The American “Pledge of Allegiance” was written by a socialist to sell flags and magazine subscriptions, and the flag came with instructions for the pictured “Bellamy salute,” which was embraced by government schools in America for years before becoming unfashionable after the Nazis used the same salute.
Sadly, it was American nationalism like this, massive government centralization, and power grabs by FDR, as well as the eugenics movement led by the US and UK that was glorified—and in some cases, emulated by both Hitler and Mussolini.
Nazi newspapers, and even Hitler himself, liked FDR and the New Deal. Goebbels loved the American propaganda machine as well. Nazi newspapers cheered, “…Roosevelt’s adoption of National Socialist strains of thought in his economic and social policies.” Hitler was truly inspired and impressed by FDRs New Deal work.
Throughout the 30s, intellectuals and journalists noted “areas of convergence among the New Deal, Fascism, and National Socialism.” All three were seen as transcending “classic Anglo-French liberalism,” according to German historian Wolfgang Schivelbusch.
Mussolini personally wrote a review of Roosevelt’s book Looking Forward, in which he said, “reminiscent of fascism … the principle that the state no longer leaves the economy to its own devices.”
And the admiration was reciprocated by FDR who said, “I don’t mind telling you that I am keeping in fairly close touch with that admirable Italian gentleman,” and top advisor to FDR Rexford Tugwell, said of Mussolini’s Fascist programs, “It’s the cleanest…most efficiently operating piece of social machinery I’ve ever seen. It makes me envious.”
The mutual respect between Hitler and FDR was quite formal. From the US Office of the Historian:
Washington D.C., March 28, 1934—7 p.m.
On landing in New York Ambassador Dodd was given by the German Consul General the following aide-mémoire containing a message of greeting from Chancellor Hitler to the President:
“The Chancellor of the Reich begs Ambassador Dodd to be good enough to transmit his greetings to President Roosevelt and at the same time to state that he sincerely congratulates President Roosevelt for his heroic efforts in the interests of the American people. The President’s successful battle against economic distress is being followed by the entire German people with interest and admiration. The Chancellor is in accord with the President in the view that the virtue of duty, readiness for sacrifice, and discipline should dominate the entire people. These moral demands which the President places before every individual citizen of the United States, are also the quintessence of the German State philosophy which finds its expression in the slogan ‘The Public Weal Transcends the Interests of the Individual’.”
Please transmit through appropriate channels the following acknowledgment from the President:
“The President of the United States desires to thank the Chancellor of the German Reich for his message to him, conveyed by Ambassador Dodd. The President appreciates the Chancellor’s words of congratulation, yet feels that they apply not to him personally but to the American people who have freely and gladly made heroic efforts in the interest of recovery. In reciprocating the Chancellor’s cordial greetings, the President wishes to express the hope, in which he is joined by the people of the United States, that Germany’s efforts toward economic restoration may be entirely successful and so contribute to that universal recovery from which all alike will benefit.”
I recount these happenings and this cultural moment to point out that so often horrible outcomes begin with good intentions or seemingly benign behavior and changes.
Various states have a long history of inhibiting individual rights for an authoritarian’s definition of the greater good. The US is not an exception to this rule. From using the power of group think and group membership to instill nationalistic rituals, to defining a tribe which should be defended at any cost—state loyalty and protection is merely an extension of group supremacy over the individual.
Imdividual rights should be protected at all costs, but at this moment in time our culture has shifted to embrace group supremacy and collectivism. Both Rs and Ds are happy to kill individual rights, and I see no cultural shift on the horizon.
