Nobody Studies History: Part 1

The Left currently has its panties in a bunch over the Right's objections to Obama's national address to elementary school children. I guess Bush I gave a televised speech to schoolchildren in 1991 admonishing them to stay away from drugs and in school. I sure don't remember it but, in any event, that's a lot different than the way this one started out:


Obama's speech definitely wasn't conceived the way it's now being billed. Those that weren't paying attention may not realize that, as originally proposed, part of this speech was a homework assignment where the 4th grader was to write an essay on "how I can help President Obama". In other words, whatever Obama wants is, by definition good, and should be supported. These are elementary age kids, easily influnenced and indoctrinated, and without the capacity to understand where this leads. At best, this is the kind of thing that goes on in 3rd world countries, and comes from the Supreme Leader For Life. At worst, it harkens back to such as the Hitler Youth. The Lefties will scoff at this, as the mere mention of "Hitler" evokes a visceral, knee-jerk reaction, boosted by a general lack of information.

This is where the study of history comes in. I am not a fan of Hitler, on balance, and this is not about Hitler, so don't get me wrong; however, I am a fan of an objective, informed view of history, and the occasional lessons that can be learned from it. I would like to avoid in this country some of the bad stuff that occurred in Germany courtesy of Hitler.

The fact is that, thru most of the 1930's, Hitler was not considered such a bad guy. Given the dire straits Germany was in following Versailles, Hitler straightened things out pretty quickly beginning in 1932 -- built roads, re-built industry, got the economy going, and generally restored to the Germans a sense of national pride. In this environment, it was easy to build a cult of personality.

Those unschooled in the history of the period focus simply on the bad stuff, much of which they impute to this period from Hitler's later actions. If you don't want to take my word for it and think the world was united in its condemnation of Hitler, it's just not true. For a quick and dirty indication, name one country that boycotted the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Not one did. In fact, 12 more countries attended than was the case with the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.

One of the things one learns thru the study of history is that the crystal ball has yet to be perfected. Those who think it has will condemn Kimmel and Short at Pearl Harbor, Lee at Gettysburg, the Big Four at Versailles, Cornwallis at Yorktown, Paulus at Stalingrad, Nagumo at Midway, etc, for not making full use of it. The lesson here is that, once the unfavorable result is known, it is easy to find fault with the decisions that led to it, even tho they may have been the logical ones at the time. Same thing with Hitler: much of what Hitler was doing to re-build Germany during the Depression was similar to what FDR was doing in the US. Sure, there were signs of racism, but that was true all over the world. "Oh, but Mein Kampf laid it all out" -- yeah, yeah, yeah -- how many books detailing evil stuff have been written and never acted upon?

Notwithstanding their convenient post-defeat denials and the lionization of a few dissidents at the expense of perspective and context, the vast majority of Germans were wildly supportive of Hitler (at least until the War began turning in 1944), and membership in such as the Hitler Youth was a badge of honor. Germans were encouraged to pledge their loyalty to Hitler first, Deutschland second. The salute "Heil Hitler" was not by chance; note that it wasn't "Heil Deutschland". Obama and his supporters would do well to remember that Obama simply occupies, for now, the office of President. He is not the Office. There are many examples currently and throughout history of leaders who confused themselves with the office -- Mao Tse Tung, Evo Morales, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Emperor Hirohito, Vlad Dracula, etc. None of the countries they led are places the US should model itself on.

Back to Obama's address: when the "essay" thing came to light, the White House immediately revised the assignment to something like "why kids should stay in school", which no one could possibly dispute, right? Well, I could, but that's for later. The point is that the mainstream media, big Obama supporters and, by all on-air evidence, absolutely bereft of all but the most superficial knowledge of history, quickly buried the original agenda, and are spinning the current controversy to make conservatives look silly. Such as David Gergen actually pretend not to know "what the fuss is all about", and the news readers go right along.

Obama (and his supporters) would do well to remember that roughly half the country (the half that's paying attention) doesn't trust him. I mean seriously, when Nancy Pelosi is your Head Cheerleader, you've got problems. As I said during the election, Obama is an empty suit that speaks well. The Health Care thing has clearly demonstrated that Obama thinks that more government is the solution for society's ills. That approach is not what caused this country to become the envy of the world and that, in combination with what looks like an attempt to build an Obama personality cult beginning in 1st grade, has thankfully got the attention of those whose historical knowledge goes further back than the day they were born.