By MIKE MAGEE
On the evening of December 29, 1940, with his election to his third term as president assured, FDR spoke these words as part of his sixteenth “Fireside Chat”: “There can be no appeasement with cruelty… No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it.”
Millions of Americans and millions of Britons tuned in that evening as President Roosevelt made his position clear while carefully avoiding overstepping his authority in a nation still grappling with an opposition party combative and isolationist.
That same evening, the German Luftwaffe launched its largest raid on London’s financial district. Their “fire starter” group, the KGr 100, launched the attack with incendiary bombs that ignited fifteen hundred fires that started a conflagration that ended in what some called the conflagration. The Second Great Fire of London. Less than a year later, on the eve of another Christmas, we would be drawn into war with the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Now, 83 Christmases later, with warnings of “poisoning the blood of our people” we find ourselves dealing with our own Hitler here at home. Trump works to light the fires of white supremacy by using the same vocabulary and questioning the boundaries of decency, safety and civility. What has the rest of the civilized world learned in the meantime?
First, appeasement doesn’t work. This increases the vulnerability of a majority which suffers from the “tyranny of the minority”.
Second, the radicalized minority will use all available weapons, without constraint, to maintain and expand their power.
Third, the battle to save and preserve democracy in modern times is never entirely won. We remain in the early years of this grave, deadly conflict, awakened from a voluntary sleep on January 6, 2020.
Hitler was no more an “evil genius” than Trump. But both have profited from historical and cultural prejudices and grievances, exploiting and amplifying them through deliberate lies and media manipulation. Cultures sickened by racism, systemic inequality, despair, patriarchy and violence can clearly be exploited to cause serious harm. But you don’t have to be a “genius.” Churchill never called Hitler a “genius.” Most often he only called her “that bad man.”
The spectacle and emergence of Kevin McCarthy, followed by Mike Johnson, as Speaker of the House, and the contrasting speech of the House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries as he handed over the gavel, represent just one more skirmish in this “War for Democracy.”
If our goal is a “healthier” America, marked by compassion, understanding and partnership; one where fear and worry are countered by touch and comfort; a society where the connections between individuals, families, communities and societies are built to last – all signs confirm that now is the time to fight hard.
As Churchill swore on his first day as Prime Minister, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” Around the same time, FDR offered this encouragement: “We have no excuse for defeatism. We have every good reason to hope – hope for peace, yes, and hope for the defense of our civilization and the building of a better civilization in the future. »
The re-emergence of white supremacists and nationalists, theocratic and patriarchal censorship, and especially post-Dobbs attacks on women’s freedom and autonomy, pose real and substantial threats to our form of government. They are indeed minority opinionsbut no more so than the minority who, in 1940, allowed a small group of “bad guys” to exploit a relatively small nation. 70 million people into a force that nearly took over the world.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Churchill packed his bags and headed straight to a British battleship for a 10-day voyage through rough seas (filled with German U-boats) to Norfolk , in Virginia. Within hours of his arrival, he was aboard a U.S. Navy plane for the 140-mile journey to the White House where he entered in a double-breasted peacoat and naval cap, chewing a cigar. He remained a guest of the Roosevelts for the next three weeks, returning home on January 14, 1942.
On Christmas Eve, he joined the President on the South Portico of the White House for the lighting of the White House Christmas tree. Here is what Churchill said to the president’s guests and the 15,000 spectators: “Let the children have a night of fun and laughter. Let Santa’s gifts delight their game. Let us fully share in their pleasures without reservation before we turn our attention once again to the difficult tasks and great year that lie ahead. Solve! – that thanks to our sacrifice and our audacity, these same children will not have their inheritance nor their right to live in a free and decent world stolen.
He spent the next day working on a speech to deliver at a joint meeting of Congress on December 26, 1941, the kind of pep talk that all the good, honest people of America could benefit from today. As we ourselves have learned since January 6, 2021, Churchill was right to warn us against complacency and caution, and that “many disappointments and unpleasant surprises await us.”
He was clear and concise when he warned that day that Hitler and his Nazis (that Trump so openly admires) possessed “enormous” powers; they are bitter; they are ruthless. But these “wicked men… know that they will be called to terrible reckoning… From now on, we are masters of our destiny… The task assigned to us is not beyond our strength. His sufferings and trials are not beyond our endurance.
“Trump will be defeated,” he would say if he were with us today. “You can be sure of that!” » But we must rise to the occasion – courageous, organized and strategic. The time has come, and like the British London Times The editorial recalled that in 1942, as Churchill set foot on home soil after his visit to the United States, timing was everything. “His visit to the United States marked a turning point in the war. No praise can be too great for the foresight and speed with which the decision was made.”
Mike Magee MD is a medical historian, regular THCB contributor, and author of CODE BLUE: Inside the American medical industrial complex.
