The Bush administration’s move to privatize/destroy Social Security isn’t without precedent. No, conservative extremists have tried to roll back the New Deal before. In 1934, there was a Congressional inquiry into a plot by conservative industrialists to force FDR from the oval office. Unfortunately for the conspirators, Marine General, Smedley Butler came forward and foiled their plans… And lest you forget why some on the far right would see FDR as a threat, here he is in his own words.
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so now trying to fix something that needs fixing is ‘destroying’ SS? Hey, have you seen the black helicopters circling above your house? It’s those extreme right wingers coming to get grandma. Though from your perspective most everything would be extreme right. I guess you have to sensationalize to get some traffic so from a capitalistic standpoint I appluad you. What more can I ask but to have people like you destroy the democratic party from within? Keep it coming.
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I had no idea of Smedly until today. Now I can’t stop reading about him.
This is a good day to remember Smedley Butler. I’m glad to see that you’ve written about him here before. He deserves to have his name widely known.
“I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents. ”
Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC