THE TERRIBLE TIMES

A CONGRESSIONAL CONFESSION
BY NOBLE M. NOTAS1 Tuesday, March 11, 2003 Are fascists in charge of the United States? "Believers in liberty must oppose and expose and weaken, if we can, every totalitarian movement in the world. They are bad because, under their heels, people are not free. I happen to believe that if democracy in America should ever be destroyed it is more likely to be fascism, better masked, better financed, and wrapped in more familiar trappings, that will perpetrate that crime, although communism at present makes a greater noise." - Jerry Voorhis, Confessions of a Congressman (1948) Jerry Voorhis served five terms as a liberal Democratic U.S. Congressman before he was defeated by Republican candidate Richard Nixon in 1946. During the campaign, Nixon, using one of the foul tactics he is infamous for, falsely accused Voorhis of being linked to Communist and other left-winged elements. Stanley Long, a former aide to Voorhis, berated Nixon for his Red-smearing and his destructive ''rabbit attack'' on Voorhis'' record. Nixon responded with, "Of course I knew Jerry Voorhis wasn''t a communist. You know I knew better than that; I know the processes of the legislature and the Congress better than that." As for the ''rabbits'', "It''s a good political campaign fire to use.... I simply had to win, that''s the thing you don''t understand. The important thing is to win." The important thing is to win by any means, including lies and violence, hence might is right. When this ancient ''natural right of the jungle'' is the creed of the ruling elite, the majority of people are subject to what we loosely call a "fascist" or right-wing authoritarian government. Voorhis was not a communist but perhaps he was a prophet. Who knows? Subversion can be a subtle process. We might have unwittingly become subject to one of the most right-wing authoritarian administrations since Nixon was impeached and resigned his office - our present Bush administration. The Reagan-Bush administration was once identified as the most right-winged government since McKinley was assassinated. Horror upon horrors! Could it be that our fascism is simply "better masked, better financed, and wrapped in more familiar trappings" ? The paranoid German imperialists made war on the world in order to save the world with their superior civilization. They proceeded according to their delusions of grandeur and persecution, despite the protestation of German socialists and many others who had the courage to speak up against the Prussian militarism and unjust war. The National Socialists or Nazis continued the Great War with an even more brutish salvation plan
1

Noble M. Notas is the nom de plume used by David Arthur Walters for his academic notes.

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implemented by the elite fathers of a presumably superior folk at the helm of a state that was perceived as a mere means for criminal exploitation. Fed up with the failure of capitalism and communism, Nazism was really a dictatorship of the elite for the exploitation of the many who hoped to get something out of it too. Politically correct dissidents refrain from comparing the present right-wing authoritarian administration controlling the United States with German imperialism and German national socialism, nor do we care to relate the aggressive antics of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Adolf Hitler to the bellicose demeanor of President George Bush II. Our President is not a warmongering militarist, nor is he a racist member of the power elite or a member of a culture that he thinks is superior to other cultures, nor does he think he is the leader of a civilization upon whom an attack is an attack on civilization itself. No, he simply wants to make the world safe for democracy by disarming Iraq, getting rid of its dictator, and giving it a democratic constitution at gunpoint. Our President is certainly not a dictator. After all, democratic procedures do not apply in the international jungle where one is guilty until proven innocent and must be pre-emptively attacked in self-defense, which is only just. Although the majority of the people of the world and their leaders are presently opposed to the President''s current war plan, he is adamant: he will go it alone and take the nation with him in order to make the world a better place to live and die in. As for the people at home, he has clearly stated he was elected to lead them and that is just what he will do, over their dead bodies if he has to. Furthermore, certain democratic principles must be sacrificed in self-defense at home. But never mind, our government''s measures are mild in comparison to those taken by the German Nazis, Italian Fascists, and Red Communists. We think we are on the right course just as they did, and we are right because our arguments are more substantial. Besides that, we are relatively free: we can say almost anything we want to say, and we can literally get away with murder in our country if we have the money for a good legal defense. Nevertheless, the U.S. tendency to the right and the political and economic aspects of the movement disturbs us and gives a few of our red-blooded Americans cause for alarm. Is the prophecy made by Jerry Voorhis coming true? Have the fascists infiltrated the highest levels of government? even the Oval Office? Heaven forbid! Than cannot be. Still, we should sleep with one eye wide open for we are riding on the tail of a tiger. We might want the Congress to form a special committee for the investigation and exposure of the rightwing tendencies in the present government to ascertain if fascists have managed to subvert the democratic principles of the state by hiding behind scabs of political correctness covering the wounds of those who used to voice their prejudices and ignorance more freely. Of course I jest - I hope everyone has an extra-dry sense of humor since drinking got me down and I gave it up. Still, it will not hurt us to re-examine our political positions in the light of the experience of such men as Jerry Voorhis and to keep in mind his prophecy about fascism. We hear the term ''fascism'' thrown around wantonly nowadays: Bush has in fact been called "Hitler on a horse", and his "Big Oil" government has been identified as a "fascist regime." And those who do not resort to such extreme lambasting but who otherwise oppose the contemplated war on Iraq are being called "socialists", "traitors",

