Good men, Bad men

Todays feature is from Jolly Roger’s blog. Its authored by Jim Burke who also writes for Yes, I do take it personally-Dusty

There are good men and bad men. Because of past sins and despite my attempts to correct them, I know where I stand. I have no doubt commenter Sauros and I will be roomates in the afterlife, despite our differing opinions. I had to hoped that equality for women might raise the bar for us guys so we try to do better, but Hitlery has put me off that idea. You’ve come a long way, baby.

Do you ever wonder where you stand? There are examples of both we can measure ourselves against. Two of them, representing the extremes of good and bad, are Prescott Bush and General Smedley Butler. Here’s a little teaser for you to read from Wikipedia. I encourage you to study this incident and the players so you can decide for yourself who is the good and who is the bad. It will also introduce you to one of our greatest American Heroes that you never heard of in school.

Before you read on, however, I can’t resist another opportunity to remind everyone of some pertinent wisdom from one of the Founders.

Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.

John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776

And now for the story you never hear:

The Business Plot, the Plot Against FDR, or the White House Putsch, was an alleged conspiracy involving several wealthy businessmen to overthrow the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Purported details of the matter came to light when retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler testified before a Congressional committee that a group of men had attempted to recruit him to serve as the leader of a plot and to assume and wield power once the coup was successful. Butler testified before the McCormack-Dickstein Committee in 1934 ^[1]. In his testimony, Butler claimed that a group of several men had approached him as part of a plot to overthrow Roosevelt in a military coup. One of the alleged plotters, Gerald MacGuire, vehemently denied any such plot. In their final report, the Congressional committee supported Butler’s allegations on the existence of the plot,^[2] but no prosecutions or further investigations followed, and the matter was mostly forgotten.General Butler claimed that the American Liberty League was the primary means of funding the plot. The main backers were the Du Pont family, as well as leaders of U.S. Steel, General Motors, Standard Oil, Chase National Bank, and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. A BBC documentary claims Prescott Bush, father and grandfather to the 41st and 43rd US Presidents respectively, was also connected.^[3]

^{Do you think either Bush would have been elected if this were taught in public schools? Maybe that’s why the records were sealed for decades. Makes you wonder what else is sealed up in the National Archives, OUR NATIONAL ARCHIVES!}

^{Men like me may be a lost cause, but the story of Gen. Butler could make a lot of young men of today realize there is a better example of American leadership than the politicians of the 20th century. With a name like Smedley, you gotta work real hard to be taken seriously, and he sure did work hard.}

^{And I haven’t forgotten the ladies, read up on Emily Lazarus for a little inspiration. A Human Being of the highest quality. She’s way cool.}

Crossposted at Reconstitution 2.0