Woodrow Wilson’s racism isn’t the only reason for Princeton to shun his name

El Posto de Nueva York ^ | December 3, 2015 | David Boaz

[TBP]

He re-segregated the federal workforce after gains made in the Reconstruction era, and removed black officials. This was no accident. In his 1901 book, “A History of the American People,” he extolled the Ku Klux Klan for helping “the white men of the South” to rid themselves of “the intolerable burden of governments sustained by the votes of ignorant Negroes.”

But here’s the thing: Racism isn’t the only aspect of Wilson’s character and career that should give Princeton pause about honoring him.

Most notably, President Wilson led the United States into an unnecessary and disastrous war. World War I has been called “probably history’s worst catastrophe.” Certainly it was the United States’ greatest foreign-policy mistake. British and then US involvement turned a central European conflict into a world war. The war and its consequences arguably led to the Communist takeover of Russia, National Socialism in Germany, World War II and the Cold War.

Wilson had long advocated a federal government with “unstinted power,” and as president he quickly set about expanding federal power. He pushed for the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank, to centralize control over money and credit.

He imposed the first income tax under the new Sixteenth Amendment, and then sharply raised rates. He signed the first federal drug prohibition.

Wilson pressed for the Espionage and Sedition acts, which virtually outlawed criticism of the government, the armed forces or the war effort. More than 2,000 people were prosecuted under the acts, including Socialist Party presidential candidate Eugene Debs, Socialist congressman and publisher Victor Berger, and Robert Goldstein, the producer of a film about the American Revolution, “The Spirit of ’76,” which was accused of bringing the British government into disrepute.

[TBP]

I've known Dave Boaz since we co-sponsored a resolution at the YAF convention in '75. But I thinik Princeton whould retain Wilson's name despite hte accurate criticisms that Dave makes her, to remind people of the essential nature of progressivism.

[Slyfox]

Wilson was also pretty nasty towards women who wanted to vote.

Democrat and all, he was.

[SeeSharp]

The war and its consequences arguably led to the Communist takeover of Russia, National Socialism in Germany, World War II and the Cold War.

...and all of the current problems in the Middle East.

[WalterSkinner]

..an arrogant racist who had a messiah complex. Glad we never saw his like again—no wait...

[Trapped Behind Enemy Lines]

WW was the founder of the modern American progressive movement.

That, in my view, puts him in the same category with the Roosevelts and the Kennedys and everyone else in politics whose ideology and policies I strong oppose.

That all said, I think WW’s views on race were probably typical for the times in which he lived.

This is all very silly.

If I decided to rename things after every president I disliked, we would have a lot of work to do.

[SeekAndFind]

If Universities want to be consistent, many of them would have to drop their names.

Let’s take YALE for instance.

The school was named after ELIHU YALE, a slave owner and in fact, a slave trader. What are they going to name it? Hillary Clinton University after their illustrious alumni? Yeah, that’s the trick.

How about Stanford University, named after Leland Stanford? He was well known for being anti-Chinese immigration and well known for defending caucasians as the “superior” race.

January 1862, Stanford said, “The presence of numbers of that degraded and distinct people would exercise a deleterious effect upon the superior race.”

His statement was initially received with widespread enthusiasm, and Stanford was lauded as a defender of the white race. Public opinion shifted when it was revealed that Stanford’s Central Pacific Railroad had recruited and imported thousands of Chinese laborers to construct the railway track.

So, how to rename Stanford University? Hmmm... Moonbeam University (yea, that’s the ticket ).

Although Ronald Reagan University would be better... :)

[Twinkie]

It, ALL of it, just is what it is. Mankind is NEVER going
to have the ability to govern himself; nor is he ever
going to be able to admit it. So, Christ will just have to
return and govern creation. Behold! He will make ALL THINGS
NEW (not all new things; but all things new). MARANATHA!

[TBP]

The intellectual forebears of modern progressivism.

[TBP]

The intellectual forebears of modern progressivism.