Major General Smedley Butler quote

Posted by richrobinson 9 years, 3 months ago to The Gulch: General
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A friend of mine showed me this quote this morning. My first thought was this man does not understand Capitalism.

" I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism".

– Major General Smedley Butler (simultaneously the highest ranking and most decorated United States Marine (including two Medals of Honor) and Republican Party primary candidate for the United States Senate) 1935.[84]


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  • Posted by freedomforall 9 years, 3 months ago
    He may have mis-spoken to the extent that those he served did not actually represent free market capitalism, but looter socialist corporatism.
    We have the advantage of 80 more years to observe the traitorous banksters in action.
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    • Posted by 9 years, 3 months ago
      Running against FDR he probably was trying to look Progressive. It surprised me when I saw the year because I thought this is how most lefties think today.
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      • Posted by $ blarman 9 years, 3 months ago
        So a battle of Progressives? FDR was no conservative...
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        • Posted by XenokRoy 9 years, 3 months ago
          Exactly what we have had, with only 1 exception for the last 100 years
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          • Posted by $ blarman 9 years, 3 months ago
            I don't know. Calvin Coolidge couldn't have been the only non-Progressive President... ;)
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            • Posted by XenokRoy 9 years, 3 months ago
              That was the one I was talking about. I bet you were thinking I was referring to Reagon. He was the best in my life time, but I still think he moved some things in the progressive direction.

              The current tzar system of appointed but not vetted by congress additional cabinet positions was used heavily by Reagen. While he did reduce taxes and greatly simplify the tax code, he allowed a huge increase in spending as well.

              Calvin Coolidge was about it.
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              • Posted by $ blarman 9 years, 3 months ago
                I think that we shouldn't judge the character of the person solely based on what they passed into law. Reagan had to work with Democratic majorities in both houses in his first term, so one must recognize that his accomplishments were remarkable regardless if there were concessions. I think Reagan was a conservative, but he also knew that in order to get positive moves in the right direction, he would have to give a little in other areas. Was he perfect? Nope. But I'd take him again over any other President in the last 80+ years in a heartbeat. He was one of the few conservative Presidents who actually knew how to use the bully pulpit successfully. It seems to be a lost art among all but the Progressives now...
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  • Posted by xthinker88 9 years, 3 months ago
    Actually if you read a good history of the banana and fruit corporations and their operations in central america and other places in the late 1800s and early 1900s you find that there is a good reason why those countries were called banana republics.

    Between the corruption and the frequent use of US Navy ships and marines to install favorable governments, I don't think it is worthy of the name of capitalism.
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    • Posted by xthinker88 9 years, 3 months ago
      And remember, TR was just as much of a progressive as Wilson. And from the branch of the progressives that saw imperialism as an acceptable expansion of US (government) power.
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  • Posted by $ Susanne 9 years, 3 months ago
    Once you have reached the "lofty ranks" (where you have birds or stars on your shoulder) the job becomes extremely political... I know many good men that ended their careers as Lt. Colonels because they couldn't bend to the current political will of whoever was the CiC at the time...
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    • Posted by Herb7734 9 years, 3 months ago
      And many a Major eschewed even the Lt. Colonel rank because of politics.
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      • Posted by $ jlc 9 years, 3 months ago
        Unless they were promoted during wartime. A wartime military is heaps different from a peacetime military. (My father spoke of WWII and of the officers who had been promoted to rank 'between the wars' and how part of the winning of the War was to put the peacetime officers out on the battlefield where they (a) learned of (b) were eliminated. Once they were gone, the military underwent a 'philosophical change'...)

        Jan
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