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Baron Dave Romm
Isolationists: Conservative Appeasers
By Baron Dave Romm
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The GOP Hate Machine Eats It's Young
Bush recently went after Obama (and then tried to claim he didn't) by harping on the "appeasers", including a US Senator who said in 1939 that he would have liked to talk to Hitler. White House transcript of speech before the Knesset, 10 Iyar 5758 (May 15, 2008CE):
Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history. (Applause.)
By implication, this US senator was a liberal Democrat somehow sharing a viewpoint with Sen. Obama. In fact, the person saying this was Sen. William Edgar Borah, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee 1924-1933. He was the longest serving senator from Idaho and was considered a "progressive" at the time, but would now be considered a conservative Republican, one of Pat Buchanan's "America First" adherents. One of the Isolationists, who kept the US out of WWII until Pearl Harbor.
Neville Chamberlain deserves his reputation as an idiot on the Munich Agreement. But the Conservative British PM has his own political agenda: He didn't want Germany invading the UK. British reaction to the Munich Agreement was generally positive, though turned sour soon enough. And it should be noted that Chamberlain's leadership, which remains controversial, included rearming the UK which was critical in preparation for the upcoming war. His successor, Winston Churchill, included him in his war cabinet. His plan didn't work, but he has a better excuse than US Senators.
The Conservative Party in Britain doesn't have much to do with current American definition of "conservative", and Republicans in the wake of Teddy Roosevelt were often considered Progressives and closer to the current definition of "liberal". Before FDR, the Democrats were the party of racism and were anti-immigration legislation.
In their great rush to justify two wars, torture and shredding the Constitution, the GOP wants you scared. Even if the people you should be scared of are conservative Republicans of days gone by. The Sphincter Conservatives want your butt clenched, and they're willing to sacrifice anything to get there.
German Sympathies in WWI
Non-interventionism has a long history in the US. That was largely because we were a small, weak, country far away from everyone else. By the 20th Century, the US was neither small nor weak. We had engaged in wars of imperialism, and were becoming a major player on the world stage. But which side would we take in WWI?
Democrat Woodrow Wilson won reelection in 1916 with the slogan, "He Kept Us Out Of War". In many respects Wilson was a Progressive, the comparatively liberal set of politicians that were most associated with the dominant Republican part of the era. Former Republican president Teddy Roosevelt refused to run as a Progressive, dooming the Progressive Party, because he disliked Wilson and wanted the best chance for the Republicans to defeat him. The election was close.
Most Americans didn't like the Germans, and disapproved of German conduct in the war. It wasn't until the sinking of the Lusitania and the revelation of the Zimmerman Telegram that Americans were enraged enough to enter the War to End All Wars on the side of the British and French in April 1917.
Germans had immigrated to America in great numbers in the 1800s and many had emotional attachments to their former country, but not all viewed the Kaiser fondly. The Socialists, in particular, didn't like German imperialism. The German government ad been involved in providing financial support to pro-German propaganda in the U.S. This wasn't illegal, but it looked really bad and fanned the flames. American sentiment just before and during the war turned sharply anti-German. German language periodicals became increasingly unpopular and fewer than half survived the war years.
With all this, why didn't the US enter WWI earlier?
A full examination of pro-German sentiment is beyond the purview of this essay, but let me take a brief look at some who were sympathetic to the German cause, before, during and after World War I.
Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst opposed American involvement in WWI, and later opposed the League of Nations. Then, as now, the media was very conservative.
Many people retained emotional ties to the Old Country. For example, Wisconsin was 25% of German descent, and retained much of their culture though not necessarily the politics.
The Great Phenol Plot was a conspiracy during the early years of World War I to divert American-produced phenol away from the manufacture of high explosives, and instead use it to produce Aspirin and bring profits to the German-owned Bayer company. Many American companies had economic ties with Germany, and were loathe to let a mere world war get in the way. This got worse after WWI.
