DEMOCRATIC FASCISM: THE TRAGEDY OF HENRY A. WALLACE
"Democracy is too important to be left to the masses"-Allen W. Dulles
Over 50 years ago African-American Human Rights leader Malcolm X cautioned his community against blind allegiance to the Democratic Party. He decried both the blantant racism of southern democrats, and the subtle racism of its northern liberal wing. Malcolm X employed the analogy of the fox and the wolf to explain that in practice, the party was no different than its' republican counterpart. The truth is that cloaked within the Democratic Party lies a hardcore conservative element that is for cuts in entitlement programs, small government, big military spending and most of all, the centralization of corporate power over the American Political System. This entrenched power exposes a party that literally talks out of both sides of its' mouth. One that seduces working class Americans with synthetic compassion of liberal values, while supporting platforms and agendas that destabilize their political and economic power. In political debates, they speak with the fire and vigor of voracious dragons. However, in combat, they flail about like weak sparring partners of the Republican Party. Is it any wonder why the Democratic Party can never produce any candidate with a platform for "change we can believe in?"
A cursory glance of history shows that this group is not a new phenomena in the party. A particularly poignant example is the case of Former Vice President and Secretary of Agriculture, Henry A. Wallace. Wallace was an unabashed anti imperialist who supported civil rights, robust unions, checks on Wall Street, and living wages for the American Working Class. His "Century of the Common Man speech, as well as his support for the New Deal programs of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made him a dangerous pariah in his own political party. In the 1940's, he was the most popular candidate in the party. Unfortunately, this fact placed Wallace in the crosshairs of an electoral coup d'etat in the primaries by his own party.
In 1944 on a balmy Chicago Night in July, the DNC was running its' primary for vice presidential elections. At the time, Wallace was Roosevelt's Vice President seeking re-election to office. On this night in history, long knives would be drawn and the world would be forever changed. The audience in attendance popped and made their choice for Vice-President strikingly clear. "WE WANT WALLACE! WE WANT WALLACE! boomed the crowd. The chants were so powerful that many thought the windows would break from the powerful decibels of the loud voices. The Rakim of his day, Wallace was true crowd mover. However, a small band of haters would bum rush the mic (literally), before Wallace would get his chance spit. When it was realized by Democratic Sessions Chairman Samuel Jackson that Wallace would sweep the nomination if his name was presented to the delegation, DNC Chairman Robert Hannegan, Treasurer Edwin Pauley, and others powerful party bosses, instructed Jackson to call an adjournment.
The delegation explosively objected, as they were ready to seal the deal and send Wallace back to Washington. According to Florida Senator Claude Pepper, Jackson told him that "he had strict instructions from Hannegan (DNC Chair) not to let the delegation nominate Wallace." The reason for this adjournment? The party bosses needed time to find a strawman candidate to run against Wallace and rob him of the nomination. The party bosses' pick was an insecure bigot, from the notoriously corrupt Pendergast Political Machine in Kansas City, MO, named Harry S. Truman. Using payoffs, bribes of political offices and manipulation of electoral process, they robbed Wallace of his vice-presidential nomination and thus, the Coup was complete.
Some 82 years later, another DNC Chair would take a page out of
Hannegan's playbook. In 2016, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz intervened in party primaries to rob Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders of Democratic candidacy nomination. According to leaked emails, Wasserman-Schultz instructed friendly reporters to play up Sander's alleged atheist beliefs, as well as, his Jewish heritage in order to stoke the anti-semiticism of southern voters. It should be noted that the Republican Party originated this tactic against the power of the black vote in the late 60's. They called it the Southern Strategy. Wasserman-Schultz also reduced the debate schedules of the party. This robbed Sanders of the chance to debate Hillary Clinton on issues that could have turned the tide in the primary election in Sanders's favor. However, Wasserman-Schultz's chickens came home to roost when the very bigotry she elicited, showed up in full force in November, and gave Hillary Clinton to loudest pimp slap of the decade. The fact that no one contested these political shenanigans is incredible. That no one remembers or even cares about them is astounding. The fact that outside hands can so easily pick who runs this country, tells you who really runs this country, and sadly, it's not the people. French diplomat and political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville noted these contradictions in American democracy. He stated that: "The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through." These colors appear to be showing a lot more frequently than we care to admit. And they are about is welcomed as a pregnancy test at an orgy. What the tragedy of Henry Wallace shows us is that fascism in America does not have to be forced upon us at gunpoint, it can be nicely served on platter through the soothing white color of a ballot.
