Of Memory Holes and Memory Buriers

No one has a monopoly on America’s sins.

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Hello—from the past.

This is one of those very rare G-Files that I’m actually writing in advance. Tomorrow—your today—is Yom Kippur, and while I’m not the practicing Jew I should be, and I don’t exactly obey the forms, I also don’t like to flout them publicly. So, I’m writing this in advance and avoiding any political punditry.

There’s a lot of buzz about a new book, American Midnight, by Adam Hochschild. The book is about a period I have a longstanding interest in: America during World War I.

Now, I’ve barely started it—though I have been hunting and pecking through the Kindle version for all sorts of stuff in it already—and I’m sincerely looking forward to finishing it, even though I can already tell I’ll have disagreements. So, I’ll make three points, one fairly petty, one somewhat petty, and one entirely substantive. 

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    When I was a very small child, my father taught me a few lessons. Among those that have stayed with me to this day was, “Woodrow Wilson was bad.” As usual, my dad was right.

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  2. David Rudolph

    It’s super well written article as usual. Woodrow Wilson is not a president that us liberals can be proud. His legendary bigotry isn’t something that was even mentioned in the history books when I was in high school. Jonah rarely really misses a opportunity to put forth his narrative that liberals control the media/ press and to a certain extent the history books. Someday Jonah will into the the less than Sterling records of Wilson’s three Republican predecessors, but that day will probably not come soon. Jonah is the most entertaining and easiest to read conservative political commentator that I read.

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    Paul Gross

    "It hasn’t worked out that way. And the press, the TV press in particular, are partly to blame. But so are the presidents—especially Wilson and Roosevelt, but also every president that followed. " Actually, I would contend that Congress is mainly to blame as they prefer the president handle hot button issues, so they don't have to answer to the voters on them. Yes, presidents have been pushing the boundaries the past hundred years, but Congress rarely stands up and says, "Wait a minute Mr. President, that is our job."

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      Ben Connelly

      You’re right. Congress is largely to blame. I think Jonah agrees with that point, despite what he wrote here. The media bears some blame. Congress bears some blame. Presidents bear some blame.

      But honestly a good chunk of the blame also belongs to the American people. We get the leaders we deserve not the leaders we want.

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    Norman Shatkin

    It is, of course, true that Wilson used the power of government to create a near-dictatorship. What Jonah does NOT say is that the number of "conservatives" who did anything about it AT THE TIME is vanishingly few. When Wilson threw Eugene Debs and his comrades into jail, where were the conservatives? When the thriving socialist press of the day was simply put out of business, please cite the conservative outcry at this.

    There was none, because the corporate world reaped huge benefits thereby. Essentially, Wilson used WWI to destroy the American left's foothold in political life. Some of that left was violent but most was not, and it won elections in many cities. It was never the same afterwards, even during the Depression.

    I have no interest in comparisons between McCarthyism and Wilson's actions, except to note that the conservative critique of those reigns of terror came very late, and long after their preferred politicians had built on that terror to influence policy.

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      Mark Hunter

      Good critique. I'd like to read a rebuttal.

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  5. Daniel

    I'd also like to note that this post served as a pretty effective ad and I'll probably go buy your book now Mr Goldberg

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  6. Daniel

    How do we get Congress to assert itself and rein in the power of presidents? I think most agree the cult of the presidency and its power creep is bad, but to my eyes it seems much of the fault lies in Congress (by ita dysfunction or otherwise) allowing Presidents to move into the gaps

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  7. Joe1776

    I admit it is spitting in the wind but I would agree that FDR and Wilson were far from liberal. But really these political terms tend to confuse more than they clarify. Liberal can mean a someone in favor of change (which would be counter to conservativism) but it can also refer to classical liberalism (which aligns with conservativism of today.) I know it is spitting in the wind but I tend to think the current left is not liberal at all in the classical sense. One thing I agree with Bernie Sanders on is that he is not a liberal he is a progressive and there is a difference:
    https://youtu.be/Lv7iflHYx_E?t=1587

    If you look at Stalin and Hitler they are essentially two peas in a pod but on the "left" "right" spectrum they are supposedly far from each other. We need to either try to clarify these terms or abandon them.

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    1. Daniel

      I don't think Stalin and Hitler were quite that similar. The problem is that a 1D spectrum is simply incapable of properly representing political differences, especially when we try to apply the same spectrum to very different historical contexts.

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      1. Joe1776

        I recommend this book:

        https://www.amazon.com/Bloodlands-Europe-Between-Hitler-Stalin-ebook/dp/B00B3M3VE6

        Hitler and the Nazi's added racism on top of Stalin's horrific crimes. But Hitler learned quite a bit about how to use police terror from Stalin, and essentially they used the same sorts of techniques.

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        1. Daniel

          Yeah they liked the same sort of repressive authoritarian tactics but that doesn't mean they had no significant differences as implied by 'two peas in a pod'

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    Jason Gibson

    im in favor of a remnant devoted entirely to woodrow wilson. On the condition that the uruk hai theme be played as often as is necessary. I wince when they miss a cue.

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  9. Chazgeary03

    Good stuff, as usual. But to be fair, we don't know how Teddy Roosevelt would've acted if he'd presided over a war. (I assume our enemies were too afraid of Teddy to find out.)

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  10. Avatar photo
    Jerry Masters

    Being right about Wilson sounds much like the vice of being extreme in defense of liberty: you're going to get treated "shabbily" by the NYT, et al.

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