This writer remembers when Charlie Sykes was a big local name in conservative media. She also remembers the infamous interview with Trump, the one that seems to have broken Sykes’s brain and turned him into decidedly not a conservative.
So it’s not really a surprise to see him singing the praises of FDR and his treatment of ‘isolationists’ in Politico.
Opinion: Franklin Roosevelt had a devastating way of discrediting isolationists. Biden could learn from it, writes @SykesCharlie. https://t.co/FU71F1b776
— POLITICO (@politico) March 20, 2024
Bidding for his third term, he accused Republican isolationists of obstructionism, timidity and weakness. In Congress, he reminded the audience, Republicans had voted against adding more battleships and planes and buying other critical war material. In the House, Republicans had voted 144 to 8 to reduce appropriations for the Army Air Corps. One after another, he listed the votes and pointed out the hypocrisy of his isolationist critics.
But it was the way he did it that produced a classic of political derision — and a model for how a president can make American leadership abroad a selling point rather than a problem. He named names, and it connected with voters.
In the speech, Roosevelt deployed the full force of his rhetorical talents against three leading Republican isolationist leaders: Mass. Rep. Joseph Martin, the House minority leader; N.Y. Rep. Bruce Barton, a conservative ad man who had founded the agency BBDO; and the patrician N.Y. Rep. Hamilton Fish III, who had opposed measures to rearm the nation and aid the victims of Hitler’s aggression.
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Thankfully, Twitter/X users were happy to dispel the notion FDR is a role model on dealing with ‘isolationists’ with a little bit of history and a whole lotta snark.
Am I an isolationist if I believe that the United States should NOT be the center of every international conflict?
Am I an isolationist if I think that I was misled by out government throughout the 22 years of war the i actually served in?
Careful with your words.
— TimOnPoint (@TimOnPoint) March 20, 2024
Very careful.
Yeah he’d put them in camps.
— The Hanford Institute 🐶 (@ThiccInstitute) March 20, 2024
Yep.
Lol there’s a reason @SykesCharlie is universally considered a joke
— Corporal Punishment (@CplPunishment_) March 21, 2024
It’s really sad to see how far he’s fallen.
Was it seizing privately held gold?
— Michael Winter (@Winterborn123) March 20, 2024
That’s one way of dealing with them, we suppose.
Damn. Have the isolationists been proven right by history or what?
— Go_Love_Yourself (@Mongo7985) March 21, 2024
Yes they have been.
It was really shown in the way he put Japanese people in internment camps.
— BowTiedReactionary (@bowtiedreact) March 21, 2024
Yes it was.
Did we forget that?
Was it stealing everyone’s gold?
Because FDR stole everyone’s gold and we just pretend that didn’t happen so we can keep the whole constitutional republic storyline going https://t.co/ICfKitXrwh
— Auron MacIntyre (@AuronMacintyre) March 20, 2024
We love Twitter.
Apart from accusing old ladies of being fascist fifth-columnists, FDR privately urged the FBI to surveil and harass pacifists, going so far as to hand their telegrams and addresses directly over to Hoover. Details from such investigations were routinely leaked to the press. https://t.co/TwQOLrdu2d
— Lafayette Lee (@Partisan_O) March 20, 2024
Good times.
Are there any true isolationists in American politics? Maybe Thomas Massie? Not wanting to be involved with one or two wars in particular doesn’t make you an isolationist when America has 100+ overseas bases, largest defense budget, trade with everyone etc. https://t.co/Trhbu3VpWE
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) March 20, 2024
In Sykes’s view, it does.
“Every year is 1938, every foreign adversary is Hitler, and every attempt at compromise or understanding is giving away Bohemia and Moravia.” – Foreign policy establishment, 1945-2024. https://t.co/wvRDrbJyK1
— John (@Opposed_Twin) March 20, 2024
Nailed it.
NeverTrumpers are now looking back at FDR admiringly to urge Biden to use the same tactics to out-hawk and smear Republicans as isolationists.
This is what a toxic mixture of TDS and neoconservatism has done to these people… https://t.co/lO3qLnfBJt
— Dan (@DanAlternativ3) March 20, 2024
It’s spectacular to behold, isn’t it?
It is time for your periodic reminder that those who bray the loudest about democracy think you ought to have no say in the important political questions facing the nation. https://t.co/z1DCepw7OA
— Brandan P. Buck (@brandan_buck) March 20, 2024
Because they despise you and think they’re morally and intellectually your superiors.
Don’t forget that.
FDR should not be a Presidential ideal to aspire to. Repeal the New Deal. https://t.co/qGwcYfRbum
— Trey50Daniel (@Trey50Daniel) March 20, 2024
Aside from putting the Japanese in camps, stealing gold, FBI investigations, and policies that prolonged the great Depression, things were great back then.
FDR, what a guy. Let’s emulate him.
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