Below you will see pages from a vintage coloring book that a
TPM visitor found in their deceased mother's belongings.
Apparently the coloring book originally belonged to this person's grandmother.
Take a moment to notice how eerily similar the attacks on JFK, back in the early sixties, are to what Obama is facing today.
Much like the blowback against the Affordable Care Act,
JFK's attempts to create Medicare were also met with ridicule and charges of socialism.
The Right Wing also drummed up suspicion concerning JFK's Ivy League advisers. Today they are referred to as the "intellectual elite." Apparently to this group of people intelligence is always suspect.
Being anti-elite also meant being anti-education, and JFK's Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare,
Abraham Ribicoff, was also vilified.
It would appear that this book was published some time after the
Cuban Missile Crisis, since Fidel Castro is included. However rather than give JFK any credit for protecting America from a potential nuclear missile strike, the conservatives chided him for failing to capture or kill Castro, and for
taking on Big Business.
I have to say that the similarities in how both President Obama and President Kennedy were attacked by the Right Wing are rather startling. My gut instinct is to conclude that the attacks against Obama today are more filled with vitriol and unvarnished hatred, but then I remember the fate of our 35th President and realize the dishonesty of that statement.
And it also makes my blood run cold to realize that all of this, even this child's coloring book, was creating a bogeyman that was easier to hate, and to think of as the "other," before somebody became agitated enough to put a bullet through his head.
This coloring book was authored by Joe B. Nation (his real name) from Texas. He also authored a similar book " Manual for Caddy Owners" which refers to the cars, not the golf bag toters. Joe B. Nation was at Southern Methodist University in 1952.
ReplyDeleteA contemporary newspaper article mentioning this book is here (the same story ran in many papers all over the country): http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19620917&id=4EdQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=A1cDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7140,2683939
The copyright entries for this book may be viewed here: http://books.google.com/books?id=XiYhAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA547&lpg=PA547&dq="Joe+B.+Nation""texas"&source=bl&ots=X5gR7l1J9y&sig=5aXTH38QN3ACPtXnWzxVJ7SIt2c&hl=en&sa=X&ei=6kPCT4L3BMnCsQLkwpjRCQ&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q="Joe B. Nation""texas"&f=false
The rise of the far right in Republican politics has scared me for some time because it means that more than a small part of the country is identifying with a violent, hate-based movement that should only exist on the fringes of our society.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely blame the GOP for promoting Sarah Palin's hate-mongering. She "legitimized" hate with her winky and smiley hate rhetoric while distracting from it sashaying around in heels, short skirts, naughty Librarian glasses and slutty hair and makeup. She wrapped herself in the flag and the Bible, falsely promoted herself as a good wife and mother, and generally hoodwinked the crowds. She ignored vile remarks against our President, almost seeming to encourage such by smiling and giggling when they were made.
The GOP - McCain and all of his advisers - created this atmosphere, nurtured its dark side - all in an attempt to gain control. Power and greed seem to be the GOP's only true values.
I, too, worry for the safety of our President. I, too, despair, for our country unless people begin to wake up from the spell of lies and seduction that the GOP has been carefully crafting for years now. I hope we have learned something as a nation since the 60's, but I wonder if the Big Lies haven't insinuated their way into our culture too far to be cast away.
I can only hope each of our efforts to expose those lies, to discuss situations rationally will eventually work and safeguard not only our President but also our nation.
I sincerely believe that if anything ever happens to President Obama (God forbid!), that Sarah Palin had better run for cover because many will be after her ass. I'm sure we would see rioting and disruption like hasn't been seen before.
DeleteOBAMA/BIDEN 2012
They've been equally unrelenting about Carter, too. Nasty mindset they have, and getting nastier. They sure don't have much to say about B*** (I've pledged never to say his name, sorry), though. Wonder why that is?
