Book Two Introduction Continued: Konrad and Adolf

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

It is twenty-three years now since I first attended a National Socialist meeting, saw (without particular enjoyment) Herr Hitler at close range, and listened to the flood of nonsense—or so it then seemed to me—that he was spouting. It was only gradually that the effects of these speeches made me realize that behind all the nonsense there was unrivaled political cunning. (1)

Those words were written by Konrad Heiden, an author and journalist, who was a contemporary of Adolf Hitler. He had tracked the German dictator's career for 23 years (2), and while he was eventually forced into exile, he continued to sound the alarm.

While living in France in 1939, he wrote a book, "The New Inquisition", in which he laid out his predictions for the Holocaust:

"To drive 600,000 people by robbery into hunger, by hunger into desperation, by desperation into wild outbreaks, and by such outbreaks into the waiting knife -- such is the cooly calculated plan. Mass murder is the goal, a massacre such as history has not seen -- certainly not since Tamerlane and Mithridates. We can only venture guesses as to the technical forms these mass executions are to take. In his book Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler suggested that the people to be killed be kept "under poisonous gas"; however, he speaks of a mere twelve to fifteen thousand. Doubtless the destructive instinct in the ruling class of the regime has grown in the meantime..."

I wanted to start the second part of this work with Heiden, because he offers a completely different perspective of Adolf Hitler; one that I think many of his biographers have ignored.

Was Adolf Hitler driven only by anti-Semitism, or was there a genuine thirst for power? Was it only hatred or also exploitation?

So I am now going to reexamine Hitler's career from a strictly political (and somewhat sociological) viewpoint. And I think you'll see that the philosophies of Leo Strauss during this time, become even more important to this movement in Canada, than William Aberhart's. Or at least as important.

But before going any further, I want to explain a few things. The Holocaust was very real and absolutely devastating. There is no justification for what took place and there is no intention with this book, to excuse, rationalize or vindicate Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in any way. It can't be done. It simply can't.

I also wanted to discuss the religious elements to my work, since I will be talking even more about Christianity and Judaism.

I am not a theologian, so my interest is purely historical and I will only discuss them in their historical context.

William Aberhart represented the extreme elements of dispensationalism. His theories were not just based on Cyrus Scofield but also on Ethelbert Bullinger, who incorporated numerology, witchcraft and the occult; into his teachings.

Many pastors discounted William Aberhart's theories and the columns in the religious sections of newspapers, often rebuked what they heard on his radio programs. Even his own wife*, did not "always share her husband's more extreme religious views, and there was a certain amount of tension in the home" because of them. (3)

Preston Manning once said that when he was in university, he would be teased about the religious elements in the Social Credit Party, by what he called 'Marxist' or socialists followers of the NDP. So he would show them old pamphlets of the CCF (the forerunner to the NDP) which then called itself "a Christian Party". (4)

However, there was a big difference between the Christianity of Tommy Douglas (CCF) and that of "Bible Bill". Douglas, and members of the CCF belonged to the social gospel movement, that combined Christian principles with social reform. Students of the social gospel were actually encouraged to question fundamentalism, and focus on Christian ethics. (5)

So for the next part of this story, I am going to allow Konrad Heiden to present his version of events, while I interject with their relevance to Leo Strauss, William Aberhart and Ernest Manning; who is by now a devout disciple of the father of the Social Credit Party in Canada.

Book Two Introduction Continued: Secret Societies and Armed Intellectuals

Footnotes:

*Laureen Harper, wife of Stephen Harper, has also stated that she is not Evangelical. She claims to "hate that stuff" and the pastor at the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, where Harper belongs, confirms that she doesn't attend. (6). I myself, have often wondered whether Harper is in fact, a religious person at all. Leo Strauss advises his followers to tap into religious fervour, but claims that it is not necessary for a leader to be moral or devout. In fact he hated organized religion and he hated it religiously.

