“Constitutionalists were entitled to rule, and either they were going to work within the system to achieve their vision of “constitutional government,” or, if the ballot failed them, they were going to take up arms. By 1974, some members identified violence as the only solution to the ills plaguing the United States.

Birchers
Matthew Dallek

#Birchers #dallek #bookstodon #extremism #rightwing #history #pastisprologue

“If liberals were to build the world they wanted—a world where pluralism trumped hate, science trounced unreason, and democracy conquered fascism—they had to fight harder.”

#Birchers #Dallek #rightwing #rightWingExtremism #History #bookstodon #pastisprologue

“The fact is clear, you can’t talk with a Bircher,” [..] The typical Bircher “is so aggressive in defense of the card he carries that he seems to lose sight of country and human dignity. So the best way to beat him is at the polls. Every time he raises his paranoid head, we will be there after him. Sometimes we will win, sometimes we will lose. But, he will know that we are watching.” #birchers #dallek #bookstodon #rightwing #extremism #Republicans #history #pastisprologue

“Birchers’ use of conspiracy theories to tar their foes as anti-American was native to the United States, too, as was their contempt for multiracial democracy.”
#pastisprologue #birchers #Bookstodon

Wow, whack jobs: “In response to a query from a member in North Carolina, for example, the [John Birch Society] research department in Belmont explained that Franklin Roosevelt, rather than Japan, had “triggered the attack upon Pearl Harbor.”

Birchers
Matthew Dallek
#birchers #dallek #bookstodon #history #extremism #rightwing #americanHistory #conservatism #pastisprologue

Where have we heard this before, “very fine people”:
“In January 1962 Buckley and Goldwater agreed during a meeting at the Breakers in Palm Beach to visibly divorce themselves and the conservative movement from the Birch Society’s wildest conspiracy theories by casting Welch as the crackpot his critics had alleged while at the same time defending Birch members, whom Goldwater called “nice people.”

Birchers
Matthew Dallek
#birchers #dallek #extremism #rightwing #pastisprologue

Foreign Correspondent, 1940 directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This has held up. A classic in the #WWII #propaganda genre. #alfredHitchcock’s 2nd film —#pastIsPrologue - unapologetically patriotic. It’s on @HBOmax #classicmovies #movieclips

“Above all, it would have required self-understanding, a recognition early on that they would not tolerate a shift in the balance of power in favor of global dictatorships and therefore should work consistently to ensure that the risks of such a shift were kept to a minimum”

The Ghost at the Feast
Robert Kagan
#bookstodon #theghostAtthefeast #robertkagan #history #pastisprologue

“from the global perspective, appeasement of “the bandit nations” anywhere only strengthened the forces of aggressive fascism everywhere.”

The Ghost at the Feast
Robert Kagan
#theGhostAtTheFeast #RobertKagan #pastIsPrologue #bookstodon #wwii #history

“What is America but millionaires, beauty queens, stupid records and Hollywood?”
—Adolf Hitler quoted in Compton, Swastika and the Eagle.

#TheGhostattheFeast
#RobertKagan #WWII #history #AmericanHistory #pastisprologue

I am loathe to quote Hitler, but this is too good—AND as President Joe Biden, said at his State of the Union speech: those who wish the United States ill should know "it's never ever a good bet to bet against America".

When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck before you crush him.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt, September 11, 1941

Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Maintaining Freedom of the Seas,” Fireside Chat #18, Sept.11, 1941 http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/_resources/images/msf/msfb0004

The Ghost at the Feast
Robert Kagan
#fdr #wwii #bookstodon #theGhostAtTheFeast #robertKagan #pastisprologue #roosevelt #history #americanHistory

‘Even if the United States faced no immediate threat of military attack, Roosevelt warned in his January 1940 State of the Union address, the world would be a “shabby and dangerous place to live in—yes, even for Americans to live in” if it were ruled “by force in the hands of a few.”’

#TheGhostAtTheFeast #RobertKagan #pastisprologue #isolationism
#history #fascism #MolotovRibbentrop #WWII #bookstodon

“I have a horrible feeling of seeing…a civilization dying even before its actual death….How delicate a fabric this thing we call modern civilization really is.”

Franklin Roosevelt close adviser, Adolf Berle, writing in his diary on occasion of the Hitler-Stalin non-aggression pact, August 1939—Berle, a year before, had regarded fears of Hitler’s intentions as overblown.

#TheGhostAtTheFeast #RobertKagan #pastisprologue #isolationism
#history #fascism #MolotovRibbentrop #WWII #bookstodon

“I have a horrible feeling of seeing…a civilization dying even before its actual death….How delicate a fabric this thing we call modern civilization really is.”

Franklin Roosevelt close adviser, Adolf Berle, writing in his diary on occasion of the Hitler-Stalin non-aggression pact, September 1939—Berle, a year before, had regarded fears of Hitler’s intentions as overblown.

#TheGhostAtTheFeast #RobertKagan #pastisprologue
#history #fascism

“the very ruthlessness of fascism has been in proportion to the lack of opposition it has encountered.”

Lewis Mumford, Men Must Act (Harcourt, Brace, 1939) writing in response to Kristallnact, November 1938. #fascism #pastisprologue

The Ghost at the Feast
Robert Kagan
#theGhostAtTheFeast #RobertKagan #americanhistory #fdr #pastisprologue #DefendDemocracy #bookstodon

1935: “[Franklin] Roosevelt likely believed that his re-election was more important than any particular policy he might have pursued at that moment or any statement he might have made. He believed that the very survival of democracy was at stake in 1936. He said as much publicly, and privately he commented that the election had ‘in a sense, a German parallel….Democracy is verily on trial.’”
#democracy #pastisprologue
*this makes me think of Biden in our present moment.

#TheGhostattheFeast #RobertKagan
#bookstodon #history #tsEliot #ezraPound #pastisprologue

1933 could be 2023–it’s the same:

“Although cautious about challenging the democracies prematurely, Hitler could also be bold and opportunistic. He looked for weaknesses to exploit and early on perceived that the Western powers lacked the determination and coherence to defend their order.”

#TheGhostAtTheFeast #RobertKagan #pastIsPrologue #PutinIsHitler

“If you want to quiet the world, you have got to reassure the world, and the only way in which you can reassure it is to let it know that all the great fighting powers of the world are going to maintain that quiet.”
—Woodrow Wilson, September 1919

#TheGhostAtTheFeast #WWI #pastIsPrologue