Current parallels with WWI/Wilson administration

[BlackVelvetElvis]

I've been reading a great book, Presidential Ambition by Richard Shenkman.
In chapter 15, World Power: III, the author brings up some issues under Woodrow Wilson that are similar with the war on terror.

I quote: "The worst was the spying. Not the spying of German agents but the spying of Americans on Americans or Americans on aliens." Shenkman also states that Attorney General Mitchell Palmer arrested four thousand immigrants without obtaining a warrant for any of them (this was during the subsequent red scare). This was why the ACLU was founded. The Patriot Act

Related to this a Wilson quote: "Opposition is the specialty of those who are Bolshevistically inclined". To many numerous parallels to list here.

Another quote: "To make sure Americans got only one view of the war, he (Wilson) authorized the postmaster to censor the mails for radical literature" and another, "To stop radicals from giving speeches against the war, Wilson supported a law giving the government the right to jail anybody who said anything disruptive; the socialist Eugene V. Debs was given a ten-year sentence for saying that the United States was not a democracy." Non-combatant aliens?

Finally: "To make sure Americans understood sufficiently the great threat they faced, he had to scare the hell out of them, which he did through the Committe on Public Information..." Department of Homeland Security? Fox News as a propaganda tool?

I wonder if any armchair historians have read this book and has another opinion? I thought these were interesting and just had to share.

[Zuni]

1. I have compared bush to Wilson before

Wilson's admin was charecterized by military adventurism, corruption, eroded civil liberties and reactionary domestic policy, as well as lying. I think it is a perfect comparison.
Aside from Nixon, I think Wilson is the worst Pres of the 20th century.

[WoodrowFan]

5. You have it backwards

You have it backwads Zuni.

military adventurism: He resisted enormous pressure to intervene even more heavily than he did. HE consistantly tried to support the Mexican Revolutionaries against the reactionary Mexican counter-revolutionaries (who had open Republican support)

corruption; he had probably the most HONEST adminstration of the early 20th century. The surest way to get kicked out of his office was to ask him for a favor from which you'd b enefit personally. The most cdommon charge by republicans against Wilson was that he was UNGRATEFUL becuas ehe would not do favors for his supporters.

eroded civil liberties: fair enough for the period 1918-1921. As noted in another post in this thread, he tried to mitigate the actions of the Justice Department and the Post Office but failed. Most Wilson Historian consider this to be one of two black marks on his Presidency, the other being his racial attitudes.

Reactionary domestic policy: WOW, where to begin. He was the most Progressive president until FDR. He supported

Woman's Sufferage (in his second term, before then he considered it a state issue)
a Progressive income tax.
the 8 hour day
child labor laws
federal regulation of railroads (which had gouged farmers and consumers)
vetoed anti-immigration legislation
set up rural mail delivery (a big deal for farmers)
radically reduced tarriffs, which reduced the cost of living to average consumers
supported home rule for the Phillipines (tried to get independence but could only get home rule through Congress)
won the Clayton Anti-Trust Act
set up the Federal Trade Commission.
set up the Federal Reserve, which severely reduced the power New York banks had over the currency. it did not eliminate it, but it reduced it quite a bit.
supported LaFollette's Seamans Act, which imporvoed the awful working conditions on ship.
Appointed Louis Brandeis to the Supreme Court, the first Jewish member, but also a leading proponent for labor reform in the US. In 1914 that was a very radical appointment, many republicans went ballistic. A current analogy would be if a Democratic president appointed Ralph Nadar.
Also, he vetoed the Volstead Act, which defined and inforced Prohibition. It passed over his veto.

There is a reason why he got many Progressive Party and Socialist party votes in 1916, he was winnign much of their reform agenda.


I don't expect you to be convinced Zuni, your mind seems pretty closed, but I didn't want such slander against a Democratic President to go unanswered.


some good books on Wilson...

Thomas Knock, "To End All Wars"

Anything by Arthur Link.

Woodrow Wilson 1913 - 1921: The American Presidents Series by H. W. Brands

The Presidency of Woodrow Wilson by Kendrick A. Clements


Uses of Force and Wilsonian Foreign Policy (American Diplomatic History Series No. 6) by Frederick S. Calhoun

[WoodrowFan]

2. Try Knock's "To End All Wars"

Try Thomas Knock's "To End all Wars" for a more balanced view of Wilson. He did try to reign in the three cabinet members most responsible for the repression of opposition, Atty General Gregory, Post Master General Burleson, and later Atty General Palmer. Much of the most repressive actions happened after Wilson's huge stroke in the Fall of 1919. It really did change his personality and make him much less flexable. He should have resigned then but his judgement was impared and there was no constitutional means at the time to judge his ability to preform the duties of his office.

And the idea that the only President with a Ph.D., who supported reforms such as Labor rights, the 8 hour day and workman's compensation, is in any way comparable to that reactionary idiot in the WH now is laughable.

[maddezmom]

3. kick

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

4. kick

[Le Taz Hot]

6. Kick

(Ttrying to get hacker posts off the front page.)