Sources:

1. Der Fhehrer, Hitler's Rise to Power, By: Konrad Heiden, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1944, Preface

2. Books: Master of the Masses, Time Magazine, February 7, 1944

3. Eva Reid: girl reporter, By: Jennifer Hamblin, Alberta History, September 22, 2004

4. The New Canada, Preston Manning, 1992, MacMillan Canada, ISBN: 0-7715-9150-0, pg. 95

5. CCF: The Anatomy of a Party, By: Walter D. Young, University of Toronto Press, ISBN: 0-8020-5221-5, Pg. 159

6. Stephen Harper and the Theo-cons: The rising clout of Canada’s religious right, By: Marci McDonald, Walrus Magazine, October 2006

Chapter Twenty Continued: Father Charles Coughlin

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

After selecting his cabinet, William Aberhart went on a bit of a victory tour, securing loans in Ottawa and meeting people who either supported the cause or were interested in finding out more.

One of those he met while on the U.S. leg of the tour was Father Charles Coughlin. Like Aberhart, Coughlin was a radio preacher with a keen interest in politics. They met in private for about an hour and Aberhart would say of him "He has a keen intellect and is absolutely fearless. He has a correct appraisal of world conditions." (1)

So Who was Father Coughlin?

Charles Edward Coughlin, was born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1891, and became an ordained priest in 1916. Eventually assigned to the Shrine of the Little Flower Church in Royal Oak, Michigan, he would almost immediately begin a weekly broadcast over the local radio station.

Like William Aberhart, Coughlin's broadcasts were political as much as religious, and with more than forty million listeners, he was able to keep his fans spellbound with a gospel of monetary reform.

But his broadcasts also became increasingly anti-Semitic, as he blamed the Jews for everything from communism to the depression. He would later publish his own paper, Social Justice, where he printed the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, along with other anti-Semitic material.

When William Aberhart created his paper, the Social Credit Chronicle, Father Coughlin contributed three articles, lending his name to what he deemed a worthwhile cause: control of the message. (2)

Coughlin was also a strong supporter of Adolph Hitler and often applauded him on his show. He would even use the Nazi salute against people who angered him, and in the above video, he seems to have also adopted some of his mannerisms.

In 1934, the Protocols of Zion were put on trial, and proven to be fraudulent, but the good priest refused to believe it.

... in the past two months Rev. Charles Edward Coughlin, rabble-rousing radio priest, has published the Protocols in his weekly Social Justice. Brushing aside the matter of their authenticity, Father Coughlin repeatedly stressed their "factuality," quoted Henry Ford ... "They fit in with what is going on." Father Coughlin's point, buttered with many a some-of-my-best- friends-are-Jews disclaimer of antiSemitism, has been that Jews are to blame for Communism, that the aims of the Protocols closely resemble those of Communism—and of the New Deal [Roosevelt's] ...(3)

Things really do come full circle, as many of the free marketeers that Stephen Harper follows, also speak out against Roosevelt's New deal. Some things never change.

Chapter Twenty Continued: Henry Ford

Sources:

1. Bible Bill: A Biography of William Aberhart, By: David R. Elliot and Iris Miller, Edmonton: Reidmore Books, 1987, Pg. 213

2. The Social Credit Movement in Alberta, By: John A. Irving, University of Toronto Press, 1959, Pg. 102

3. Religion: Egregious Protocols, Time Magazine, November 14, 1938

Chapter Twenty Continued: Henry Ford

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

"The only statement I care to make about the Protocols is that they fit in with what is going on. They are sixteen years old and they have fitted the world situation up to this time. They fit it now." Henry Ford (1)

Another person that William Aberhart had looked forward to meeting on his tour was Henry Ford, but he was away.

According to author David Elliot, William "Bible Bill" Aberhart was heavily influenced by prominent right-wing extremists of the day, Father Coughlin and the American industrialist Henry Ford. (2)

Coughlin and Ford worked together on many projects, and became two of the most influential promoters of the Protocols of Zion, even though they were determined to be fake.

And sadly, they were also the force behind the evil unleashed by Adolph Hitler two decades after Ford began paraphrasing and publishing them under the title: The International Jew.

