1. Whataboutism Unchained
Let us get a few things straight. To the kids who take pride in having acquired a new verbal weapon called "whataboutism" (or "tu quoque," Latin for "you also"), learn this also:
Whataboutism never proves what's right, BUT it always proves hypocrisy.
Let us get a few things straight. To the kids who take pride in having acquired a new verbal weapon called "whataboutism" (or "tu quoque," Latin for "you also"), learn this also:
Whataboutism never proves what's right, BUT it always proves hypocrisy.
2. This thread is going to use some choice whataboutism to demonstrate not only the hypocrisy of liberals, but also the rank and willful ignorance of Trump opponents on the left and right alike.
3. Drawing upon an excellent essay by Paul Kengor, I am honored to rip apart what a storied Trump opponent, honorable Sen. John McCain, said about Trump-Putin press conference in Helsinki.
4. Sen. John McCain said Trump's was “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.” “No prior president,” insisted McCain, “has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.” Oh, really Senator? Is that the extent of your knowledge of history?
5. Let us begin with FDR’s jaw-droppingly awful assessments of Stalin across multiple meetings, conferences, and correspondence. Some of these were spouted directly by FDR to the man he fondly called “Uncle Joe,” others were shared by advisers who begged FDR not to trust Stalin.
6. One such adviser was William Bullitt, FDR’s first ambassador to the USSR, who once had been gushingly pro-Bolshevik — until he spent a few years in the Soviet Union, where he was awakened by the death stench that was Stalinism.
7. As an aside on monstrosities perpetrated by Joseph Stalin, please see this thread I wrote yesterday:
8. FDR to Bullitt: “Bill, I just have a hunch that Stalin is not that kind of man…. I think that if I give him everything I possibly can and ask nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he won’t try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.”
9. Look at those words from FDR, directed toward an abject tyrant who killed far more people than Vladimir Putin ever has: “If I give him everything I possibly can?” “Noblesse oblige?” “Will work with me for a world of democracy and peace?”
Could anyone be so deluded? So naïve?
Could anyone be so deluded? So naïve?
10. A stunned Bullitt argued with FDR that he was dealing not with a British Duke but with a “bandit, whose only thought when he got something for nothing was that the other fellow was an ass.”
Bullitt pleaded with his president not to be Uncle Joe’s jackass.
Bullitt pleaded with his president not to be Uncle Joe’s jackass.
11. Bullitt tried to tell FDR that there was no “factual evidence” that Stalin was a good man. FDR, however, saw Stalin as a “kind” man, a gentleman, one he could work with to advance democracy and peace. FDR shook off Bullitt: “It’s my responsibility, not yours.”
12. Stalin had so hoodwinked FDR that the president mused that the mass-murdering atheist had taught him, Churchill, and other leaders of the free world something about the “way in which a Christian gentleman should behave.” Yes, FDR actually said that.
13. Of course, FDR’s greatest failure came at Yalta, held on Stalin’s home turf, the Crimea, from February 4-11, 1945, where the legendary liberal was totally snowed by Uncle Joe.
14. FDR’s hagiographers try to excuse his decisions at Yalta, but the hard truth is that FDR himself immediately conceded he had failed. “I didn’t say the result [at Yalta] was good,” FDR told close adviser Adolf Berle when he returned home. “I said it was the best I could do.”
15. As to what Trump said in Helsinki aside Vladimir Putin, I’ve read his words, and I don’t like them. I’m not excusing them. Bad as Trump’s words were, however, none of them were as bad as what FDR said and, most important, actually did through many interactions with Stalin.
16. There would not have been a Trump-Putin meeting in Helsinki in July 2018 if FDR hadn’t conceded half of Europe to Stalin at Yalta in Feb 1945. And yet, none of what FDR did has dented his iconic image among liberals who revere him as one of America’s greatest presidents.
17. How about Jimmy Carter who literally kissed the cheeks of Leonid Brezhnev in Vienna in June 1979. That smooch of the Russian bear was a perfect metaphor for four years of Carter groveling before communist kingpins from Moscow to Warsaw.
18. Carter’s loathsome statements of adulation for Yugoslav despot Marshal Tito from the White House Lawn in March 1978 — calling the dictator “a truly remarkable leader,” a “patriot,” and an “inspiration” — make Trump’s worst statements about Putin look Reaganesque.
19. Let’s remember JFK with Khrushchev in Vienna in June 1961. JFK sighed to James “Scotty” Reston of NYT that Khrushchev had rolled right over him and “thinks I’m weak.” “He just beat the hell out of me,” Kennedy told Reston. “It was the worst thing in my life. He savaged me.”
20. He sure did. It’s no coincidence that the Berlin Wall started going up in East Germany mere weeks later, and that missiles started appearing in Cuba.
21. And then there was Gerald Ford’s performance in Helsinki with Brezhnev in July 1975. A grinning Ford celebrated the signing of a “human rights” agreement with Moscow that was a sham and a farce.
22. So, John McCain thinks this was the worst performance ever by an American leader with a Russian leader? No, not even close, Senator McCain. Not even close.
23. Now, how about whataboutism? Despite the title, this thread is not actually an example of whataboutism, unless you deem every history lesson as an exercise in whataboutism. It would be whataboutism only if my purpose here was to justify Trump. It is not.
24. I am not justifying Trump. I am pointing out the utter derangement of Trump's opponents' level of criticism, by putting it in historical context and perspective. It's a thread about having a sense of proportion, so we don't lose our way.
25. In my younger days I once asked an old but very wise man (my late great uncle) to give me some advice for life. He said (translated from original native dialect): "The most important thing in life is to have a sense of proportion." I have never forgotten that.
26. In summary, Trump's performance during the press conference in Helsinki left a lot to be desired. You can choose to read all sorts of weakness in Trump's stance toward Putin, or wait for some actual results. Me, I don't judge Trump by his words, only by his results.
27. Based on Trump's track record in dealing a mortal blow to ISIS, growing the economy, tax reform, deregulation, reducing unemployment, progress on North Korea, strengthening funding for NATO, et al, I am willing to give Trump every benefit of the doubt on Russia.
The END
The END
Harry Dexter White, the assistant secretary of the U.S. treasury and senior American official shaping postwar agreements at Bretton Woods, worked for the interests of Stalin on U.S. government payroll.
FDR's White House economic advisor Lauchlin Bernard Currie worked for the interests of Stalin on U.S. government payroll.
State Department official Laurence Duggan worked for the interests of Stalin on U.S. government payroll.
Laurence Duggan who headed the South American desk at the U.S. Department of State fell to his death from the window of his office in New York, shortly before Christmas 1948 and ten days after questioning by the FBI about whether he had had contacts with Soviet intelligence.
And who can forget Alger Hiss? He was an American government official who was accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948 and convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950.
Samuel Dickstein, a New Deal ally of President Roosevelt, received a monthly stipend from the Russians to do their bidding.
Roosevelt’s vice president during his third term, Henry Wallace, ran for president in 1948 in a campaign largely run by Communists and their sympathizers.
American intelligence uncovered overwhelming evidence of “collusion” between the Russians and American government officials in FDR's administration. The liberal intelligentsia refused to believe it.
American intelligence agencies produce no evidence of collusion between the Russians and anyone connected to the Trump campaign or administration (let alone spying), and the liberal intelligentsia nevertheless believes it.
That is the crying shame of our times!
That is the crying shame of our times!
By the way, people looking for source material might want to check out the following book by Paul Kengor, professor of political science at Grove City College: "Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century."