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"unpatriotic", "cowards", "seditious speakers", "un-American", and so on. Jerry Voorhis was familiar with that sort of hysterical political rhetoric. He was a member of the Dies Committee - the Special Committee to Investigate Un-American Propaganda in the United States. He became a member of the Committee because his initial opposition to it caused Speaker Bankhead to persuade him to accept an appointment to become a committee member. The Dies Committee was often accused of focusing its spotlight on Communism, leaving Nazism and Fascism to lurk unhindered in the shade. Some of the Committee''s investigators and witnesses were associated with fascist organizations. Voorhis confirms there were fewer investigations of fascist organizations, but he claims that was not really intentional. However that may be, I believe the following excerpts from his book might be of some good use to those of us who are again wondering what all the "isms" really mean and just who are the real enemies of democracy. Democratic Economics & Politics "A monopoly of economic power in a few hands imperils the liberties of the people; a monopoly of political power in a fw hands means that those liberties have been destroyed already." Democracy & Totalitarianism "Every democracy in the world faces a constant dilemma. For in a true democracy all the people of every sort, kind, and shade of opinion are free - even the people who don''t believe in freedom. In recent years particularly, such people have taken to forming organizations with the avowed purposes of seizing supreme power, eliminating the freedom of everyone except themselves, and detroying the very democracy that makes it possible for for them to form such organizations. To add to the seriousness of the problem, these organizations have been largely guided in their actions by the dictates of foreign governments." "Democracy''s best defense, therefore, lies in exposing all the facts about the totalitarian movement and thus enabling its own people to pass intelligent judgment upon the. To accomplish this requires, from time to time, an ''investigation of un-American activities.'' But if such an investigation is to be effective it must create in the public mind the clearest possible distinction between fascists and communists on the one hand and all loyal citizens, however radical their views, upon the other." Americanism "If a man''s loyalty is to the United States, its Constitution, and basic institutions, he is not un-American whatever may be his ideas about labor unions or capitalism.... If a man''s loyalty is to some other country and some other government, or if he is fundamentally disloyal to human freedom and wants to destroy it, then he is un-American even if he is a member of the Chamber of Commerce or the Congress of the United States."

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"Many Americans missed the point. But there was a point - and a vital one. It concerned the fact that the first loyalty of every Communist party member in the United States or Canada or nay other country lies with the Soviet Union, just as the first loyalty of every member of a half-dozen Nazi organizations around the world was owed to Germany while Hitler ruled that unhappy nation.... The difference between a Communist and other American radicals is very simple. A Communist is... an ''agent of Moscow.''" "In the annual report issued January 3, 1941, the committee said: ''The committee''s view is that a great gulf lies between those who, because of attachments to foreign powers and dictators, are basically disloyal to America and those who simply hold unorthodox economic views and, hence, advocate changes in the status quo which they sincerely believe would benefit the majority of the American people.'' What that language clearly meant was that the mere holding of minority views on economic or social questions was not an un-American activity. It meant that so long as an individual or group was committed to seeking its ends within the framework of the American Constitution and in a spirit of loyalty to our country, the committee would leave them alone. For a considerable period of time the committee did...." Abuse of Power "The Dies Committee, in my opinion, got off to a bad start. It began on May 26, 1938 when the House passed a resolution to ''Create a Special Committee to Investigate Un-American Propaganda Acitivites in the United States''.... Some of the witnesses were competent, many of them were not. Some of them were little more than hired purveyors of sensational exaggeration, if not of outright untruth. Some outrageous accusations were made by one witness against Californians whom I knew to be as loyal to the United States as any member of the Dies Committee, let alone their accuser. Nor were theirs an isolated case." "On December 11, 1939, there took place an occurence which, in my opinion, not only violated fundamental principles of decent commitee procedure but which would be interpreted as a deliberate attempt to protect a vested interest against legitimate criticism.... I had found that the (Dies Committee) had charged in a report that ''a great part of the current and official attack upon advertising is the direct result of Communist propaganda on the field of consumer organizations.'' The report was played up in the newspapers in such a manner as to leave the impression that attempts on the part of consumer organizations or government agencies to insist upon honesty in advertising was part and parcel of a communist program.... therefore I wrote and released to the press the following statement: I have defended and will continue to defend the work of the Dies insofar as it has presented substantial facts regarding communist, Nazi or fascist activities in America.... But the circumstances surrounding the release of this so-called report on consumers'' organizations leave me only one cours eof action. That is to disavow and disclaim any resonsibility whatsoever for the report.... The entire report is purely and simply the opinion of Mr. J.B. Matthews (recently hired by the Dies Committee), who in spite of his past connections with a consumers'' organization other than those attacked in the report sits as sole judge, and juror on the whole consumers'' protective and co-operative movement in America. If any thin is undemocratic in the world certainly procedure is....