Aberhart would not only adopt the notion of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy, but he also emulated Adolph Hitlers' propaganda machine and then unprecedented control of the press. (3)

Henry Ford and the Jewish Conspiracy

In 1920, Henry Ford took over a small weekly newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, which had been acquired by his controversial private secretary, Ernest G. Liebold. Liebold, an arch anti-Semitic, remained on as editor and in a short time the paper went from a modest circulation to a readership of more than 700,000.

Part of this was due to generous commissions paid to sales people for subscriptions, but it was more because of the content. And though the paper was never a money maker, Ford was determined to keep it going:

Undoubtedly Mr. Ford's fondness for his paper is due to his ability to say in it just what he thinks about Jews, moneylenders, international bankers, currency, who started the War and why, and other favorite topics. As a subtitle, the weekly bears the slogan, "Chronicler of the Neglected Truth." (4)

These were later bound into four volumes, and distributed worldwide.

Vincent Curcio wrote of these publications that "they were widely distributed and had great influence, particularly in Nazi Germany, where no less a personage than Adolf Hitler read and admired them." Hitler, fascinated with automobiles, hung Ford's picture on his wall; Ford is the only American mentioned in Mein Kampf. Steven Watts wrote that Hitler "revered" Ford, proclaiming that "I shall do my best to put his theories into practice in Germany, and modeling the Volkswagen, the people's car, on the model T." (5)

Eventually a lawsuit and boycott of Ford products, forced him to shut down The Independent. As part of the settlement, he also had to write a letter of apology and publicly denounce the Protocols as fake.

"I deem it to be my duty as an honorable man to make amends for the wrong done to the Jews as fellowmen and brothers, by asking their forgiveness for the harm I have unintentionally committed, by retracting so far as lies within my power the offensive charges laid at their door by these publications, and by giving them the unqualified assurance that henceforth they may look to me for friendship and good will." (6)

Although, according to Gerald K. Smith, Ford never signed the letter of apology.

It was on the occasion of one of these personal visits with Mr. Ford that he gave me a sensational and shocking report. He said: "Mr. Smith, my apology for publishing 'The International Jew' was given great publicity, but I did not sign that apology. It was signed by [Ford employee] Harry Bennett." (7)

How credible that is, considering Smith's own prejudices, remains disputed, but I don't believe Henry Ford's views changed much over the years.

And it was in that atmosphere that William Aberhart began to formulate his own political opinions.

During a lecture at the Calgary Prophetic Bible Conference, he told his audience that:

The JEWISH RACE must yet acknowledge that the CHRIST who was crucified to the CROSS of Calvary was the SON of GOD, their MESSIAH. Until they will acknowledge that they must expect the curses of the world and can not expect the Blessings of GOD." (7)

Chapter Twenty Continued: Burning Bridges

Sources:

1. New York World, February 17, 1921

2. Bible Bill: A Biography of William Aberhart, By: David R. Elliot and Iris Miller, Edmonton: Reidmore Books, 1987.

3. Social Credit Improved, Times Magazine, September 16, 1935

4. The Press: Ford as a Publisher, Time Magazine, July 28, 1924

5. Ford and GM Scrutinized for Alleged Nazi Collaboration, By Michael Dobbs, Washington Post, November 30, 1998

6. RACES: Apology to Jews. Time Magazine, July 18, 1927

7. Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Introduction by Gerald L.K. Smith, 1934 Reprint

7. Social Discredit: Anti-Semitism, Social Credit and the Jewish Response, Janine Stingel, Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press ISBN 0-7735-2010-4, Pg. 20-21)

Cyrus Scofield Meets Leo Strauss in a Continuing Struggle Between Good and Evil

In describing the Harper government, most in the media base their stories on the mistaken assumption that they are the Conservative party of Sir John A. MacDonald, with a 150 year old tradition in Canada.

However, nothing could be further from the truth. I've often described it as like listening to a hockey commentator at a Blue Jays game. They just don't understand the plays.

This is not the historic Conservative Party of Sir John A., but rather the historic Social Credit Party of William "Bible Bill" Aberhart. And everything good and bad, that sparked the movement in Depression era Alberta, is alive and well on Parliament Hill.

