Republicans have long thought/used the "if you're not succeeding, you're lazy," argument; both sincerely and insincerely. Last week, I read Benn Steil's excellent, factual book The Marshall Plan, Dawn of the Cold War. When Harry Truman invited Republican Congressmen to the White House in September, 1947 to make his case of the plan, Rep…
Republicans have long thought/used the "if you're not succeeding, you're lazy," argument; both sincerely and insincerely. Last week, I read Benn Steil's excellent, factual book The Marshall Plan, Dawn of the Cold War. When Harry Truman invited Republican Congressmen to the White House in September, 1947 to make his case of the plan, Republican Congressman John Tabor told him, he "had seen no 'underfed people' in his European travels (have to wonder where he went in 1947 Europe besides state dinners and hotels). Their problem was that they were simply 'not working as hard or as vigorously as they should. We in the United States,' he said, 'got where we are because we worked harder.'" Simple, grade-school-level analyses and solutions for incredibly complex situations and times (now, even more than then). Of course! Exactly what we need!
We would do well to remember that we ended the war with the help of dropping the atom bomb on Japan. We continue to threaten peace at every turn, knowing we have to rely on sane leaders who have the power of world destruction literally in their hands.
Republicans have long thought/used the "if you're not succeeding, you're lazy," argument; both sincerely and insincerely. Last week, I read Benn Steil's excellent, factual book The Marshall Plan, Dawn of the Cold War. When Harry Truman invited Republican Congressmen to the White House in September, 1947 to make his case of the plan, Republican Congressman John Tabor told him, he "had seen no 'underfed people' in his European travels (have to wonder where he went in 1947 Europe besides state dinners and hotels). Their problem was that they were simply 'not working as hard or as vigorously as they should. We in the United States,' he said, 'got where we are because we worked harder.'" Simple, grade-school-level analyses and solutions for incredibly complex situations and times (now, even more than then). Of course! Exactly what we need!
We would do well to remember that we ended the war with the help of dropping the atom bomb on Japan. We continue to threaten peace at every turn, knowing we have to rely on sane leaders who have the power of world destruction literally in their hands.