What Would Dewey Do?

What Would Dewey Do?

Now, fewer left-wing lies have gotten more play than that which says it's patriotic to attack your president during a time of war. Indeed, most liberals are incapable of showing true patriotism, thus they need to re-define it as a kind of needless, useless, treacherous, whining, and defeatism. So, they can qualify. But, how have other opposition parties treated president's during wartime?

In 1944, Republican Governor Thomas Dewey was running for president against a seemingly unbeatable Franklin Delano Roosevelt. So, desperate was Dewey that he felt he needed to attack FDR as being negligent in preventing the Pearl Harbor attack. Specifically, he was going to charge that Roosevelt had ignored warnings from the top secret Ultra program. Which, according to Dewey, revealed the Japanese intentions to bomb Pearl Harbor.

Now, some of you are out there thinking I've destroyed my own argument. Some of you are saying. "Dylan, what is this? All you're doing is proving that these kinds of political attacks have come from both parties throughout our history. You're proving the Democrats' point!"

Well, hold your horses! I'm not finished yet. Upon hearing of Dewey's intentions to unveil Ultra, in his attempt to attack Roosevelt. Army Chief of Staff, General George Marshall sent a letter to Dewey. The letter explained how the top secret Ultra program had been instrumental in America's victories against Japan. Specifically, Midway, the Aleutians, and the highly successful American submarine Campaign. He further went on to say how Winston Churchill believed that Ultra had saved Britain from certain defeat.

But, just as important. Marshall told Dewey in no uncertain terms that the public outing of Ultra would be a disaster for the Allies. That the Japanese had not changed their codes; hence, they did not know we were reading their mail! So, in other words Ultra, was just as important to the future of the war as it had been up to that point. And making it public would cost American lives. Upon hearing this, Dewey fulfilled his patriotic duty, and the best kept secret of WWII, stayed that way.

Now, let's fast-forward to the present-day. I have a question for all of you out there who thought I was just spinning my wheels and proving Democratic talking points. What do you think the modern-day Democratic Party would have done in this situation?

Could you imagine John Kerry or Hillary Clinton just sitting on some sensationalistic, yet scintillating information (whether true or false) about George W. Bush? If they thought it would help them win an election? Hell, Howard Dean insinuated that Bush had prior knowledge of 9/11, just based on some worthless document that said Al-Qaeda would really like to come to America and kill us!

And what about the New York Times? George W. Bush himself, not only told that traitorous rag of a newspaper how successful the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program had been. But, also told them that if they leaked it that, "blood would be on their hands." Did that stop them?

Or what about the 2006 National Intelligence Estimate? The Democrats took one sentence from a highly classified (leaked) document. And ran all over Washington waving it around like it was the winning lottery ticket. Any thought for the welfare of their country in a time of war there?

The point here is, yes. There have always been attacks made by opposition parties against presidents in a time of war. You'd have to be an ignoramus, to say otherwise. But, there also used to be a line that wasn't crossed. The line was whether or not the result of your criticism, would outweigh the benefit of it. Would your attack harm your country, or even put lives in danger. If it would, then you fulfilled your patriotic duty and abstained from doing it.

The problem today is that we have an opposition party that feels like it fulfills its duty only when it attacks this country. Ah, if only they would ask themselves. What would Dewey do?

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