Walker-Koch Corporate Coup:  Are The Wisconsin 14 Our Smedley Butler?

by Dave Bradley

I think it was Mark Twain who
originally made the observation that history doesn’t repeat itself
but it often rhymes. Our current situation is one of those rhyming
times. It is not a repeat, because some things are different enough
that different outcomes may happen.

Smedley Butler was a highly
decorated, highly admired general, following World War I. He was a no
nonsense person who was known to get a job done. He was greatly
admired by enlisted men.

In 1933, Smedley Butler was
approached by representatives of the very, very rich elite who greatly
feared Franklin Roosevelt and felt that the country would be much
better off with a fascist style government with business people in
charge.

Thank goodness Butler had integrity.
At the time he was probably the one man who could have rallied enough
troops to follow him and foment a coup d’etat. He chose instead to
gather information and then at the right time turned the conspirators
in to congress. Unfortunately much of the testimony and proceedings
have been locked up or destroyed.

A decade or so back, the BBC radio
did a documentary on it. For the most part, any mention of Smedley
Butler in this country brings curious looks of ‘Who?’ The first
time I heard his name was during the Reagan years. But without Google
and the computer, I quickly forgot the name and never thought of
Butler again until I saw a mention somewhere on the internet. All I
remembered about that was ‘you have to hear the BBC story.’

So while looking for something else,
Butler’s name appeared. I decided to search for the BBC story and
lo and behold I found it.

Here is where the rhyming comes in.
In the 1930's there was an attempted physical coup of government, by the very rich. Today, those with money have been manipulating the
electoral process to get very friendly people into positions of power.
Once the Supreme Court turned over decades of campaign finance law via Citizens United (a very
activist court wouldn’t you say?), the monied interests could afford to be much more obvious
about their intentions.

So no need for messy armies or
anything like that. Once the caps were off, the money could flow. Now
of course, quid pro quo is still illegal, but lucky for the rich nearly
impossible to prove. So all across the United States Republican
governors suddenly created or worsened debt crises. Then they blamed
the problems on the unions and had legislation ready to introduce
that would in effect bust public unions.

At this point, Smedley Butler would
be on his way to congress to turn in the conspiracy. But today
congress is part of the problem. So hundreds of thousands in
Wisconsin and millions in the country called “foul” and like
Butler showed the integrity to stand against this coup.

The outcome in the 1930's was mixed.
The coup was stopped, but I don’t believe anyone was brought to
justice. Let us hope that this time it is only a partial rhyme.

BBC – The White House Coup – Part 1

BBC – The White House Coup – Part II

BBC – The White House Coup – Part III

Or audio only
go here:  “The White House Coup” – Audio

Note: See my recent
column about my father being fed up with being used

~Dave Bradley is a self-described
retired observer of American politics “trying to figure out how we got
so screwed up.”  An
Iowa City native currently living in West Liberty,  Dave and his wife
Carol have two grown children who “sadly had to leave the state to find
decent paying jobs.“  E-mail Dave here