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Consumers'' organizations are the very antithesis of the whole philosophy of communism and fascism...." "Speeches and pronouncements by individual committee members, based on investigator''s preliminary reports or ''something in the files'', were an all too frequent occurence.... WIthout an findings or action... someone would make a speech saying that ''the committee had evidence to indicate'' that such and such a person, organization, or group was engaged in un-American activities.... The entire work of the committee was severely damaged by such mistakes." "No rules of procedure were adopted... and from time to time I was compelled to publicly state my protests and disagreements to ''unilateral action'' by other members which I believed mistaken or wrong or unfair. Furthermore, toward the close of 1941, the whole tenor of the committee began to shift.... One day in June 1942 I was called on the telephone and told there would be a committee meeting that same afternoon to consider a... report on ''Subversive Activities Aimed at Destroying our Representative Government'' .... It attempted to make the case that criticisms of Congress and attackes upon its members, then current, were part and parcel of a communist scheme.... Why...this report? Because the Union for Democratic Action had just issued a report urging the defeat of certain congressmen and senators.... I prepared a minority report: ... To imply that this organization is in any way dominated by or a front for the Communist part is contrary to the facts of public record. And for the majority of the committee to say in effect that, although the Union for Democratic Action is neither communist nor communist-dominated, nevertheless it is un-American because some of its members are radicals, is to put the Committee on Un-American Activities in the position of judging people not on the basis of their fundamental loyalty to the United States and its constitutional form of government, but on the basis of the particular economic beliefs which they may hold and which are not in accord with those of the committee." "On December 29, 1942, I received... a draft of the committee''s annual report to the House for the years 1941 and 1942.... There was to be no committee meeting at all on the annual report. Members had all four days to read and digest it and approve or disapprove! It was a foregone conclusion that a majority of the committee would approve the report without change.... I went to work on a minority report. It was a year since Pearl Harbor had brought America into active participation in the war.... I believed the report of the committee should have been written with but one idea in mind - that of helping to win the war - and that is should therefore have been powerfully focused on forces, people, and influences which were giving aid or comfort to the enemies of our country.... Surely there was nothing any more serious than for totalitarian agents to gain positions in the government.... Finding them was a job for the FBI, not for the Committee.... The committee was not a secret service agency and could only do its work by means of publicity and exposure, devices hardly calculated to promote the apprehension of persons guilty of espionage or treason. The Committee... had to tell the story... but the FBI... had to discover the basic facts on which the story could be built. Hence, when this annual report complained that not more action had been taken agaist 1124 Federal government employees who were members of organizations which this committee has found to be

