“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
MSNBC news broadcaster Rachel Maddow’s most recent podcast series, “Ultra,” is about a right-wing group of America First people who attempted to influence American foreign policy in favor of Hitler’s Germany in 1940 and 1941.
One interesting feature, though not prominent, is her occasional references to U.S. Congressman Clare Hoffman of Allegan, who served 14 two-year terms in the U.S. House from 1935 to 1963.
Maddow suggested Hoffman was deeply involved with America First and was a fierce critic of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Evidence also has been found showing he strongly opposed fluoridated water and the polio vaccine as communist plots to take over the United States (see accompanying art work).
Sources found on the Internet reported:
“Elected during Franklin Roosevelt’s first term, Hoffman developed a reputation as an outspoken, even caustic, critic of the New Deal, and of those programs which appeared to Hoffman to represent an encroachment on the prerogatives of the states and the rights of the individual. Hoffman was especially concerned about the growing power of trade unions resulting from the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (often called the Wagner Act). He worked tirelessly to amend this legislation and to incorporated his views into all subsequent labor-related legislation. With his growing seniority, and his membership on the House Committee on Education and Labor, Hoffman’s became a potent voice in the debate over the passage of the Taft-Hartley Law after the war.
“Hoffman also served for a time on the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries and the House Committee on Agriculture, but it was primarily because of his position on the Education and Labor Committee and the Government Operations Committee that he wielded his greatest influence.
“The House Committee on Government Operations was formerly the Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Department. As ranking Republican member, Hoffman for two terms was committee chairman, and became noted for his fiscal conservatism and his efforts to bring efficiency and order to the bureaucracy of the federal executive. He perhaps made his greatest contributions in the passage into law of the Reorganization Plan that authorized the creation and activities of the so-called Hoover Commission. He also played an important part in the passage of the Armed Forces Unification Act.”
Wikipedia reported that Hoffman was born in Vicksburg, Union County, Pa., on Sep 10, 1875, attended the public schools and was graduated from the law department of Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., in 1895. He was was admitted to the Michigan bar in 1896 and commenced practice in Allegan, was prosecuting attorney for Allegan County 1904-1910; elected as a Republican to the 74th and to the 13 succeeding Congresses (Jan. 3, 1935-Jan. 3, 1963).
He was elected in the Fourth Congressional District (the six-county western Michigan district) in 1934 (defeating the Democratic incumbent, George Ernest Folks).
He retired to his home in Allegan, where he died Nov. 3, 1967, with interment in Oakwood Cemetery.
Wikipedia said Hoffman was seen as “a bitter lone wolf” during much of his time in office, unable to work with either the Democrats or the Republicans Hoffman voted against the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Hoffman was a vocal opponent of the National Polio Immunization Program, claiming that the U.S. Public Health Service had been heavily infiltrated by Russian-born doctors. In addition, he was known as an anti-Semite with fascist sympathies, even speaking at rallies held for the far-right America First Party (1944).
I recommend Phillip Roth’s The Plot Against America. It’s a speculative novel, set as the US considers entering WWII. Following the novel is a fine appendix detailing the America First efforts of Henry Ford, Charles Lindburgh, and others, documenting the anti-semitism and and naziism that were so prevalent at that that time.