look again

at language

Who gave us the terms "Left" and "Right"? The atheistic, murderous French Revolutionaries, who were themselves on the Left Bank of the Seine, and whose implacable enemies were on the Right Bank of the Seine. These monsters, overshadowed by the evils of other Leftists later, were quite prepared, by their own admission, to kill one quarter of the population of France - many millions of people - to achieve their revolutionary aims.

Who invented the terms "liberal," "conservative," "progressive," "reactionary," "revolutionary," "radical," and "moderate" in the sense that we use those terms today? Karl Marx and those who largely accepted the Marxian view of things created this lexicon of political shades. Marx, who influenced Lenin, Mussolini and Mao, has been allowed from the grave to give us those words that we use to describe our politics today.

Orwell presciently told us that language is the key to politics. He also warned us that the intention of those who seek power was to drain meaning from words so that we could not cogently grasp the enemy or his weapons.

and hoover vs. f.d.r.

Herbert Hoover, Republican

• Race: In 1924, Hoover maintains that America's anti-Japanese immigration quotas are wrong, full stop.
• Integrity: Hoover disdains anti-Semitic jokes, and stands against tricks "to smuggle fascism into America through a back door."
• WWII: Hoover is not against all wars, but against Roosevelt's handling of the war, and shares John F. Kennedy's concerns.
• Childhood: "Hoover was born in pinch poverty in the little town of West Branch, Iowa, where every home is humble."
• Hobbies: "Hoover [the poor country pupil] entertained himself with sticks and tacks, strings, wires and nails and the assortment of things the village smithy leaves scattered in the shade of the chestnut tree."
• Education: Hoover, the orphan, worked his way though Stanford, because he was not too proud to do laundry work.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democrat

• Race: During WWII, FDR sends Japanese families to "internment camps" while many white Germans are free to play, and travel.
• Integrity: Like so many Democrats, President Roosevelt adopts a fondness for anti-Semitic jokes.
• WWII: FDR often falls out with Churchill, makes a series of costly blunders, and falls in love with Stalin.
• Childhood: Roosevelt was America's little Lord Fauntleroy, the child of a Hudson River squire. He grew up in Hyde Park, NY.
• Hobbies: "Franklin played with imported toys under the tutelage and protection of a governess [to the age of fourteen!], which ever is the nicest term." Then, he was off to Groton, the elite preparatory school.
• Education: Franklin Roosevelt's daddy dear, paid his son's way into Harvard, living "on the Gold Coast" and then Columbia.

both links via molten thought