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subversive... I could not help pointing out in my minority report just how those 1124 names had been compiled.... The committee had obtained lists of four organizations: the Washington Committee to Aid China, the Washington Bookshop, the Washington Committee for Democratic Action, and the Washington branch of the League for Peace and Democracy. It has sent to the Justice Department every name that appeared on any one of these lists. In at least one case, I was certain that the list was only a mailing list. I said in my minority report: The fact that a person''s name was carried on its list by one of these organizations seems to me to constitute no substantial evidence of ''subversive'' activity, especially since in many instnaces the person''s name was included without any action on his part or even his knowledge. For these reasons, it is not surprising to me that investigations by the Department of Justice failed to disclose that there was any evidence of ''subversive'' activity or point of view in the case of more than a very small fraction of the people contained on thses lists." [ the New York Herald Tribune reported that it was easy to agree with Voorhis that Martin Dies was behind an extravagant blast based on flimsy evidence.] "Shortly before (1943) the continuing resolution was to come before the House, something happened which completely sealed my decision (to resign from the Dies Committee). Mr. Dies offered an amendment to an appropriation bill, the effect of which was to arbitrarily cut from the government pay roll some thirty-nine persons.... The ''evidence'' was little better than supposition.... To strike individuals from the federal pay roll by naming them - offhand - in congressional bills is certainly contrary to the basic principles of the Constitution.... The Herald Tribune said in part: ''Here is a witch hunt sure to play into Hitler''s hands.... The purge which Mr. Dies has just proposed....'' I submitted my resignation to the Speaker." Socialism "Whatever opinion may be regarding their economic views, the fact is that socialists are among the bitterest opponents of the communists. Postwar Europe has demonstrated that fact repeatedly. Socialists believe in and adhere to constitutional processes, personal liberty, and peaceful change. Moreover, American socialists hold their convictions and decide their course as free people and are in no respect subject to foreign control as are the communists." Ku Klux Klan "Just where such an organization as the Ku Klux Klan is to be catalogued is a question arousing violent debate. For even as it wraps the flag about itself and vows to combat all the nation''s enemies, it will undermine the basic institutions of democracy by taking the law into its own hands, employing intimidation, and spreading religious or racial prejudice." The Committee''s Purpose "As stated in (the Dies Committee) annual report for 1939, the ''purpose of this committee (was) the task of protecting our constitutional democracy by turning the light of pitiless publicity on the activities of an organization seeking to work the will of foreign dictators in

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the United Sates, or to destroy our constitutional democracy and set up a totalitarian regime of some sort in its place.''" "I believed the report (1941-1942) of the committee should have been written with but one idea in mind - that of helping to win the war - and that is should therefore have been powerfully focused on forces, people, and influences which were giving aid or comfort to the enemies of our country...."

Biography VOORHIS, Horace Jerry, a Representative from California; born in Ottawa, Franklin County, Kans., April 6, 1901; attended the public schools in Ottawa, Kans., Oklahoma City, Okla., Peoria, Ill., and Pontiac, Mich; was graduated from Yale University, New Haven, Conn., in 1923 and from Claremont (Calif.) College in 1928; worked in a factory, handling freight on the railroads, and worked as a cowboy in Wyoming; traveling representative for Young Men''s Christian Association in Germany in 1923 and 1924; worked in automotive assembling plant in Charlotte, N.C., in 1924 and 1925 and Dray Cottage Home for Boys, Laramie, Wyo., in 1926 and 1927; headmaster and trustee of Voorhis School for Boys, San Dimas, Calif., 1928-1938; lecturer at Pomona College, Claremont, Calif., 1930-1935; unsuccesful candidate for the State assembly in 1934; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-fifth and to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1937-January 3, 1947); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1946 to the Eightieth Congress; author; executive director of the Cooperative League of the United States of America, 1947-1967; secretary, Group Health Association of America, 1947 to present; consultant to cooperatives, 1947 to present; is a resident of Claremont, Calif. Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1971, Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Quoted CONFESSIONS OF A CONGRESSMAN, by Jerry Voorhis, Garden City: Doubleday, 1948. Reader Reviews for "A Congressional Confession"

Reviewed by Tien Avielle (author)

3/13/2003

"And those who do not resort to such extreme lambasting but who otherwise oppose the contemplated war on Iraq are being called "socialists", "traitors", "unpatriotic", "cowards", "seditious speakers", "un-American", and so on." - Yes, I am under attack - perhaps soon to be listed as a terrorist for speaking out, put on the President's hit list... me, the stay-at-home grandma... I want a better America -

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I want a more informed America. For this, lots of my fellow Americans seem willing to shoot me. Thank you for this information.

Reviewed by Claywoman (author)

3/11/2003

This is a great article! You have done a great deal of research and seem to know your subject thoroughly! I remember reading that before the cold war, during the Second World War, that citizens were, if not encouraged, at least not discouraged from being Communist since they were allies during the war. I see this nation getting back to the McCarthy era of looking for communists, socialists, and whatever "ist" under the bed and turning in your parents for "unAmerican" thoughts and speech. Is this not what we were told as children was what the communists did?