# SDMB Retrospective US Presidential Elections 1944 **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 19, 2014, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-retrospective-us-presidential-elections-1944/686475 "2014-04-19T07:15:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-retrospective-us-presidential-elections-1944/686475/41 "2014-04-25T01:37:31Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Do you believe in retrospect intervention was the right idea? Not in 'Nam; mixed feelings on Korea; there was no intervention in Taiwan. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-retrospective-us-presidential-elections-1944/686475/42 "2014-04-25T09:46:55Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Nixon comes to mind. > > :dubious: Now you’re veering into [Hitler Ate Sugar](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HitlerAteSugar) territory. Just because fascists did it first does not make anything a bad idea. Hitler’s _Autobahnen_ inspired Eisenhower to build the Interstate Highway System. Wasn’t that a good idea? > > Not a policy I would think of defending, but remember that it was not unpopular at the time (wartime makes people strange), and that the same charge could be brought against Lincoln, whose actions I **would** defend (the difference being that Cornfed sympathizers were real threats to national security and Japanese-Americans were not). > > :rolleyes: There is nothing “despotic” about wartime rationing. > > Please remember that the supreme imperialist in this story is Hitler. > > I support social democracy. Who’s a mercantilist any more?! Nixon stepped down. I asked who was more fascist. You dodged the question. Mussolini identified the New Deal as fascist. So your argument is Lincoln was more despotic? That’s a understandable opinion but Lincoln had less resources to carry out his evil deeds, so Roosevelt was more successful is exercising control over the population. On second thought do you know what despotic means, because you deny that controlling the consumption of literally millions of people is despotic. That is a bold claim, bud. Once again you dodge the question. Really no point in continuing with you. Because Hitler was an imperialist, the US was not? You aren’t even being coherent. You’ve expressed support for the mercantilism of Hamilton so I was offering this as a reason for your support of US territorial imperialism. You offered no other reason. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2014, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-retrospective-us-presidential-elections-1944/686475/43 "2014-04-25T15:08:38Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Nixon stepped down. Only when he had no other choice. > [@WillFarnaby](#): > > I asked who was more fascist. You dodged the question. Mussolini identified the New Deal as fascist. I dodged nothing, and Mussolini was wrong about a **lot** of things. The New Deal was in no way fascist. > [@WillFarnaby](#): > > So your argument is Lincoln was more despotic? That’s a understandable opinion but Lincoln had less resources to carry out his evil deeds, so Roosevelt was more successful is exercising control over the population. > > On second thought do you know what despotic means, because you deny that controlling the consumption of literally millions of people is despotic. That is a bold claim, bud. [Despotism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Despotism) is “a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power.” FDR never had that and neither did Lincoln. (You might argue they **wanted** it – but every human does, including libertarians and anarchists.) > [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Once again you dodge the question. Really no point in continuing with you. Because Hitler was an imperialist, the US was not? You aren’t even being coherent. The U.S. did not get into the war to conquer territory. It did conquer territory, but only because its enemies had made that necessary. And yes, the U.S. **does** have a history of imperialism, certainly, ask any Filipino or Cuban, but WWII is not an instance of it. > [@WillFarnaby](#): > > You’ve expressed support for the mercantilism of Hamilton so I was offering this as a reason for your support of US territorial imperialism. You offered no other reason. No, I have not expressed support for the mercantilism of Hamilton, I have denied that Hamilton (or Clay) was a mercantilist; the word does not mean what you think it does. It does not mean social democracy, nor does it mean anything like Clay’s American System or Hamilton’s economic nationalism. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-retrospective-us-presidential-elections-1944/686475.md?page=2)