ReplyDeleteDo as the great Molly Ivins, a fellow Texan, did and just refer to him as "Shrub." ;)
DeleteThere were lots of right wing people who hated Kennedy, especially when they found out he really wanted peace, they were frothing at the mouth communist haters. The oil companies hated him as well as those who were making lots of money off war, the military industrial complex. It was quite ugly. Then there were Cubans and the Mafia that were pissed at him. Lots of people wanted him dead. The right wing also went after Carter and Clinton. In 1933 there was a right wing (corporations)attempted coup against Roosevelt and the plan was a fascist government because of the New Deal, they were afraid he might take money from the rich and give it to the poor. Then there was the insanity of McCarthyism (McCarthy was an alcoholic pedophile)under Truman, with the help of J.Edgar Hoover. There is always plenty of hate and ignorance no matter what time period we are in.
ReplyDeleteYes, but not so often are people actually KILLED or threatened as often as Obama is threatened.
DeleteI recommend the person who brought this to TPM's attention, and I thank you, Gryph, for giving it a wider audience. May this hit the mainstream in a big way.
ReplyDeleteThe last paragraph of this post mirrors my reaction to the (Kenya?) photo of the much younger Obama/Robinson partnership. That picture is lingering in my brain and continues to sent chills down my spine. Against all rational thought of the secular humanist I consider myself to be, I revert to being a child and send my fervent wishes for protection out into the Universe.
fromthediagonal
I was fortunate enough to attend a talk given by Stephen King last fall, discussing his JFK-era book, 11/22/63. He also compared the negativity toward President Kennedy in that era to the way President Obama is being treated now. I had no idea, as I was born many years after JFK was assassinated.
ReplyDeleteI would love to hear more about it from people who were there to witness it.
I was a kid, but I can remember the big fight over Medicare- we were camping and the people next to us were drinking and screeching about it.
DeleteAnd LOTS of talk about how Kennedy's religion would put him under the control of the Vatican. And I was only 7 when he took office, and I still remember- Dad had the news on TV every night at dinner. Odd, how even then, the republicans were using projection... since it's they who want religion to control government.
no surprise here - the right wing extremists STILL hate JFK and still insult his memory at every opportunity.
ReplyDeleteThey hate all of the Kennedy's. And we all know why.
DeleteWHAT??????? JFK was a NEGRO, also, too??????
ReplyDeleteWorse to the right: he was a ni**er-lover" as was Bobby. Imagine the guts it took for LBJ to get the Civil Rights laws passed after both brothers were shot in cold blood!
DeleteWell, actually, when the Civil Rights Act was signed, RFK hadn't been shot yet. The Civil Rights Act was signed in 1964 and RFK was shot in 1968.
DeleteI actually remember Dad explaining carefully to me that the Civil Rights Act meant that nobody could be treated as less than anyone else just because of their race. He must have done a good job explaining it to me since I was 11 at the time and remember how serious he was. I also remember having a young black mother move into the house next door and some asshole burned a cross on her lawn- Dad went, cleaned it up, and talked to her and gave her our phone number and asked her to call him if she needed anything or was frightened at all.
The fact that JFK was shot actually provided support to LBJ's work, since people were so shocked and grief-stricken, and LBJ was smart enough to promote what he was doing was continuing JFK's work.
The story goes that when LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act, he put down the pen and said, "we've just lost the south for a generation." It's been two generations and we still don't have it back... not yet.
Interesting fact -- the first time I became aware of this was when I bought the issue of Vanity Fair with Levi's interview in it. There was also a story in that issue about a new Kennedy book coming out -- I forget what the book was about...maybe it was about Jackie and how she hired someone to write a biography of the president soon after the assassination but the book was held up in court because she was angry with how it came out? -- but the story detailed the attacks on Kennedy, including how they -- the right wing -- called him a Communist and how, in TX the day he died, there were billboards attacking him in horrible ways and how large segments of the population were not, uh...so sad about his death.
ReplyDeleteActually -- interesting fact I learned from that article -- the Warren Commission was not set up to investigate WHO killed JFK...it was set up to determine whether RIGHT WING RHETORIC, particularly, in TX -- where people were annoyed about being forced to integrate -- contributed to an atmosphere that allowed the assassination to take place.
Isn't it interesting how much history has been white-washed?
