Eisenhower's Forgotten Warning and the Threat of Authoritarian Currents in Our Politics

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Eisenhower's Forgotten Warning and the Threat of Authoritarian Currents in Our Politics

By Max Blumenthal, The New York Times. Posted September 3, 2009.

In this summer of town hall disruptions and birth-certificate controversies, it is worth recalling a now-obscure warning from President Eisenhower.




In this summer of town hall disruptions and birth-certificate controversies, a summer when it seemed as if the Republican Party had been captured by its extremist wing, it is worth recalling a now-obscure letter from President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Although Eisenhower is commonly remembered for a farewell address that raised concerns about the “military-industrial complex,” his letter offers an equally important — and relevant — warning: to beware the danger posed by those seeking freedom from the “mental stress and burden” of democracy.

The story began in 1958, when Eisenhower received a letter from Robert Biggs, a terminally ill World War II veteran. Biggs told the president that he “felt from your recent speeches the feeling of hedging and a little uncertainty.” He added, “We wait for someone to speak for us and back him completely if the statement is made in truth.”

Eisenhower could have discarded Biggs’s note or sent a canned response. But he didn’t. He composed a thoughtful reply. After enduring Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, who had smeared his old colleague Gen. George C. Marshall as a Communist sympathizer, and having guarded the Republican Party against the newly emergent radical right John Birch Society, which labeled him and much of his cabinet Soviet agents, the president perhaps welcomed the opportunity to expound on his vision of the open society. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/politics/142404/eisenhower%27s_forgotten_warning_and_the_threat_of_authoritarian_currents_in_our_politics/

[DFW]

1. Yeah, but Eisenhower was an old-style Republican

His idea of going whacko was picking Nixon as his vice-president. Tame by today's standards.

These days, Eisenhower would have been torn to shreds on Fox and National Hate Radio as a RINO.

[TrogL]

2. Two quotes worth noting

From the original letter: http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/second-term/documents/1051.cfm

It is difficult indeed to maintain a reasoned and accurately informed understanding of our ... situation on the part of our citizenry when many prominent officials, possessing no standing or expertness except as they themselves claim it, attempt to further their own ideas or interests by resort to statements more distinguished by stridency than by accuracy.

...

...dictatorial systems make one contribution to their people which leads them to tend to support such systems--freedom from the necessity of informing themselves and making up their own minds concerning these tremendous complex and difficult questions

This mirrors research done on the authoritarian mindset - people blindly following a charismatic leader just so they won't have to think for themselves.

[Uncle Joe]

3. I don't understand why someone unrecommended this thread?

Thanks for the thread, marmar.:thumbsup:

[Igel]

5. Some just like unrecommending threads.

Or the 'unrecommender' might have made some of the "we have to unite behind our president and support him, flaws and all" comments. The attitude was essentially, he's *our* authority figure and we have to support him because of that.

This thread basically says that this is a bad kind of attitude. I agree with this thread, and don't think of it as being especially partisan.

[IndianaGreen]

6. There are Reaganites among the unrec Tontons

They are called DLCers.

[CHIMO]

4. The Author

Max Blumenthal was interviewed on Democracy Now today about his new book.

http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2009/sept/video/dnB20090904a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=00:20:01

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/4/republican_gomorrah_inside_the_movement_that