Socialism in America - Part 2

The Fascist Era

In the amazing book Liberal Fascism, its author documents the activities of American fascists through our modern history and it is an amazing eye-opener. I see the Fascist Era beginning in the 1890s and ending around the 1950s. When you look at the American political scene in this time period, you see an immensely powerful federal government forcing its views not only upon the States, but on the world as well. Our international policies manipulated nations all around the world, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean. American progressives throughout history are dedicated to imperialism and control. Everything the world hates about America is due to the progressives and not the conservatives.

President William McKinley (1897-1901) demanded that Spain give Cuba its independence, even though it was not America’s place to say so. Coincidentally, one of our battleships exploded in Havana Harbor, leading to the Spanish-American War in which we annexed the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawaii, and established a puppet government in Cuba. He was the first president to receive battle details immediately thanks to the telegraph and telephone and he used this advantage in order to censor the information given to the press.

President Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) demanded the creation of universal healthcare and a national health service. He created the first stages of the FDA, which was the first attempt of federal regulation of the economy. He constantly attacked corporations, believing they could only have gotten so successful because they were corrupt. He believed that without federal regulation, there would be only new evils or radicalism. Railroad rates was at the discretion of the federal government under Roosevelt and anyone that disagreed would be taken directly before the Supreme Court. Through his belief in conservation, which was honorable, he abused federal power in order to control State governments. Roosevelt created sanctuaries, parks, forest services, and preserves – confiscating 194 million acres of land; more than all of his predecessors combined. He was also able to pass the Antiquities Act, which gave the president the power to seize more property – this time without the need of Congressional approval. He enlarged the size of the US Navy and sailed them around the world as a show of force. Roosevelt announced that the US and only the US was allowed to intervene against corrupt governments in Latin America. Wanting to construct a canal in Latin America, the choice was between fairly level land in Panama and mountainous land in Nicaragua. Although Nicaragua wanted a canal, Roosevelt wanted to build it in Panama (which was part of Colombia at the time). When Colombia refused to grant the land, Roosevelt helped support rebels win independence for Panama, which allowed us to build the canal. Becoming the first president to try for a third term, he was the Progressive Party candidate for president – he lost.

President William Howard Taft (1909-1913) continued Roosevelt’s manipulation of Latin America. When we didn’t build a canal in Nicaragua, they decided to see if Germany wanted to build one there instead. As punishment, we seized several major Nicaraguan ports. He also practiced “dollar diplomacy” which involved American investment in Latin American nations that decided to cooperate with us. He supported the 16th Amendment that created the federal income tax. He also supported the 17th Amendment, which ended senators being chosen by State governments.

President Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) was a fascist. He believed that God created government, therefore government always performed God’s work and to not impose government control was to not bless the citizens with God’s Will. He believed it was the school’s job to make children “the least like their fathers as possible.” He believed the Constitution was outdated, that our Founding Fathers were ancient figures to be forgotten, and that government was a living organism powered through the unified action of the people. Individuality would threaten the unison of this organism, so Wilson made it his job to silence all that disagreed with his administration. Wilson also believed that we had a “living Constitution” that changes as society changes and he favored the US abandoning republican government for a parliamentary government like Canada and England. He believed the presidency should be “as big as and as influential as the man who occupies it.” He established the Federal Reserve, a government-owned bank that can print money whenever it wants to. He believed trade should be protected at any cost, even if it meant establishing colonies or bullying other nations. During World War 1, he passed the Espionage & Sedition Acts, which helped throw almost 200,000 Americans in jail for being “unamerican.” It was against the law to criticize the government or the war. He created the first propaganda ministry, unleashing 100,000 agents throughout the United States to give four-minute speeches in public places to persuade people to support World War 1. He told Americans to distrust Germans and to hate immigrants. Wilson created the American Protective League, a 250,000-member secret police force that was used to spy on their neighbors. They used government equipment to listen to phone conversations, they read their neighbor’s mail, and they watched for any suspicious activity. They were allowed to beat people up in the street, arrest people, break into homes without warrants, and do government background checks to see who was dodging the draft. They were basically a political street gang who would do the Government's bidding at will. Wilson closed down newspapers and magazines that would print antiwar editorials, threatened thousands of others, and used the mail service to spy. The mail was where everyone got their information, and he used the postal service to clamp down on all dissent. One woman who spoke in her own home about how she liked Lenin was given six months in jail. One guy refused to stand up for the Star-Spangled Banner at a baseball game and was shot three times in the back. A newspaper reported that the crowd stood up and cheered! Another guy refused to sing the national anthem at a liberty bond drive and was almost beaten to death by the crowd. Although Wilson vetoed the prohibition bill, the progressives in Congress overturned it and alcohol was officially banned in the United States. Wilson used the military to influence the presidential election in Haiti as well as to pressure the governments of Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Panama. After World War 1, Wilson pressured Europe into accepting his socialist dream, the League of Nations. Wilson was essentially an American Hugo Chavez or Benito Mussolini.

Between 1921 and 1929, the government relaxed in its pursuit of power. President Harding promised “a return to normalcy” and President Coolidge was one of the more conservative presidents of his day, removing US troops from the Dominican Republic and keeping government out of the way. Coolidge’s taxation policy was that taxes should be lower and less people should have to pay them. In 1927, a massive flood hit the Midwest along the Mississippi, much like it has done today. Coolidge sent Herbert Hoover to take care of the flood. While Coolidge believed in a limited response, Hoover believed it was government’s job to relieve areas affected by natural disasters. A return to progressivism had occurred.

