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As Jonah Goldberg pointed out in his superb book “Liberal Fascism,” “There was an enormous bipartisan consensus that the Depression required dictatorial and fascistic policies to defeat it. Walter Lippmann, serving as an ambassador for America’s liberal elite, told FDR in a private meeting in Warm Springs, “The situation is critical, Franklin. You may have no alternative but to assume dictatorial powers.” Eleanor Roosevelt, too, thought “a benevolent dictator” might be the only answer for America.”
FDR adviser Rexford Guy Tugwell said of Italian fascism: “It’s the cleanest, neatest, most efficiently operating piece of social machinery I’ve ever seen. It makes me envious.” Even the great American humorist Will Rogers said of Benito Mussolini: “I’m pretty high on that bird. Dictator form of government is the greatest form of government, if you have the right dictator.” The road to authoritarian rule was paved then — as it is today — with disparagement of the “inefficient” congressional methods.
In Frank Capra’s 1939 iconic film homage to American democracy, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” an idealistic freshman Senator, played by Jimmy Stewart, is trying to stop a corrupt bill by filibustering it. The bill he is opposing was titled the “Deficiency Act”. Hmmm?
The corrupt political boss who is fighting Mr. Smith is organizing the newspapers and radio networks he controls to slander Smith. The message his lackey newspaper and radio reporters send out about Sen. Smith is that “to gain his own contemptible ends, this man is blocking a bill — vital to you and this entire nation. Relief will be stopped! Men will be thrown out of jobs! He will keep money out of this state; He’s going to destroy everything. Federal grants, prosperity — and now the Willet Dam. But Smith will destroy that, too!”
Well, that sounds familiar. Just substitute the Tea Party for Mr. Smith. However, because Frank Capra understood that it was precisely in the procedures of congress that our form of government is preserved, the battle between Smith and the corrupt political boss ends with a scene of a radio broadcast:
“This is H. V. Kaltenborn speaking — half of official Washington is here to see democracy’s finest show — Washington’s uncontrolled filibuster. The right to talk your head off — the American privilege of free speech in it’s most dramatic form. The galleries are packed, and in the diplomatic gallery are the envoys of two dictator powers. They have come to see what they can’t see at home — democracy in action.”
Nothing changes. The fight for liberty remains unfinished. Tell your kids.
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