When the Social Credit/Reform/Alliance movement was being criticized as narrow minded, Harper told the National Post: "The rest of the country has responded by telling us in no uncertain terms that we do not share their 'Canadian values.' Fine. Let us build a society on Alberta values." Rich coming from a man who was born and raised in Toronto.

But what would his version of Alberta values be?

The Struggle Between "Good and Evil"

William Aberhart studied and followed the teachings of Cyrus Scofield, the man who created modern day dispensationalism. And despite the fact that many theologians, debunk Scofield's theories, a vast number of Evangelicals, still follow the end of day predictions set out in the Scofield Bible.

It was also the basis for Tim LaHaye's popular 'Left Behind Series', that has fueled the new Christian Zionist movement, spearheaded by John Hagee and his Canadian counterpart, Charles McVety. Tim LaHaye is one of the founders of the Council for National Policy, where Stephen Harper delivered his neoconservative sermon in 1997.

LaHaye was also the man behind the creation of the Moral Majority, now referred to as the Religious Right:

In 1979, LaHaye and Falwell established the Moral Majority, with Falwell as its leader and LaHaye as a guiding member of its three-person board of directors. The Moral Majority drafted tens of millions of conservative Christian voters into the culture wars, swelling the ranks of the Republican Party and serving as Reagan's core constituency. (1)

Though the players have changed over the years, these millennialist theories involve a classic struggle between Christians and a powerful enemy. For Aberhart and his followers, it was a Jewish conspiracy, based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

For Ernest Manning, Aberhart's successor, the enemy was Socialism/Communism, and even in the early days of the Reform Party under Ernest's son Preston, many of the extremist groups they voted to allow in, were radical anti-Communists.

Now under Stephen Harper, the forces of "evil" as they see it, is the Muslim world. This is why they have suddenly become such good friends of Israel, because they envision that it will be the place for the final show down.

Tristan Sturm and Jason Dittmer, co-wrote a paper on the geography of the Apocalypse:

It has been argued in geopolitical literature recently that “religion is the emerging political language of the time” and “international politics is being increasingly scripted in the spatial grammar of a millennial struggle between "Good and Evil”.

With four of the last seven U.S. presidents claiming to be ‘born-again’ (Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush) political geographers should be attentive to the strategies and reasoning practices used in the name of religion. Geographic inquiry into apocalyptic or millennial Christianity is often hinted at but has, with few exceptions, received no focused analysis.(2)

I did know that Jimmy Carter was a born-again Christian, but he followed a social gospel. Bill Clinton I'm not sure about, but both Ronald Reagan and George Bush were devout dispensationalists.

The 1980s saw the election of Ronald Reagan, who had espoused Christian Zionist views in the past, and who enjoyed a close friendship with the evangelist Rev. Billy Graham. According to Reagan’s former legal secretary Herb Ellingwood, Reagan had developed a nearly obsessive fascination with apocalyptic prophecy, reading scores of apocalyptic novels. As governor, and later as president, Reagan became known for quoting Ezekiel, confiding to State Senate leader James Mills at one point that “everything is falling into place. It can’t be too long now. Ezekiel says that fire and brimstone will be rained down upon the enemies of God’s people. That must mean that they’ll be destroyed by nuclear weapons. They exist now, and they never did in the past.”

By the time of George W. Bush’s induction into the White House, approximately 40 million Americans expressed beliefs that fall within the scope of Christian fundamentalism, and that number increased dramatically following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Like Reagan, who often framed the struggle with Communism in language rife with religious overtones, George W. Bush has framed the War on Terror in a like manner, presenting the conflict in apocalyptic terms as “a monumental struggle between good and evil, [in which] good will prevail.” Along with frequent references to “evil” and “evildoers,” the President remarked in his September 20, 2001 speech before a Joint Session of Congress that “God is not neutral” in the War on Terror. Similar imagery has been echoed by evangelical leaders such as Falwell, who in 2002 infamously referred to the prophet Muhammad as a “terrorist” in a 60 Minutes appearance. (3)

