Democratic Shortcomings Quotes
Dodd, in Berlin from 1933 to the onset of WWII, was able to see first hand what Hitler and the Nazi Movement was really like, Although he for the United States and Churchill for England warned early on, the politics of the times would not allow any action to stop or curtail Hitler. America, in particular, had a strong isolationist Republican wing and in addition, a small but loud core of pro Fascist, Hitler admirers such as Charles Lindberg, Father Coughlin, and Henry Ford. America had virtually no serious military capacity at the time, and with the Depression, FDR had all he could do to just gradually build up the military. By the time the Democracies realized that Dodd and Churchill were right, it was too late to prevent WWII. Dodd died in 1940 just when it was clear that he had been right.
The Senator was in Egypt trying to persuade the Egyptian military which had engineered the regime change and jailed the previous leaders to be more democratic. Typically foreign leaders would respond to these democratic entreaties by pointing out the flaws in the American implementation of democracy ranging from slavery to the lack of womens’ suffrage until the 1920s and the economic meltdown of 2008 where the government helped the bankers and reduced services to the poor victims of the Great Recession. Graham asked focus on the message and not on us as an imperfect messenger.