After the war, Wilson proposed The League of Nations, which was established in 1919. Opposition at home prevented the US joining. The League was formed partially in to address the weaknesses of the Treaty of Versailles which formally ended WWI. Without the US, by now one of the if now the pre-eminent world military power, the League had no teeth.
The Treaty of Versailles and the lack of the League of Nations imposed a hardship on Germany, which many were able to exploit. US ate up German companies with reparations. Resentment in Germany stirred up German Nationalism which gave rise to the Nazis. I've talked before about Averill Harriman sending George Herbert Walker to Berlin to found The Union Bank in 1924, to funnel US money to the Nazis. This may have been more a business decision than a cultural one, but these kinds of ties had devastating political repercussionsrepercussions.
Let's move ahead a few years.
US Isolationism Before WWII
As above, the subject is too vast for this essay, and a few examples will suffice.
Continuing from Wikipedia:The time between the World Wars saw a resurgence in non-interventionism in the United States. After the war broke out in Europe on September 1, 1939, such Americans as Charles Lindbergh, [Republican Senator] Gerald P. Nye, and [Democratic Senator but New Deal critic] Rush D. Holt prominently advocated U.S. neutrality. Groups like the America First Committee tapped into the overwhelming desire of the American people to remain out of this second European war, attracting hundreds of thousands into its ranks. The committee came under attacks by those who supported stronger intervention in the European war.
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's efforts to aid countries against Nazi Germany's and Imperial Japan's aggression through economic aid (see Lend-Lease) and embargoes undermined this non-interventionism. Almost immediately after the Pearl Harbor attacks, the American isolationist movement quickly lost support and evaporated.
The German American Bund or German American Federation was an American Nazi, antisemitic, and racist organization established in the 1930s. Its main goal was to promote a favorable view of the Nazi Germany.
Arguably, the zenith of the Bund's history occurred on President's Day, February 19, 1939 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Some 20,000 people attended and heard Kuhn criticize President Franklin D. Roosevelt by repeatedly referring to him as "Frank D. Rosenfeld", calling his New Deal the "Jew Deal", and stating his belief of Bolshevik-Jewish American leadership. Most shocking to American sensibilities was the outbreak of violence between protesters and Bund storm troopers.American isolationism did not mean disengagement from the world stage.
The Bund was one of several German-American heritage groups; however, it was one of the few to express National Socialist ideals. As a result, many considered the group anti-American. In the last week of December 1942, led by journalist Dorothy Thompson, fifty leading German-Americans including Babe Ruth signed a "Christmas Declaration by men and women of German ancestry" condemning Nazism, which appeared in ten major American daily newspapers. In 1939, a New York tax investigation determined Kuhn had embezzled money from the Bund. The Bund operated on the theory that the leader's powers were absolute, and therefore did not seek prosecution. However, in an attempt to cripple the Bund, the New York district attorney prosecuted Kuhn. New Bund leaders would replace Kuhn, most notably with Gerhard Kunze, but these were only brief stints. Martin Dies and the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) were very active in denying any Nazi-sympathetic organization the ability to freely operate during World War II.
During the 1920s and 1930s, the preponderance of Americans remained opposed to enmeshment in Europe's alliances and wars. Isolationism was solid in hinterland and small-town America in the Midwest and Great Plains states, and among Republicans. It claimed numerous sympathizers among Irish- and German-Americans. William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska, Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin, and George W. Norris of Nebraska were among western agrarian progressives who argued fervently against involvement. Assuming an us-versus-them stance, they castigated various eastern, urban elites for their engagement in European affairs.
Isolationism (as opposed to Pacifism) was akin to appeasement. We were engaged, but willing to let horrific people get away with mass murder. It was more than just talking to them to try to make peace, it was working with them, even as their evil was being executed. Prescott Bush's dealings with Nazi Germany (many cites; look it up!), even while we were at war, is on a par with Dick Cheney and Haliburton dealing with Saddam Hussein's Iraq after they had been declared a terrorist state.