Enter Leo Strauss

What is a hero? In Hollywood movies, and increasingly in political mythology, he is a man who represents untarnished good in a battle against uncomplicated evil. Ambiguity is forbidden when the sheriff of any traditional Western has a showdown with the rustler; the good guy shoots faster, straighter, deadlier. The exemplary BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares, an official selection here at Cannes, observes that the favorite TV show of Leo Strauss, the University of Chicago professor whose political theories inspired the American neo-conservative movement, was Gunsmoke. Marshall Dillon was Strauss's idea of the iconic good guy, vanquisher of all who would challenge or subvert the American way. (4)

While Strauss himself detested organized religion, he saw it as a necessity if neoconservatism was to ever be successful.

He too saw life as a classic struggle between "good and evil", but for him the evil was liberalism. He blamed it for everything that was wrong with the world.

Stephen Harper is the classic neoconservative. There are no grey areas.

Strauss contended that only the elite were capable of making decisions, and democracy was a sham. Therefore, it was up to the leaders to make all the decisions that clearly the ignorant masses were incapable of making for themselves.

But how far will he take this? Will he honour the predictions of one of his heroes Ronald Reagan who said "that fire and brimstone will be rained down upon the enemies of God’s people." Or will he just be content to make Canada a complete corporate theocracy?

Or will the 'ignorant masses' wake up from their stupor and realize that we kind of like democracy, and don't believe that the 'elite' know better than us. And that we are the ones who represent the "Good", and neoconservatism definitely the "Bad"?

I think you know which one I'm hoping for.

Sources:

1. Reverend Doomsday, Rolling Stone Magazine, Robert Dreyfuss, January 28, 2004

2. Mapping the End Times, Tristan Sturm and Jason Dittmer, Ashgate Publishing

3. The Other Zionist Conspiracy: A History of Christian Zionism, by Valerie Saturen

4. Cannes Diary IV: Heroes and Villains, Time Magazine, Mary Corliss, May 14, 2005

The Social Credit Party and the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion

The Social Credit Party was the forerunner to the Reform Party of Canada, and ultimately the Conservative Party of Canada, under Stephen Harper.

Born out of the deplorable economic and social conditions of the Depression, Social Credit became as much a religious crusade as a push for economic reform.

But it also had a dark side.

Originating in England; the brainchild of arch-antisemitic Major C. H. Douglas, the necessity for change was inspired by a book that was being distributed at the time, Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.

According to Janine Stingel "Social Credit was wholly dependent on an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory." (1)

For populist parties to succeed they must find a common enemy and a common cause; and in the 1930's that common enemy became the banks, and the cause an alternative financial system.

Eventually those horrible banks were believed to be part of a larger conspiracy of the Jewish people to take over the world.

Anti-Semitism in Canada in the 1930s and 1940s involved an image of Jews as international conspirators, secretly plotting world domination through an inchoate combination of international banking, communism and Zionism. In the mythology, based on the forged but widely circulated Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Jews thus posed a threat to national sovereignty, property, peace and prosperity.

Anti-Semitism was not a coincidental adjunct to this right-wing populist movement, but resided at the core of a paranoid vision of bankers and money-lenders swindling honest Canadians out of the wages of their toil. Depression-era Alberta was fertile ground for such a message, particularly when it came through the medium of a popular radio-preacher turned politician, "Bible Bill" Aberhart.

"Alberta thus became home to the only North American jurisdiction with a government that officially endorsed anti-Semitism." (2)

William Aberhart and Anti-Semitism

It is widely believed that while Aberhart adopted, or at least attempted to adopt, the economic theories of Major Douglas, he did not buy into the rampant anti-semitism. Like Stephen Harper, he was able to play the role of the moderate. However, evidence suggests otherwise.

