FDR was called "a tool of Wall St" by Father COUGHLIN. Just saying.

UTUSN

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Tue Aug-02-11 09:51 PM
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FDR was called "a tool of Wall St" by Father COUGHLIN. Just saying.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coughlin

Father Charles Edward Coughlin

October 25, 1891 � October 27, 1979) was a controversial Roman Catholic priest at Royal Oak, Michigan's National Shrine of the Little Flower Church. He was one of the first political leaders to use radio to reach a mass audience, as more than thirty million tuned to his weekly broadcasts during the 1930s.<2> Early in his career Coughlin was a vocal supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his early New Deal proposals, before later becoming a harsh critic of Roosevelt as too friendly to bankers.<3> In 1934 he announced a new political organization called the "Nation's Union of Social Justice." He wrote a platform calling for monetary reforms, the nationalization of major industries and railroads, and protection of the rights of labor. The membership ran into the millions, resembling the Populist movement of the 1890s.<4>

After hinting at attacks on Jewish bankers, Coughlin began to use his radio program to issue antisemitic commentary, and later to rationalize some of the policies of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.<5> The broadcasts have been called "a variation of the Fascist agenda applied to American culture".<6> His chief topics were political and economic rather than religious, with his slogan being Social Justice, first with, and later against, the New Deal. Many American bishops as well as the Vatican wanted him silenced, but it was the Roosevelt administration that finally forced the cancellation of his radio program and forbade the dissemination through the post of his newspaper, Social Justice.<7> ....

Coughlin's support for Roosevelt and his New Deal faded later in 1934, when he founded the National Union for Social Justice (NUSJ), a nationalistic worker's rights organization which grew impatient with what it viewed as the President's unconstitutional and pseudo-capitalistic monetary policies. His radio programs preached more and more about the negative influence of "money changers" and "permitting a group of private citizens to create money" at the expense of the general welfare of the public.<11> He also spoke about the need for monetary reform based on "free silver". Coughlin claimed that the Depression was a "cash famine". Some modern economic historians, in part, agree with this assessment.<12> Coughlin proposed monetary reforms, including the nationalization of the Federal Reserve System, as the solution.

Among the NUSJ's articles of faith were work and income guarantees, nationalizing "necessary" industry, wealth redistribution through taxation of the wealthy, federal protection of worker's unions, and decreasing property rights in favor of the government controlling the country's assets for "public good." ....

When he began criticizing the New Deal that year, Roosevelt sent Joseph P. Kennedy and Frank Murphy, both prominent Irish Catholics, to try to tone him down. Ignoring them, Coughlin began denouncing Roosevelt as a tool of Wall Street. Coughlin supported Huey Long until Long was assassinated in 1935, and then supported William Lemke's Union Party in 1936. As Coughlin turned into a bitter opponent of the New Deal, his radio talks escalated in vehemence against Roosevelt, capitalists and "Jewish conspirators". He was initially supported, and later � after turning on Roosevelt � opposed in his efforts by another nationally known priest, Monsignor John A. Ryan.<16> Kennedy, who strongly supported the New Deal, warned as early as 1933 that Coughlin was "becoming a very dangerous proposition" as an opponent of Roosevelt and "an out and out demagogue." Kennedy worked with Roosevelt, Bishop Francis Spellman and Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII) in a successful effort to get the Vatican to silence Coughlin in 1936.<17> In 1940�41, reversing his own views, Kennedy attacked the isolationism of Coughlin.<18> ....

References in popular culture

* Coughlin was mentioned in a verse of Woody Guthrie's pro-interventionist song "Lindbergh": "Yonder comes Father Coughlin, wearin� the silver chain, Gas on the stomach and Hitler on the brain."
* Coughlin was attacked in 1942 cartoons by Theodor Seuss Geisel, best known for his children's books written under the pen name of Dr. Seuss.<29>
* Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel about a Fascist coup in the USA, It Can't Happen Here, features a "Bishop Prang", an extremely successful pro-Fascist radio host who is said to be "to the pioneer Father Coughlin"..."as the Ford V-8 (was) to the Model A".
* The producers of the HBO television series Carniv�le have said that the character of Brother Justin Crowe was inspired by Coughlin.<30>
* In the fictional work The Plot Against America, author Philip Roth uses Coughlin as the villain who helps a pro-fascist government.
* Sax Rohmer's 1936 novel "President Fu Manchu" features a character based on Coughlin, a Catholic priest and radio host who is the only person who knows that a criminal mastermind is manipulating a U.S. presidential race.
* Cole Porter referenced and rhymed "Coughlin" in his 1935 song "A Picture of Me Without You" (in the fourth refrain): "Picture City Hall without boondogglin', picture Sunday tea minus Father Coughlin."
* Coughlin's influence on American antisemitic organizations in the 1930s and 40s is referenced in Arthur Miller's 1945 novel Focus
* In the MASH episode "The Bus", Frank Burns claims that during his sophomore year he lost a debate to a Jewish fellow student by the name of Helen Rappaport. The topic of the debate was "Should Father Coughlin become our next President?"

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