Right Wing Undermines Freedom
Not the Other Way
The world would be a completely different place if the social media of today was around in 1941 and if conspiracies grew like topsy then as they do today.
The conspiracists would claim that President Roosevelt and the Democrats were involved in a doomsday pact with the Germans and the Japanese. A special counsel would be named to delve into the shadowy conspiracy while House Republicans would empanel committees to get to the bottom of the nefarious attempts to dislodge democracy by the Democrats.
There would be riotous public meetings where protesters would refuse to cut back on Sunday drives in the country, they would fight tooth and nail against any cutbacks in sugar and they would surely never allow the nation to resort to such assaults on civil liberties like curtailing toothpaste. Even the right wing religious leaders would call for congregations to resist the war that was brought upon them by the Democratic Satans.
Political careers would be spun around mobilizing the masses to rise up and fight to preserve the nation, the constitution, the American way of life. There might even be assaults on the very heart of government, with tacit and active support from the very politicians who swore an oath to protect the nation. Ubiquitous memes would spawn like a virus, spreading the message of rebellion against the government, with the ever present mantra, “where we go one, we go all,” otherwise known as “WWG1WGA. And rallies would be packed with protesters carrying their Gadsden flags with the yellow banner and coiled timber rattlesnake and the words “Don’t Tread on Me.”
Today, our great patriots are in a life and death battle to preserve their constitutional rights to walk around maskless and vaccination free, to wash their hands when and if they want, to walk as close to others as they please and to attend rallies with thousands of like-minded, infected patriots. They are rising up to battle the deadly plans to teach the depth of American history while many organize to force boards of education to ban books that differ from these patriots’ view of what America was and what it should be, all under the glorious banner of Make America Great Again. And these so-called patriots would fail to understand the parallels between their efforts and those of the fascists in the war even while their leaders were pushing to overthrow the government and replace it with their own brand of totalitarianism.
Fortunately, there was no Internet, no Facebook, no QAnon during World War II and the majority of Americans understood the sacrifices that were necessary to maintain American morale and to ensure that the Allies had adequate supplies to defeat the Nazis and the Japanese. Sacrifices included, but were not restricted to, ration books issued to all, including children. Each book contained a certain number of rationing points per week. Meat and processed foods, vital for soldiers abroad, had high points. Fresh fruit and vegetables had no points. Sugar was rationed to around half a pound a week, half of what Americans typically consumed. To avoid food waste, citizens were told to eat their leftovers and “lick their plate clean.” People were even urged to dress warmly indoors to avoid colds and conserve oil and fuel which was needed for military transportation.
Scrap drives were a common way people could provide for the war effort. Contributing rags, rubber, paper or metal could help the government build airplanes and other equipment needed to fight the war. Rubber was limited because many of Asia’s rubber plantations were under Japanese control. President Roosevelt asked citizens to contribute old tires, rubber raincoats, garden hoses, shoes and bathing caps. Wartime recipes were publicized to limit ingredients.
Then there were the U.S Treasury war bonds, critical to raising money for the war. A $25 war bond could be purchased for $18.75. The government would use the money to pay for military equipment. After about 10 years the bond could be redeemed for $25, a nearly 3 percent average annual return. But for today’s so-called patriots it would be considered just another effort to concentrate wealth in the pockets of the leaders.
Today, many people say they are “done” with the pandemic and they are desperate to return to life before the plague; they want schools kept open, holiday parties unrestricted, football games played before tens of thousands of cheering fans. And they rationalize that COVID-19 is now worse than the flu and that it is their right to refuse to get potentially life-saving vaccinations. And it is all fueled by unethical, blood thirsty politicians and conspiracy mongers who make millions off of frightening the public.
If these same people were around during World War II, many would certainly have cracked under the strain of more than five years of war and the deaths of more than 405,000 Americans who gave their lives in the conflict. There were families who were decimated when young men were killed in battles, others had relatives trapped in the deadly concentration camps, and many struggled every day to maintain some semblance of normalcy when they were faced with the very real possibility that the U.S. could lose the war.
There would have been no room nor time for those who decided they were “done” with it all, unlike today when it often seems that many people cannot see the world beyond their own self-centered, selfish needs.