A recent article in The Guardian about mounting opposition to a sitting president contained a number of chillingly familiar elements:
"...political firebrands and white supremacists eagerly fanned the paranoia of socialism, global conspiracies and threats from within the country.”
“A divided country and […] emboldened powerful enemies made the plot to overthrow him seem plausible. With restless uncertainty, volatile protests and ominous threats, America’s right wing was inspired to form its own paramilitary organizations. Militias sprung up throughout the land, their self-described “patriots” chanting: “This is despotism! This is tyranny!”"'...if they had been able to maintain secrecy, the plot certainly might very well have succeeded … When times are desperate and people are frustrated, anything could happen.’”
Interestingly, this is not about Trump supporters in opposition to Joe Biden, but powerful financiers and industrialists in 1933 who sought to overthrow newly elected president Franklin D. Roosevelt in a coup.
This supposed "Wall Street Putsch" is eerily analogous to much of the current situation in the U.S., and I was shocked to read about this brazen attempt to undermine democracy. How had I never heard of this before, especially in the last year?
Despite being orchestrated by the rich and powerful, there were plenty of people at the grassroots level opposed to FDR, and who unironically emulated the methods and appearance of overseas fascists like Hitler's and Mussolini's brown- and blackshirts. The leader of the Silver Shirts mounted a presidential bid in 1936, and would have installed himself as a despot called "the Chief" as opposed to il Duce or der Fuehrer.
The American Liberty League's $30M plan was to organize half-a-million disgruntled veterans under a charismatic leader, arm them with rifles provided by Remington Arms and remove Roosevelt and his cabinet by force. Thankfully they picked the wrong man for the leadership role - retired Marine General Smedley Butler, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. Butler instead reported this perfidy to J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, and Hoover alerted FDR.
The fact that the coup was prevented is a worthy enough story, but the fact that none of the wealthy or powerful organizers were prosecuted or even named in the final report is absolutely astonishing, and a little disappointing. There are suggestions that FDR let them off the hook in exchange for dropping their opposition to his New Deal policies.
Like the burning of Black Wall Street in Tulsa in 1921, the Non-Coup of 1933 is probably something a lot of people would prefer most of us to forget (something that had largely happened with the former example until the release of HBO's Watchmen in 2019) but in light of the events in Washington a year ago, I can't help but feel this is a disservice for those of us who favour the rule of law.
With the mid-term elections coming at the end of this year, and possibly setting up a return of You-Know-Who for another run at the White House in 2024, I am really hoping there are more pronounced consequences for those who either abused their powers or neglected their responsibilities on Jan. 6, 2021. The recent addition of sedition charges to prominent members of the Oath Keepers organization is encouraging, but by no means am I counting on there being much in the way of comeuppance, particularly for those in the upper echelons.
Meanwhile, commentators even here in Canada like Stephen Marche are discussing the risk to democracy in the U.S. and the possibility of a non-democratic government taking power in 2024 or beyond.
Was the 1933 Business Plot a credible threat? Could it have succeeded? Probably not, by most accounts, but it is difficult to say with any certainty. What if Gen. Butler had been an eager accomplice, instead of a patriotic informant?
Would someone trying again today, but with greater support, decentralized communications and an even more disaffected strip of the public have a better shot as success? And what if they were attempting to perform their machinations from within the government, aided by willing accomplices within the Senate or House of Representatives?
And might punitive measures taken back then have given pause to those determined to erode democracy in the present day?
It is chilling to consider just how much history, and precisely which parts, might actually be repeating.
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