This isn't the VF thing I was talking about but...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2009/08/vf-daily-do-you-think
Do you see any parallels between the environnment in Texas before J.F.K.'s assassination and the heated political atmosphere right now, with right-wing militia types carrying guns outside Obama town-hall events and using much of the same red-baiting rhetoric that was thrown around at Kennedy?
Oh, Absolutely. And it's terrifying. One of the things that makes your head spin around, and that makes you tremble for our country, when you read The Death of a President—and Manchester lavished a great deal of attention on this in his book—was his discovery of how hateful and vicious the rhetoric had become by the time the Kennedys touched down in Dallas. And not just Dallas, but Texas, which was riddled with organizations like the John Birch Society, and so-called "patriot" groups. Manchester wrote about how Dallas had the highest murder rate in the country at the time. And the proliferation of "wanted” posters with President Kennedy's face on them. And what is so disturbing is its similarity to what we are experiencing today, the birther movement, and a Congressman being hung in effigy. The guns being gleefully carried outside town-hall meetings with the President! I mean, my god, when you start yelling at Arlen Specter for turning the country into a socialist state, something's horribly wrong. Save your outrage for Phil Specter!
But to conclude on a note of high seriousness, there is a scary lesson to be learned even now, 46 years after Dallas. In fact, the Warren Commission came to Manchester and said, we want you to sign off on our report, particularly this idea that the vitriolic climate in Texas had nothing to do with the assassination of President Kennedy. And to his eternal credit, Manchester refused. He wouldn't do it.
It's déjà vu all over again. It's really scary out there. Remember, it was President Kennedy who told his wife, in a kind of "fasten your seat belts..." sort of "All about Eve" remark before leaving for Dallas, "We're heading into nut country." And one couldn't be blamed for thinking that perhaps the election of Barack Obama meant that an American president wouldn't have to make a remark like that again. Was I wrong! The nuts are back. With Oswald, I think his political sympathies were as mixed-up as he was, emotionally. He had spent time in the Soviet Union, and he was a one-man organization called the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. But, regardless of where he was on the political spectrum, he was more mentally ill than politically adept. Still, it was that over-heated climate of hate that kind of help hatch his crazy plan.
Anonymous 8:33, I wish I could "like" your comment a thousand times.
DeleteI saw many of these kind of 'leaflets' back in the 60's when 'rednecks' were trying their best to 'protect our way of life'.... The foaming at the mouth, ritual group demonstrations by people wearing white hoods, mass rallies usually organized by the local white churches and their 'national people', signs in the windows of all the local merchants, and levels of hate that are only now being revived... This just verifies, as fact, that the very specific reasons I left the south 40-50 years ago have not changed - it's actually gotten worse.
ReplyDeleteHard to imagine the fortitude that our current president has to stand up to these clowns.. It's a necessity of the times and to watch haters fall away like remnants of an era gone will be amazing to witness.
There was the "Wanted For Treason" handbill. Go to link to view a handbill that was at auction a few years ago.
ReplyDelete"(John F. Kennedy) Original "Wanted for Treason" Handbill. John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) 35th President. On November 21, 1963 "Wanted for Treason" handbills were distributed on the streets of Dallas, before Kennedy's scheduled visit. These handbills bore a reproduction of a front and profile photograph of the President and set forth a series of inflammatory charges against him. Robert A. Surrey was eventually identified as the author of the handbill. Surrey, a printing salesman employed by Johnson Printing Co. of Dallas, had been closely associated with General Edwin Walker. Walker was known for his right wing political views and for having been an assassination target of Lee Harvey Oswald in April 1963. Bernard Wiessman, responsible for the black-bordered "Welcome Mr. Kennedy" advertisement in the November 22 Dallas Morning News, also an associate of Walker's and a prominent John Birch Society member,
http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/5708828
Here's a good essay on the atmosphere in Dallas.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.law.uga.edu/dwilkes_more/jfk_24blownaway.html
Images of the Wanted For Treason handbill and the infamous "Welcome Mr. Kennedy to Dallas" ad that ran the day of the assassination in the Dallas Morning News are at the link.
