From Ford to Trump Redux—The Vagaries of Presidential Mercy

On his first day in office President Jimmy Carter ordered a sweeping amnesty for Vietnam era draft resisters including those who had fled the country or gone underground.  It was no small irony the flags over the Capital where Trump was sworn-in were flown at full staff despite the official 30 day mourning period for the late President after Trump expressed his displeasure over the display of respect.

Forty-eight years ago another incoming President on his first full day in office, January 21, 1977, issued a blanket amnesty of most draft evaders, including those who went to Canada or assumed new identities and went underground in the states.

President Jimmy Carter’s controversial act, which brought harsh criticism from veterans’ organizations and near mutinous grumbling from some high level officers in the military, was not unexpected.  It fulfilled a campaign promise.  The idea was to put the bitter national divisions over the Vietnam War and the Nixon years behind us, or in Carter’s own words, “to bind up the nation’s wounds.”

The accidental President, Gerald Ford, had issued a conditional pardon for draft offenders, including those who were abroad, in September of 1974.  That was mainly to provide cover on the left for his pre-emptive pardon of his predecessor, Richard Nixon for any offenses that he “may have committed.”  The Ford conditional pardon is generally better remembered than Carter’s much more substantial action because of that linkage despite requiring those who accepted the pardon to work in alternative service occupations similar to those of conscientious objectors for six to 24 months.  Far fewer men than expected took Ford up on his offer.

Gerald Ford's limited conditional pardon for draft resistors and evaders was meant to placate the Left and distract from his pardon of Richard Nixon for "crimes he may have committed.

Carter’s action was much more sweeping, but a little noticed provision said that amnesty would be given to all offenders who requested one.  Some resistors refused to make a request because to do so was an admission that they had committed a crime in the first place.  Many, many more were unaware, because of hazy press coverage, that they had to make a request.  The Justice Department did not even make a cursory effort to inform the eligible by a letter to a “last known address.” 

The wording also was unclear on an important point for men like me—did the amnesty cover those who were already convicted and had served sentences for draft offenses?  I don’t think that last point has yet been fully answered.

None-the-less tens of thousands of draft refusers, evaders, and military deserters acted on the assumption that they were covered and the Justice Department de facto ceased actions against anyone who could have been covered by amnesty. 

More than half a million young men were either charged with draft evasion and resistance, avoided, or refused to serve in the Armed Forces and were never charged during the Vietnam War.

During the war and continuing after it ended until Draft call-ups stopped in 1973, 209,517 men were accused of violating draft laws, and another 360,000 were never formally charged.  Around 100,000 went abroad, 90% of them to Canada.  The exact number who went “underground” has never been established but is thought to be in the tens of thousands.

Upwards of 50,000 of those in Canada chose to stay there rather than return home.  Most were granted Landed Immigrant status and eventually Canadian citizenship.  A highly educated group with significant resources, these people had an impact on Canada.  Many became leading figures in academia, the arts, and in politics.  They are widely credited with/accused of moving Canadian politics generally to the left.

Likewise, a good, but unknown, number of those who went underground chose to continue to live their lives under the identities that they assumed.  In the 1960s and early ‘70s it was absurdly easy to establish a new identity.  It was thought that as this cohort became eligible for Social Security or died many of these assumed identities would unravel, but that seems to be exception rather than the rule.

As for an old Draft con like me, I never got any amnesty papers.  But I have lived my life quite openly and even drawn some modest attention to myself without further molestation.  So far so good.

 

Barack Obama was unusually active with clemency orders and pardons in his last days in office.

In 2017 Barack Obama spent the last days of his Presidential term churning out sentence commutations.  Hundreds were given to non-violent drug offenders facing draconian sentences under the exceptionally harsh Federal Sentence Standards, the most vindictive in the world.  But there were so many of those victims of the failed war on drugs that the commutations hardly made a dent in the American gulag.  Also given leniency were some white collar criminals, the kind of offenders that drew the stingier grace of Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush.  Even a beloved baseball icon, Willie McCovey of the San Francisco Giants who was convicted on Income Tax evasion was one of 64 that drew and outright pardon from the President.  

Most controversially Obama commuted the sentences of whistleblower Chelsea Manning, the former Army Private Bradley Manning, and Puerto Rican nationalist leader Oscar Lopez.  Inexplicably he did not commute the sentence of ailing American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier who was behind bars for more than 40 years.  

Neither did his successors until Joe Biden in one of his last acts buried among a flurry of preemptive pardons for prominent critics of Donald Trump and members of his own family.  Except for those on the Left who have been urging a pardon or clemency, no one noticed.

The headlines were all about using his executive prerogative as a shield against revenge by the return of the Orange Menace his while also guaranteeing his closest relatives aren’t subject to future prosecutions and clemency for Gen. Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and members of Congress who served on the committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.  It was announced early Monday morning minutes before Trump was to be inaugurated. Biden also issued pardons for members of his family: his brothers James and Frank, his sister Valerie, and their spouses.
The pardons were a stunning flex of Presidential power that is unprecedented in history. They protect several outspoken critics of the incoming President, including former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, whom Trump has vowed retribution against.

