In
this atmosphere an odd movement has formed – the Whiskey Rebels. They are holding protests in parks,
convention halls, and street corners across the country and have a small but
passionate following. They are
angry, afraid, and blame the government for all their problems. To them the government is the
problem. Somehow government is
preventing our big businesses from flourishing, which would allow America to
flourish. Somehow these people
missed the Great Depression – that was the product of big business freed from
government regulations. The
press loves them. They are getting
coverage in newspapers and radio that seems much greater than what they
deserve. But for certain outlets
the Whiskey Rebels match their political interests and beliefs.
The
Whiskey Rebels claim to love the Constitution. However, its seems they want the Articles of Confederation
of the early Republic not our current Constitution: no federal taxation, state government dominance over the
federal government, and an end to all New Deal policies and programs.
The Whiskey Rebels take their name from the first rebellion against the new federal government
that happened in the early 1790s.
At federal tax was created on whiskey production by Alexander Hamilton
to help pay down the national debt.
Farmers west of the Allegheny Mountains who turned their grain into
whiskey to more easily transport their product to the markets in the east
opposed the new tax. The
protests turned violent and tax collectors were attacked. It got so bad that President George
Washington called on state militias and personally lead 15,000 troops to put
down the revolt.
Today’s
Whiskey Rebels are not currently violent, they are more like a mad tea
party. It appears that this
movement is a new iteration of the crazies that think H.A. is a Soviet
plant. This movement is also
funded by big business that fears H.A. I fear big businesses involvement in the political
process. In Spain, American big
business abandoned democracy for profit by supporting Franco – greed has no democratic
loyalties. Big business will do the same
in America if they think it will increase their profits. They will forgo American workers for
cheap labor overseas. There are
millions of desperate workers overseas who are willing to work for next to
nothing. I even believe big
business will hide their profits offshore to prevent paying their fair
share of taxes. They will do this
to maximize profits even though it will eventually starve the very system they
need to maintain their dominance.
This avarice and short-sightedness will
eventually lead to the downfall of big business, but their fall will hurt everyone.
If the Whiskey Rebels think they have it bad, Europe is much, much worse. I don’t think you can even say they
have economies – tens of millions are near starvation. H.A. views Europe’s hunger as
shameful and immediately created large-scale loans and aid packages.
H.A.’s efforts to win the peace in
Europe continue. Hopkins has
successfully negotiated a summit meeting for July with Stalin and Churchill in
Germany for next month. Getting
Churchill and Stalin to agree to meet was very difficult.
Efforts
to build a strong United Nations is also on track; however, H.A. had to replace
some U.S. delegates at the San Francisco U.N. organizing conference who were
attempting to defeat language making “the right to work and the right to
education” part of the U.N.’s goals.
The fired delegates thought that these elements would promote communism
in the United States. H.A. told
me, “More and more it begins to look like the psychology is favorable toward
getting into war with Russia. This
must not be. It seems incredible
that our people should drift toward this whirlpool.”
© 2012 Ron Millar
© 2012 Ron Millar