A few thoughts on Bush's latest idiotic remarks
Bush is trying to compare the "need" to overthrow Saddam Hussein with the failure to stop Hitler before WWII. Yet the comparison between 1930's Germany and 2000's Iraq is a poor one, and the attempt to compare those who would talk to Hamas/Iran with those who tried to appease Hitler is also patently false. I'm as pro-Israel as anyone, and I'm perfectly okay with opening a dialog with Hamas et al... as long as we make it clear that we're going to reject their terrorist ideology until they convince us that they mean peace.
The Huffington Post has a good article on the squirrelish attempt, Bush Compares Obama To Nazi Appeasers. The article points out that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates falls into Bush's "appeaser" category since he wants to engage with Iran, and has many responses to the latest (but not last) Bush idiocy. Oh for the day when Bush's refusal to speak English was the subject of jokes, and wasn't likely to get lots of people killed.
Glenn Greenwald has a good entry that to many on the Even Father Right, Ronald Reagan: Chamberlainian appeaser of the 1980s salon.com (requires Premium membership, but you can usually click through the ads) 5/17/08:
Newt Gingrich -- who today regularly invokes the "Chamberlain/appeasement" cliche for anyone who does not crave war with Iran -- denounced President Reagan's rapprochement with Gorbachev in 1985 as potentially "the most dangerous summit for the West since Adolf Hitler met with Chamberlain in 1938 at Munich." Don Rumsfeld -- who gave a controversial 2006 speech likening war opponents to 1938 appeasers (and used the same 1939 quote as Bush just used from the U.S. Senator who wanted to talk to Hitler) -- has been tossing around the Chamberlain insult in order to promote his pro-war views for almost 30 years.
Today, conservative Republicans don't have the balls to play on the world stage. The world is complex, and not every problem can be solved with a no-bit contract. We need Senator Obama to put adults in charge of American policy. (Senator Clinton would have made a great president too.)
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
--////
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
MICHAEL ABERNETHY: "QUEER, ISN'T IT?: The People at the Airport Took it Well" (popmatters.com)
Gay visibility on TV may have increased significantly in the last three decades, but consigned to secondary roles on network shows, the impact of that visibility is weakened.
FROMA HARROP: "In Rehab: Sweet Things About Slowdown" (creators.com)
The morning after overdoing it, some of us take pleasure in the cleansing process. The carrot juice goes down smoothly, and a simple walk feels virtuous. One vows to exert more self-control and give yoga another try.
A mother who fought to the end (guardian.co.uk)
After her daughter, Sarah, took a fatal overdose in prison, Pauline Campbell, who died yesterday, became a tireless campaigner against the deaths of women in custody. Julie Bindel pays tribute to a woman who was driven by a passion for justice.
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If I wanted to join one of those world-famous Amazon ladies' archery tribes, ain't nobody'd be asking me to cut anything off .
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Annalee Newitz: Is the Creative Internet Just About Dead?
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Jonathan Cunningham: Not Every Rapper is Sold on Sen. Barack Obama (New Times)
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California Supreme Court Says Same-Sex Couples Can Marry (newyorklawschool.typepad.com)
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Shaun Jacob Halper: Will I Live to See My Wedding Day? (huffingtonpost.com)
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BARBARA EHRENREICH: Hillary's Gift to Women (huffingtonpost.com)
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Ben Westhoff: White Rabbits Conquers the Underground One Book at a Time (Scene)
Despite his lack of formal education, White Rabbits bass player Adam Russell has long led a literary lifestyle. He dropped out of high school when he was 16 because he was frustrated with teachers who regularly kicked him out of class for reading stuff like Moby-Dick, physics texts, and Nietzsche when he was supposed to be paying attention to them.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
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Reader Looking For Suggestions
Name The Tater
Marty,
I came across this odd-shaped potato the other day and thought maybe I could get something for it on ebay. I had been going through the whole 15-lb. bag o' spuds hoping to find one that looked like Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Dick Cheney or some other mythical creature, but all I got was this boob tater. Maybe your readers would like to suggest names that will help it sell on ebay!