Written in 2006, these words are still true today.
"The right-wingers who angrily and contemptuously protested JFK’s visit, and the many other right-wingers who shared their views, could only have been jubilant when they heard of the assassination. How could persons with their mentality not be pleased with the violent death of a man they believed to be a fiendish traitor? It is an historical truth that right-wingers all over America received the news of the assassination with celebration. There is plenty of evidence that numerous right-wingers, especially the radical ones, heartily huzzaed the JFK slaying, although they soon decided to conceal their exuberance and later denied having cheered. William Manchester’s book, for example, discusses the “initial glee” with which right-wingers greeted news of the assassination. “An Oklahoma City physician beamed at a grief-stricken visitor and said, ‘Good. I hope they got Jackie.’” In Amarillo, Texas, a woman reacted by saying: “Hey, great, JFK’s croaked!” Men whooped and threw their hats in the air. Others smiled broadly. Soon, however, the right-wingers realized that their public gloating was a ghastly mistake, whereupon they began concealing their happiness. “[T]hey were anxious to avoid the undertow of public opinion,” Manchester says.
Right-wingers–those on the rightist side of the political spectrum–have always been apostles of hate. Today right-wingers give us hate talk radio, hate radio personalities, hate TV commentators, and hate books and articles. But what Gerry Spence calls “the new conservative hate culture” is not really new. In 1963, the hate of the right-wingers was directed at John F. Kennedy, a hatred so pathological and warped that induced it them to exult over the horrible public murder of a reformist American president, a great and decent man, a war hero, a man of vision and compassion, the symbol of a hopeful generation. But the frenzied hatred that caused right-wingers to make merry when JFK was slain is the same delirious hatred that today motivates right-wingers to mock and cruelly imitate the physical symptoms of Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease.
Americans have forgotten that Dallas right-wingers bitterly protested Kennedy’s visit to Dallas; that the presidential motorcade was greeted with signs expressing contempt for JFK; that even as JFK’s limousine came under rifle fire right-wingers were present taunting him; that even after he was a corpse there were protesters nearby displaying insulting placards. Americans have also forgotten the joy with which right-wingers reacted to the assassination."
Bristol Palin on Bill Maher: 'I think he's a joke'
ReplyDeletehttp://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/2012/05/bristol-palin-on-bill-maher-i-think-hes-a-joke.html
"My mom just heard me say something about Bill Maher [and said], 'I'd punch him in the throat!' Someone does need to put him in his place, though."
Delete"If my dad or any of my guy friends got a hold of him, he'd have another think coming," she adds in jest. "He is a joke."
I love Bill Maher! Especially the fact he is still knocking idiot Sarah Palin on his weekly show. No wonder Bristol doesn't like him!
DeleteBill is a political comedian - is very well read - on top of things - assuredly leans to the 'left' and is a hoot and spot on!!!
I love how she mentions "mommy dearest" saying she'd "punch him in the throat" then calls for action by saying "Someone does need to put him in his place, though"
DeleteTranslates loosely to "Fuck turning the other cheek, someone, anyone, pull the trigger!"
There, I fixed it for you and the scum that hear your dog whistles.
Nothing has changed since back then: the Republican Party is still looking out for the interests of rich doctors, and corporations like General Electric, and of course the "patriots" who suck welfare money out of the government in the form of military spending.
ReplyDeleteThey still gather support for this, from the easily misled commoners, by scaring them with boogeyman tales (Communists under every bed, Castro, smart college students and professors...and now, a BLACK PRESIDENT!)
So totally pathetic.
I so dislike the Republican party! Just look at what some in their party have gotten away with throughout the years and you rarely hear it discussed.
DeleteFriends, that are strong Republicans, have truly disappointed me. I have found them to be racist and to have no feelings for those 'beneath' them!
And, I'm not proud of the 'hate' I see throughout the country. It makes me very sad. We should love and respect each other as the majority of us were taught as youngsters.