After Obama no one, except possibly sex offenders, gun nuts, and White nationalist terrorists could expect any such displays of mercy from Trump’s first term in  the Oval Office.  On the contrary.  The former Pumpkin-in-Chief and his administration sought to swell the prison population with those who resisted his autocratic rule, immigrants, and minorities of every sort.  And the recipients of his tender mercy were of a very different sort including pardons for the ilk of Arizona racist sheriff Joe Aripio, Watergate figure Scooter Libby, right-wing commentator Dinesh D’Souza, Army Lt. Michael Behenna who was convicted of murdering an Iraqi man, right wing Canadian media mogul Conrad Black, Chalmer Lee Williams convicted of illegal firearms sales, Army Major Mathew Golsteyn who was awaiting trial on a charge of murdering a suspected Afghan bomb maker, Lt. Clint Lorance convicted of murdering two Afghan civilians, and a slew of former officials, aides, and associates who might testify against him.   

Trump's first end-of-term batch of sentence commutations included well connected bank fraudster Sholom Rubashkin, arsonists Dwight and Steven Hammond who inspired Nevada anti-government extremists Ammon and Ryan Bundy in their armed seizure of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and Medicare scammer Ted Shul who ran faith-based behavioral healthcare treatment centers for juveniles.

 Do you detect a pattern here?  Because it repeats its self. 

 

Joe Biden and Donald Trump swapped Inauguration Day pardons and commutations.

Trump was undoubtedly outraged by Biden’s last minute move that put many of the targets he boasted about prosecuting/persecuting out of revenge but there was nothing he could do about it.  Even boldly trying to overturn them in defiance of the law like his attempt to end birthright citizenship for a blustery show for his most rabid supporters was not an option  because arguing that Biden exceeded his authority would undercut the legitimacy of his own sweeping actions.  He had long signaled plans for pardons for Capitol Siege insurrectionists but had hinted that might not include those convicted of actual physical assault on police, but he pardoned them all.  “These are the hostages, approximately 1,500 for a pardon, full pardon," Trump said during remarks from the Oval Office. “This is a big one.”

Clearly those pardons are a signal to his most extreme and dangerous supporters including armed Militias, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Klansmen that they will face no consequences for using violence and intimidation on his behalf.

You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.



 

 

Ford to Biden—The Vagaries of Presidential Mercy

Barack Obama was unusually active with clemency orders and pardons in his last days in office.

In 2017 Barack Obama spent the last days of his Presidential term churning out sentence commutations.  Hundreds were given to non-violent drug offenders facing draconian sentences under the exceptionally harsh Federal Sentence Standards, the most vindictive in the world.  But there are so many of those victims of the failed war on drugs that the commutations hardly made a dent in the American gulag.  Also given leniency were some white collar criminals, the kind of offenders that drew the more stingy grace of Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush.  Even a beloved baseball icon, Willie McCovey of the San Francisco Giants who was convicted on Income Tax evasion was one of 64 that drew and outright pardon from the President. 

Most controversially Obama commuted the sentences of whistleblower Chelsea Manning, the former Army Private Bradley Manning, and Puerto Rican nationalist leader Oscar Lopez.  Inexplicably he did not commute the sentence of ailing American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier who has been behind bars for more than 40 years.  Neither did his successors including Joe Biden and Peltier may well die in prison.

However disappointing and mystifying that travesty of justice was, Obama gets credit for at least wrestling with the catastrophic effects of the lock-‘em-up-and-throw-away-the-key mania that created the school to prison pipeline.

Recipients of last minute pardons or sentence commutations from the former Resident included fascist mastermind Steve Bannon, below, and rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.  Earlier he tipped his hand at his preferences with his swift pardon of racist Arizona Sheritt Joe Aripio. 

No one, except possibly sex offenders, gun nuts, and White nationalist terrorists could expect any such displays of mercy from his successor as occupant of the Oval Office.  On the contrary.  The former Pumpkin-in-Chief and his administration sought to swell the prison population with those who resisted his autocratic rule, immigrants, and minorities of every sort.  And the recipients of his tender mercy were of a very different sort including pardons for the ilk of Arizona racist sheriff Joe Aripio, Watergate figure Scooter Libby, right-wing commentator Dinesh D’Souza, Army Lt. Michael Behenna who was convicted of murdering an Iraqi man, right wing Canadian media mogul Conrad Black, Chalmer Lee Williams convicted of illegal firearms sales, Army Major Mathew Golsteyn who was awaiting trial on a charge of murdering a suspected Afghan bomb maker, Lt. Clint Lorance convicted of murdering two Afghan civilians, and a slew of former officials, aides, and associates who might testify against him. 

The former Resident’s sentence commutations included well connected bank fraudster Sholom Rubashkin, arsonists Dwight and Steven Hammond who inspired Nevada anti-government extremists Ammon and Ryan Bundy in their armed seizure of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and Medicare scammer Ted Shul who ran faith-based behavioral healthcare treatment centers for juveniles.  

Do you detect a pattern here? 

