1941 Called; It Wants Its Lindbergh Back
Charles Lindbergh's antisemitic and isolationist sentiments sound eerily familiar.
A common adage says that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it echoes.” Here in the 21st century it appears that some very ugly sentiments uttered by an American hero of the early 20th century are resurfacing through voices on the alt-right. Or, if you prefer, the “woke right.”
First, Some History
While Europe teetered on the edge of another world war as Adolph Hitler bit off chunks of sovereign nations, Americans recalled the carnage of the previous conflict (even though they entered very late into World War I). They looked across the Atlantic and said, “Nope. Not my circus, not my monkeys.” Indeed, a poll taken after the 1940 invasion of Belgium, the Netherlands, and France showed that 93 percent of Americans opposed joining World War II.
Enter Charles Lindbergh, the nation’s premiere aviation hero, who promoted that sentiment by speaking for the “America First Committee,” a group which bolstered isolationist views.
But there was more, much more to Lindbergh’s isolationism than appeared on the surface.
In a 1941 speech for the America First Committee, Lindbergh exposed his antisemitism by claiming that "The three most important groups who have been pressing this country toward war are the British, the Jewish [sic] and the Roosevelt Administration." He also contended that American Jews were “war agitators.”
Lindbergh may have despised Franklin Roosevelt, and with that speech also angered his erstwhile friend Winston Churchill. However, he did find common ground with certain world leaders. Consider this 1936 photo of America’s hero Charles Lindbergh admiring the sword collection of Hermann Goering, then a Reichminister under Hitler.
Antisemitism, support for some of the world’s worst actors — nearly 85 years on; does this not sound familiar to those of us who see danger lurking among the populist right?
The Jewish Comic Who Bashes Israel
In case you missed it, last month the podcast Joe Rogan Experience featured a throw-down between comedian Dave Smith and the conservative British journalist Douglas Murray.
Murray is a staunch supporter of Israel (and Ukraine, too), particularly after the October 7, 2023, massacre. Smith… not so much.
But he’s a Jew, so that excuses it, apparently.
To be honest, I had never heard of Dave Smith before this podcast. Moreover, I don’t listen to Joe Rogan either. But I have learned that along with being a frequent flyer on Rogan, Smith has also been a guest on Fox News’ Kennedy, The Greg Gutfeld Show, and CNN’s S.E. Cupp: Unfiltered. He’s also a fanboy of libertarian heavyweights Ron Paul and Murray Rothbard, and opposes government overreach.
This was Smith’s take on Israel’s war in Gaza:
My beef with Israel has nothing to do with how I feel about Jewish people. I just think you can’t occupy a group of people and then indiscriminately slaughter them.
Like the October 7 slaughter didn’t happen?
He’s also called the founding of Israel “illegitimate and immoral,” as well as claiming that Gaza is a “concentration camp.”
Smith’s grandfather, allegedly a Holocaust survivor, was unavailable for comment. But it’s all good! In a 2020 response to a critic on Twitter, Smith said Grandpa loved him a good Holocaust joke:
You know who loved Holocaust jokes? My Jewish Holocaust survivor grandfather. I said a Holocaust joke was hilarious once. That’s what you’ve got. Just take the L, dork.
But back to the Douglas Murray/Dave Smith showdown on Joe Rogan.
One of Murray’s major criticisms of Smith (and Rogan, who piled on in support of Smith) was that the comic had never even been to the war zone. As Murray later told Bari Weiss in her podcast Honestly:
I was pretty alarmed by the number of people, including Joe and Dave, who found it to be some kind of really weird, snooty, elitist thing to say, “If you’re going to write about a place, you should have been there or know about it. You should do some of the legwork.” ….
What I was saying was just such basic journalistic hygiene, which is: “Yes, if you’re going to talk endlessly about a conflict, you ought to put in the legwork.” And in a way, it’s insulting to all the many journalists who put themselves under dangerous and difficult positions to say, “Nah, you don’t need to do that. I can tell as much by sitting in Austin reading Google.”
However, there is such disdain for “experts” among the alt-right, that experience doesn’t matter. What counts as “owning the elites” is confronting professionals with snark and eye-rolling.
For example, here’s a snippet of Dave Smith’s appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored in which he lectured John Spencer about the immorality of Israel. Spencer is a military veteran, author of books on warfare, and chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute.
Dave Smith can freely shill for the HAMAS death cult here in the United States (we have that little “freedom of speech thing,” after all). He can blow off the experience of military experts, too. But as writer Gila Isaacson wrote at Jewish World:
Here's a note for you, Dave.
No, you don't just get to spew your filth with no consequences. Rhetoric causes action and antisemitism kills.
And Hitler would have gassed you, too. He wouldn't have cared about your big feelings or your profound self-hatred or how you feel sorry for the Palestinians. Sorry.
Tucker Carlson Checks In
Tucker Carlson couldn’t let Dave Smith and Joe Rogan get the lion’s share of internet clicks with their anti-Israel shtick. So he appeared on The Megyn Kelly Show to claim that Ukraine was behind the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
It’s true that Ryan Routh, who attempted to assassinate Trump at his golf course, traveled to Ukraine. He also tried to recruit foreign soldiers to fight in Ukraine’s International Legion. But a spokesperson for the Legion told the BBC that Routh “has never served in Ukraine’s International Legion and has no relation to the unit.” One Ukrainian soldier also called him “nonsensical” and “delusional.”
But don’t let the facts get in the way of Carlson’s abhorrence of Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Notice the RT Russia Today logo in the upper right hand corner of Carlson’s image. It fits. Tucker Carlson not only slams the West, but admires Russia, Vladimir Putin, and Putin’s henchman Aleksandr Dugin.
Shades of Charles Lindbergh and his adulation for the German Third Reich.
But don’t criticize Carlson! He goes to pieces. How dare you imply that he doesn’t love America! He’s an Episcopalian, for crying out loud! And he has a US passport, too!
Dude, if you’re explaining, you’re losing.
You’d Think We’d Learn From History
Not long ago a woman I knew posted this on social media regarding Ukraine:
I lived through Vietnam, I have active duty grandsons, and I’ll be damned if they are going to set one foot in a meat grinder for a twerp (Zelenskyy) who called the VP “bitch”…
Oh, okay. First of all, Grandma, good luck telling the military where it can or cannot deploy your grandsons.
Secondly, I also recall Vietnam. And Ukraine is not Vietnam because Volodymyr Zelenskyy has never asked for American troops to serve there. So Ukraine is not Vietnam, is not Afghanistan, and is not Iraq, either.
But she most likely consumes podcasts, social media, and websites that support the isolationist view — sites which are no doubt rife with Russian propaganda (hello, Tenet Media). Does she understand how monstrous Vladimir Putin is? Or of the war crimes he has committed?
As for Israel: Whatever happened to “Never Again”? How did the extremes of both right and left suddenly turn on Jewish people, resurrecting the ugly bigotry of Jew-hatred?
As Yogi Berra quipped, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.” Only the situation is not really amusing, is it.
Remember the lessons of history, and leave Charles Lindbergh to moulder in his grave, along with his racism and toxic admiration for a wicked regime. Let rightness shine amidst the shadows of today’s falsehoods. As Douglas Murray told Bari Weiss: “The great thing about truth is that it punctures the darkness.”