Reader Reports
Fox 13, Tampa
Marty,
I saw this in today's Lakeland Ledger:
Fox 13 News Boss Faces Sex Charges
The general manager of Fox 13 News WTVT-TV in Tampa was arrested Friday night at Fantasy Land Adult Video Store in Tampa on charges of exposure of a sexual organ and lewd and lascivious behavior.
Tampa Police say Robert W. Linger was one of six men who were arrested by undercover officers at the adult store's movie theatre, at 4714 N Lois Ave.
According to arrest reports, the six were seen publicly masturbating.
Fox News Boss Arrested - Lakeland Ledger
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Thanks, Colby!
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from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
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Afghan Journalist Appeals Death Sentence
Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh
An Afghan journalism student sentenced to death for insulting Islam denied the charges before an appeals court Sunday, saying he only confessed to questioning the religion's treatment of women because he was tortured.
During an hour-long hearing, a judge read aloud a transcript of the Jan. 22 proceedings against 24-year-old Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh at the primary court in northern Balkh province.
It was the first time the public and the media heard full details from the closed-door trial, which highlights the influence of conservative religious attitudes in post-Taliban Afghanistan's still-nascent justice system.
The transcript said Kambakhsh disrupted classes at the university by asking questions about women's rights under Islam. It also said he distributed an article about the subject and wrote an additional three paragraphs for the piece.
The only people with him in the courtroom in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif were three judges, a court scribe and the prosecutor. Kambakhsh said he had no defense lawyer, and only three minutes to defend himself.
Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh
New Search
'Emmanuelle'
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The hugely successful series -- launched in 1974 and based on a character created by Emmanuelle Arsan in her eponymous 1959 novel -- became one of the most popular films in French history and built up a huge global fan base.
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Anderson - Flick
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Flick met Anderson at a movie premiere in her native Minneapolis a few years after his group hit No. 2 on the pop charts with "Greenfields" in 1960. A local newspaper had sent her out to pose with the group as the "lucky young fan," an image that was used Saturday night as the couple's wedding poster, her publicist, Cheryl Kagan, told The Associated Press.
Anderson's granddaughters wore the same diamond hearts the actress wore in the 1983 movie "Stroker Ace," in which she starred with Reynolds.
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The lip-synching pop-star little sis of Jessica Simpson and the Fall Out Boy bassist tied the knot Saturday night at her parents' Los Angeles-area home with an "Alice in Wonderland" theme, according to People magazine.
Simpson, 23, and Wentz, 28, exchanged vows at the property in Encino, a bedroom community in the San Fernando Valley. Joe Simpson, her father, performed the non-denominational ceremony and sister Jessica was the maid of honor, the magazine said.
People also reported Saturday that the couple is expecting a child together, which both Simpson and Wentz have long denied.
Simpson - Wentz
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McBush
John McCain's national finance co-chairman has stepped down, the latest casualty of a presidential campaign eager to cauterize damage caused by its ties to lobbyists.
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Among Loeffler's clients is the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., the parent company of plane manufacturer Airbus. Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS won a lucrative contract to provide air refueling tankers for the Air Force. McCain helped scuttle an earlier contract in 2004 that would have gone to a competitor, Boeing Co.
McCain advisers Doug Goodyear, who was to run the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn., and Doug Davenport, a regional campaign director for the Mid-Atlantic states, also resigned this month. Both worked for DCI Group, a consulting firm hired to improve the image of Myanmar's military junta.
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Hearts & Minds
Target Practice
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The elaborate ceremony - in which one U.S. officer kissed a new copy of Islam's holy book before giving it to the tribal leaders - reflected the military's eagerness to stave off anger among Sunni Arabs it has been cultivating as allies.
Iraqi police found the bullet-riddled Quran with graffiti inside the cover on a firing range near a police station in Radwaniyah, a former insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, U.S. military spokesman Col. Bill Buckner said.