Where are the supposed christians that were raised and taught in a church? Look at Sarah Palin, as an example - she is the 'furthest' away from being the 'christian' she proclaims to be. She is an example of a christian 'being filled with hate, evil and ugliness'! And, there are now so many like her out there in our world today!
Some people have the 'born to bully' gene. Anyone who does not agree is a target.
ReplyDeleteMeghan McCain: Internet Bullying 'Keeps Me Up At Night'
Meghan McCain spoke out about some of the hateful backlash she received after criticizing the Republican party in a new column published on Sunday.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/27/meghan-mccain-internet-bullying-msnbc-republicans_n_1548956.html
Poor Meghan, The Lunesta Butterfly is your friend! Reminds me of Brancy's "death wishes" victimhood post. The ironic thing is that it's probably all from Republicans.
DeleteThey went after Bill Clinton for lying about sex. Funny, Larry Craig, John Ensign, Gov.Stafford, David Vitter all lied about sex, but they don't matter. They also tried to blame the Clintons for Vince Foster's death. Who can forget Ken Starr and Richard Mellon Scafe?
ReplyDeleteTwo events stand out for me, as a kid, during the Kennedy years...the Cuban Missile Crisis and his assassination. One was scary and the other was tragic. Why do the republicans hate so much?
Deletehttp://thecypresstimes.com/2012/02/20/romneys-olympic-1-5-billion-dollar-tax-payer-shakedown-road-to-the-white-house/
ReplyDeleteWhy isn't anyone calling Romney out on his claims of "saving" the Olympics? Romney paid for the Oympics with Federal handouts like never before. Romney knows how to get money from the government
Just so thrilled to see everyone discussing the parallel between JFK and President Obama. Stephen King explains it brilliantly in his book, 11/24/63. If you have not read it, get a copy.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea about this. Thank you for the post and enlightening comments. It is a frightening comparison. And Texas Mel, I will look for the King book.
ReplyDeleteBut you can throw Johnson and Carter and Clinton into the same category.
ReplyDeleteThis is just how the Republicans roll. They are evil mean people. It's just that simple.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eWaoLwj7TA&feature=youtu.be
ReplyDeleteWhen did Jesus become a Republican?
Yes, create the boogeyman then make him the target. Same old same old.
ReplyDeleteMcCain tried playing the "moderate" with the planted q and a lady saying she couldn't vote for Obama because he's a muslim, yet he turned a blind eye on Palin's vitriol, hate speech, and radical ideology. The wuss thought it would get a pass because it's from a female - wrong. We all saw the signs, the monkeys, and blatant racism.
Kennedy caught flack, in part, because of his support of social causes, equality for African Americans, Civil Rights and his religion.
I think the divide is much wider now than then, the pendulum went so far right that there's no middle ground.
Having it put in a child's coloring book is really scraping the bottom of the cesspool, you know, like gun sites on democratic districts with target's names.
And just what were the conservatives doing in the Terri Shiavo case? Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist, a heart surgeon, was diagnosing Terri's condition and quality of life over video tape. Majority Leader "The Hammer" Tom DeLay was vilifying her husband:
ReplyDelete"Time is not on Terri Schiavo's side," DeLay said, his voice rising. "The few remaining objecting House Democrats have so far cost Ms. Schiavo two meals already."
He followed with a torrent of invective against her "estranged" husband, Michael Schiavo, now living with another woman, a man with whom he had been trading insults since Thursday.
"No care for 15 years. No therapy. No nothing," DeLay said, his voice awash in scorn. "What kind of man is that?"
(This is the lawmaker that years later, consented to letting his comatose father die http://articles.latimes.com/2005/mar/27/nation/na-delay27)
And yeah, the irony of a Republican was concerned about care and therapy of a non-fetus? It is to laugh.
These legislative bullies like to get all up in our Doctor's office and champion political intervention in capricious and arbitrary cases, but god help us if they are put in indelicate positions.
For the most parts, people of Democrat persuasion use political tools for the good of all mankind, whereas conservatives like to mess with people's lives in the name of common sense liberty loving freedom. . .for God, also too.
yes, jfk was a communist too
ReplyDelete