President Herbert Hoover (1929-1933), much to contrary belief, was a progressive. One only needs to read The Forgotten Man to see how much Hoover actually did. He canceled private oil leases on government land, set aside another 3 million acres for preservation, proposed federal loans to improve urban slums, expanded the Justice Department, created the Federal Bureau of Prisons, proposed the Department of Education, and advocated pensions for every American over 65. He withdrew US troops from Nicaragua and Haiti, but also encouraged an arms embargo for all of Latin America. When the Great Depression began, Hoover oversaw the passing of the Smoot-Hawley tariff, which choked world trade and deepened the economic crisis. Continuing his belief in government assistance, he increased farming subsidies, signed into law the nation’s first federal unemployment assistance, and spent hundreds of millions of dollars in public works spending (much like FDR’s administration would do). Hoover also created the Federal Home Loan bank system to assist citizens in obtaining home loans. He created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which expanded federal loans to railroads and banks. Believing that high wages equaled prosperity, he encouraged businesses to continue to pay their workers high wages. At the same time, he increased the tax rate of the wealthy from 25-63%. He doubled the estate tax and raised corporate taxes by 15%. Hoover also enacted a tax on all bank checks. Needless to say, these decisions contributed to massive unemployment, closed factories, and failed banks. With a 25% unemployment rate, Hoover lost any chances at reelection. The scary thing is that many to this day believe things were so bad because Hoover did too little, when in reality he obviously did way too much.

President Franklin Roosevelt (1933-1945) was Woodrow Wilson on steroids. He viewed the economy as one big experiment. He created a massive set of government programs known as the New Deal. When the Great Depression started, the cost to run the federal government was only 3% of the federal budget. In the first three years of Roosevelt, government spending increased by 83%. Roosevelt created giant government programs and agencies, such as the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the Federal Trade Commission. He created the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, which started the tradition of paying farmers not to grow crops and to cut the size of their herds in order to manipulate prices. The National Recovery Act, which was created to force industries to create minimum prices, production restrictions, and promises not to compete, was found to be unconstitutional. This didn't stop FDR, as he created the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate Wall Street, the Public Works Administration to create employment, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. As the biggest public works project in American history, it was created to generate power for, and bring jobs to, the TN valley region. Roosevelt believed in socializing the utility companies and the TVA was his attempt to prove to America that the government could handle it. Social Security, confiscating privately-owned gold, and program after program, the government's power continued to expand.

A British newspaper celebrated Roosevelt's New Deal. “The traveler who after two and a half years’ absence steams into New York and crosses America from the east to the Pacific feels that in the Roosevelt era the United States is undergoing a revolution in the national sense. A continent is becoming a nation. To the traveler who is accustomed to the American’s clinging to State rights, to his hatred of interference from Washington, to his fear of yielding too much power to the President, to his feeling of the independence of the local community, a journey…brings a revelation of this profound change in the American attitude towards government and towards the nation, and indeed in the whole American character. Three years ago there still ruled a deep suspicion of the Federal power, a determination that no bureaucrats a thousand or more miles away should interfere with the traditional rights of the Southerner or the Westerner or the Middle Westerner. Everywhere the Federal power is extending its network of influence, and Washington is at last a capital, instead of being a meeting-place of the representatives and senators from the states; its grip over activities in California, 3,000 miles away, is a symbol of the national revolution through which the United States is going.”

Roosevelt overturned prohibition and alcohol became legal again, making many Americans believe he was "just like them." Whereas Wilson believed in unifying Americans with fascism, Roosevelt divided Americans with it. He made the rich the enemy, much like his cousin Teddy did. He favored the unions, starting the tradition of union labor supporting the Democrats. Roosevelt shared Wilson's hatred of a republic, but wanted the US to change into a democracy like the nations of Europe. He started the Democrat Party's belief in a "second Bill of Rights" that would assure Americans the "rights" to a job with a living wage, freedom from unfair competition and monopolies, homeownership, medical care, education, and recreation. To pay for all of this, he started taxing the rich by up to 91%, introduced payroll taxes, and increased corporate taxes. To unite the nations of the western hemisphere, Roosevelt signed an agreement denying the US the right to interfere in Latin America.

Roosevelt continued to expand government, with the Supreme Court being his biggest hurdle. His solution was to change the Court. He advocated adding more judges in order to stack the court in his favor. This was controversial and he backed away from the idea. Instead, he waged a propaganda campaign against the Court, highlighting their ages in speeches and articles. He declared the justices were too old and out of touch with "today's America." The pressure was extreme, and eventually justices started to retire. Roosevelt was able to appoint eight liberal justices to the court, making his socialist agenda more acceptable.

There is not enough time in the world to document everything that Roosevelt did to change our nation and you do not have the time to read it. Through Roosevelt's fascist agenda, and our nation's weak situation, we allowed the government to change into something our Founding Fathers would have been horrified at. We would never be the same after Roosevelt's four terms.

President Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) took over after Roosevelt and continued some of FDR’s socialist agenda, most notably the establishment of the United Nations. He used taxpayer money to rebuild Europe and Japan after World War 2. He advocated national health insurance and was strongly against lowering taxes. Using the American military to establish international agendas, he got us involved in Korea - the first of several undeclared US wars.