The incident, which occurred on May 9 and was discovered two days later, was first reported by CNN, which broadcast a ceremony at which the top American commander in Baghdad apologized to tribal leaders Saturday in Radwaniyah. The military confirmed the details Sunday in an e-mailed response to a query.
Target Practice
Shopping Spree
Roman Abramovich
The Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is the mystery buyer of two paintings by Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud that sold for record prices at auction this week, The Art Newspaper said on its website.
The Art Newspaper said neither auction house discloses information on buyers but said "sources close to the market confirm that Mr Abramovich... purchased both lots, apparently for display in his London home".
"He has not previously been known to purchase works of art at this level. These purchases demonstrate how the balance of power in the art world is shifting away from the US," it added.
Roman Abramovich
Fear, Secrecy Kept Mass Killings Hidden
Korea
Fifty-eight years ago, at the outbreak of the Korean War, South Korean authorities secretively executed, usually without legal process, tens of thousands of southern leftists and others rightly or wrongly identified as sympathizers. Today a government Truth and Reconciliation Commission is working to dig up the facts, and the remains of victims.
Among the Koreans who witnessed, took part in or lost family members to the mass killings, the events were hardly hidden, but they became a "public secret," barely whispered about through four decades of right-wing dictatorship here.
British journalist James Cameron wrote about mass prisoner shootings in the South Korean port city of Busan - then spelled Pusan - for London's Picture Post magazine in the fall of 1950, but publisher Edward Hulton ordered the story removed at the last minute.
Earlier, correspondent Alan Winnington reported on the shooting of thousands of prisoners at Daejeon in the British communist newspaper The Daily Worker, only to have his reporting denounced by the U.S. Embassy in London as an "atrocity fabrication." The British Cabinet then briefly considered laying treason charges against Winnington, historian Jon Halliday has written.
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Class Of 1
Opheim High School
Jeff Greenwood is in a class by himself.
He was the only student to graduate from Opheim High School this year, but the small event Friday drew a big name. Gov. Brian Schweitzer gave the commencement address.
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Opheim High School
The Story Behind
Secret of the Skulls
Apart from the Paris, London and Smithsonian skulls, nine belong to private individuals -- the skull of doom, the Sha-Na-Ra skull, the synergy skull, the Max skull, the Mayan skull, a so-called E.T. skull, the amethyst skull, the reliquary cross skull and the pink crystal skull.
Each skull was supposed to correspond to 12 worlds in which human life was present. They were brought by the Itza, the ancient people of Atlantis, to their civilisation in order to pass on their knowledge to man.
The 13th world, the land, also had its own crystal skull, and all 13 skulls were kept in a great pyramid by the Olmecs, the Mayas and ultimately the Aztecs.
The Aztecs are said to have been responsible for the dispersal and loss of the skulls, which when brought together possessed great powers, including being lined up on the last day of the Mayan calendar -- December 21, 2012 -- to prevent the earth from tipping over.
Secret of the Skulls
Weekend Box Office
'The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian'
"The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" dethroned "Iron Man" as ruler at the box office, pulling down $56.6 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The Walt Disney Co.'s action sequel took in less domestically in its opening weekend than "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe," which sold $65.6 million in North America in its debut weekend in December 2005. "Caspian" also raked in $20.7 million overseas.
Marvel Studios' "Iron Man" slipped to second place after two weeks at No. 1 with $31.2 million, bringing its domestic total to $222.5 million.
1. "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," $56.6 million.
2. "Iron Man," $31.2 million.
3. "What Happens in Vegas," $13.9 million.
4. "Speed Racer," $7.6 million.
5. "Baby Mama," $4.6 million.
6. "Made of Honor," $4.5 million.
7. "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," $2.5 million.
8. "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay," $1.8 million.
9. "The Forbidden Kingdom," $1 million.
10. "The Visitor," $687,000.
'The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian'
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