Aberhart's positive statements about Jews were balanced by equally negative statements. During a lecture at the Calgary Prophetic Bible Conference in 1922, Aberhart explicitly opposed Zionism and argued that because Jews had not accepted Christ they would never succeed in regaining the Promised Land of
Zion: "

The JEWISH RACE must yet acknowledge that the CHRIST who was crucified to the CROSS of Calvary was the SON of GOD, their MESSIAH. Until they will acknowledge that they must expect the curses of the world and can not expect the Blessings of GOD." In other sermons Aberhart criticized the Jewish nation for its sinfulness, including the sins of selfishness, hypocrisy, usery, violence, injustice, and discontent with wages.He viewed Christianity as a war against the Antichrist and suggested that when Armageddon came, most Jews would be duped by the Antichrist, believing him to be the Messiah. (3)

And though proven to be a forgery, the Protocols were often referenced around the world.

Despite conclusive proof that the Protocols were a gross forgery, they had sensational popularity and large sales in the 1920's and 1930's. They were translated into every language of Europe and sold widely in Arab lands, the United States, and England. But it was in Germany after World War I that they had their greatest success. There they were used to explain all of the disasters that had befallen the country: the defeat in the war, the hunger, the destructive inflation... (4)

Henry Ford printed them in his newspaper, the Social Credit parties of Quebec and Alberta published them in their literature and Social Credit MP for Wetaskiwin, Norman Jaques, tried reading the Protocols in the House of Commons.

But nobody adhered to the message of the Protocols like Adolph Hitler.

To what extent the whole existence of this people is based on a continuous lie is shown incomparably by the Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion, so infinitely hated by the Jews. They are based on a forgery, the Frankfurter Zeitung moans and screams once every week: the best proof that they are authentic. What many Jews may do unconsciously is here consciously exposed. And that is what matters. It is completely indifferent from what Jewish brain these disclosures originate; the important thing is that with positively terrifying certainty they reveal the nature and activity of the Jewish people and expose their inner contexts as well as their ultimate final aims. The best criticism applied to them, however, is reality. Anyone who examines the historical development of the last hundred years from the standpoint of this book will at once understand the screaming of the Jewish press. For once this book has become the common property of a people, the Jewish menace may be considered as broken ... (5)

When Preston Manning later tried to tap into the success of the Social Credit Party, that ran Alberta for almost four decades, he stated:

As I grew up, I learned that the "prairie populism" with which I was familiar—the Social Credit movement in Alberta—was not an isolated political aberration, but part of a much broader political tradition ... Years later, I developed a more objective view of populism, including a healthy fear of its darker side and a more realistic assessment of its potential as an agent for political change. (6)

He may have developed a 'healthy fear', but it did not stop him from bringing in the extremist elements when he launched his Reform Party. In fact at their first assembly, they adopted a motion to allow Right Wing fringe groups to join them, including Doug Christie's Western Canada Concept (Stockwell Day's father was a close friend of Christie's and a member of the WCP), a separatist party. (7)

When it was learned that several neo-Nazi groups had infiltrated the party, who coincidentally also followed the Protocols of Zion, Manning would simply say that "a bright light attracts bugs."

But as my own late father might say; "so does shite."

Sources:

1. Social Discredit: Anti-Semitism, Social Credit and the Jewish Response, Janine Stingel, Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press ISBN 0-7735-2010-4, Pg. 13

2. CANADIAN SOCIAL STUDIES VOLUME 38, NUMBER 1, FALL 2003, By Peter Seixas

3. Social Discredit: Anti-Semitism, Social Credit and the Jewish Response, Janine Stingel, Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press ISBN 0-7735-2010-4, Pg. 20-21)

4. Holocaust Years: The Nazi Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945, Nora Levin, Pg 19

5. Mein Kampf, Adolph Hitler, Translated by Ralph Mannheim, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1943

6. The New Canada, Preston Manning, 1992, MacMillan Canada, ISBN: 0-7715-9150-0, pg. 7

7. Of Passionate Intensity: Right-Wing Populism and the Reform Party of Canada. Author: Trevor Harrison Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995. ISBN: 0-8020-7204-6, Pg. 115-116

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Continuation:

* Henry Ford and "Bible Bill" Discover the Protocols

* Father Charles Coughlin and William Aberhart

* Major Clifford Hughes Douglas and the Protocols of Zion

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