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I couldn't resist noting that today is the birthday of Warren G. Harding, the man who released Woodrow Wilson's political prisoners, cut taxes and spending, and signed one of the most significant arms limitation agreements in world history.
Bush and Kerry can't hold a candle to that platform.
Thanks, I will check out the sources on the Klan you provided. As I mentioned before, however, Harding backed anti-lynching legislation (which is more than FDR can say!) and gave a speech in the South defending the rights of blacks. This doesn't sound like a klansman to me....but I could be wrong.
'Please provide evidence for your assertion that Harding was "initiated" into the Ku Klux Klan. Poor Warren can't get no respect but I never heard that claim before. Again, I'd like to see where you read that.'
Harding reportedly was inducted to the Klan by Imperial Wizard William Simmons. The claim's made in a number of books on race in the 1920s and the Second Era Klan--e.g. Wyn C. Wade's THE FIERY CROSS, Philip Dray's AT THE HANDS OF PERSONS UNKNOWN, etc. If you want I can hunt track down some more detailed bibliographic information on the matter. (I wouldn't be surprised if most biographies of Harding specifically went more or less entirely without mentioning it--the gruesome fact is that being a member of the Klan would not have been a distinctive or unusual fact about a politician of the time.)
'BTW, the Klan was refounded during the term of Woodrow Wilson, who brought Jim Crow to the federal government and absolutely loved "Birth of a Nation" which he considered accurate history.'
Of course. Nothing in my remarks about Harding should be taken to imply that Wilson wasn't a scumbag, or even that Wilson wasn't even more of a scumbag than Harding. He probably was. Fortunately, neither Bush nor Kerry (for all their faults!) happens to have the attitudes towards race that white public figures in the 1910s-1920s routinely acted on.
As for Harding's joke about "jumping the fence," I've read a number of differing accounts about the remarks and Harding's attitudes toward the possibility (some claim he was indifferent and joked about it; others claim he was ashamed and tried to hide it; etc.). Even at the strongest, though, the remark would be compatible with Harding joining the Klan--it was not at all rare for politicians of the 1920s to opportunistically participate in the KKK without actually believing much of it. I don't know whether Harding was of this sort or was more of a sympathizer (a la Wilson); but I don't actually think that either option would be any better for judging his political legacy.
'As to quotas and tariffs, well.....nobody is perfect, but then I was comparing Harding to Bush and Kerry!'
But it's not just a matter of minor flaws that vanish in the comparison to contemporary pols. The tariff rates that Harding and the Republican legislature enacted during the 1920s were far worse than anything even remotely envisioned by either major party today, and of course was among the leading causes of the worst economic depression in U.S. history. But beyond that, neither the tariffs nor the immigration quotas stand alone; they are both quite clearly of a piece with the nativist, white supremacist politics of the 1920s. The Republican administrations between Wilson and Roosevelt enthusiastically participated in that vicious atmosphere--and on some issues actively made things a lot worse. And whatever their merits vis-a-vis Wilson before and FDR after, or vis-a-vis modern pols such as Bush and Kerry, these are things that need to be remembered.
Thanks for the questions. Hope this helps.
Charles:
By the way, John Dean's (yes, that John Dean) lastest biography of Harding, published as part of a series edited by Schlesigner, has a pretty detailed discussion of not only Harding's general record but his views and policies on race.
Please provide evidence for your assertion that Harding was "initiated" into the Ku Klux Klan. Poor Warren can't get no respect but I never heard that claim before. Again, I'd like to see where you read that.
BTW, the Klan was refounded during the term of Woodrow Wilson, who brought Jim Crow to the federal government and absolutely loved "Birth of a Nation" which he considered accurate history.
Interestingly, Harding's opponents liked to claim that he was "tainted" with Negro blood. Instead of denying it, he joked, "Hell, for all know one of my ancestors might have jumped the fence." That doesn't sound like the statement of Klansman to me.
As to quotas and tariffs, well.....nobody is perfect, but then I was comparing Harding to Bush and Kerry!
Warren G. Harding also drove tariffs sky-high, approved the first ethnic immigration quotas in American history, and was initiated into the bloody Ku Klux Klan in the White House.
Bush and Kerry may be assholes, but thank God that men like Harding no longer make it onto the ballot.
Well, they are some parallels. Both knew how to have a good time.
With Harding, you also get Bill-Clinton-quality sex!