Forty-six year ago another incoming president on his first day in office, January 21, 1977, issued a blanket amnesty of most draft evaders, including those who went to Canada or assumed new identities and went underground in the states.

On his first day in office President Jimmy Carter ordered a sweeping amnesty for Vietnam era draft resisters including those who had fled the country or gone underground.

President Jimmy Carter’s controversial act, which brought harsh criticism from veterans’ organizations and near mutinous grumbling from some high level officers in the military, was not unexpected.  It fulfilled a campaign promise.  The idea was to put the bitter national divisions over the Vietnam War and Nixon years behind us, or in Carter’s own words, “to bind up the nation’s wounds.”

The accidental President, Gerald Ford, had issued a conditional pardon for draft offenders, including those who were abroad, in September of 1974.  That was mainly to provide cover on the left for his pre-emptive pardon of his predecessor, Richard Nixon for any offenses that he “may have committed.”  The Ford conditional pardon is generally better remembered than Carter’s much more substantial action because of that linkage despite requiring those who accepted the pardon to work in alternative service occupations similar to those of conscientious objectors for six to 24 months.  Far fewer men than expected took Ford up on his offer.

Gerald Ford's limited conditional pardon for draft resistors and evaders was meant to placate the Left and distract from his pardon of Richard Nixon for "crimes he may have committed.

Carter’s action was much more sweeping, but a little noticed provision said that amnesty would be given to all offenders who requested one.  Some resistors refused to make a request because to do so was an admission that they had committed a crime in the first place.  Many, many more were unaware, because of hazy press coverage, that they had to make a request.  The Justice Department did not even make a cursory effort to inform the eligible by a letter to a “last known address.” 

The wording also was unclear on an important point for men like me—did the amnesty cover those who were already convicted and had served sentences for draft offenses?  I don’t think that last point has yet been fully answered.

None-the-less tens of thousands of draft refusers, evaders, and military deserters acted on the assumption that they were covered and the Justice Department de facto ceased actions against anyone who could have been covered by amnesty.  

More than half a million young men were either charged with draft evasion and resistance, avoided, or refused to serve in the Armed Forces and were never charged during the Vietnam War.

During the war, and continuing after it ended until Draft call-ups stopped in 1973, 209,517 men were accused of violating draft laws, and another 360,000 were never formally charged.  Around 100,000 went abroad, 90% of them to Canada.  The exact number who went “underground” has never been established, but is thought to be in the tens of thousands.

Upwards of 50,000 of those in Canada chose to stay there rather than return home.  Most were granted Landed Immigrant status and eventually Canadian citizenship.  A highly educated group with significant resources, these people had an impact on Canada.  Many became leading figures in academia, the arts, and in politics.  They are widely credited with/accused of moving Canadian politics generally to the left.

Likewise, a good, but unknown, number of those who went underground chose to continue to live their lives under the identities that they assumed.  In the 1960’s and early 70’s it was absurdly easy to establish a new identity.  It was thought that as this cohort became eligible for Social Security or died many of these assumed identities would unravel, but that seems to be exception rather than the rule.

As for an old Draft con like me, I never got any amnesty papers.  But I have lived my life quite openly, and even drawn some modest attention to myself without further molestation.  So far so good. 

Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, He Who Shall Not Be Named and Presidential Mercy

Recipients of last minute pardons or sentence commutations from the former Resident indluded fascist mastermind Steve Bannon, below, and rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Note—Four years ago after a sadder Inauguration I posted this contemplation.  It is relevant again because the former Cheeto-in-Charge spent his last day issuing pardons and commutations.  He surprised many when he did not pardon himself, his children and accomplices in numerous crimes, and close cronies like Rudy Giuliani.  He disappointed the followers who stormed the Capitol at his behest, Proud Boys, Q-Anons, and suburban moms alike.  The list did include the reptilian fascist Steve Bannon—at best an on again, off again ally who probably has some very damaging dirt on him.  Also the brother of former Chicago Bears great Brian Urch and an Illinois village president charged with an illegal gambling scheme, politically connected business moguls, real estate barons and disgraced former members of Congress.  He played a see-I’m-not-a-racist card by including rappers  Lil Wayne and Kodak Black and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.  Most of his list included low level drug offenders serving long sentences, but on the balance those leand heavily to “nice White guys” over Blacks.  Of course Barack Obama pardoned or commented three times that total as he left the Oval office.  That prompted the following post.

Barack Obama spent the last days of his days in office churning out sentence commutations.  Hundreds were given to non-violent drug offenders facing draconian sentences under the exceptionally harsh Federal Sentence Standards, the most vindictive in the world.  But there are so many of those victims of the failed war on drugs that the commutations hardly made a dent in the American gulag.  Also given leniency were some white collar criminals, the kind of offenders that drew the more stingy grace of Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush.  Even a beloved baseball icon, Willie McCovey of the San Francisco Giants who was convicted on Income Tax evasion was one of 64 that drew and outright pardon from the President. 

Most controversially Obama commuted the sentences of whistleblower Chelsea Manning, the former Army Private Bradley Manning, and Puerto Rican nationalist leader Oscar Lopez.  Inexplicably he did not commute the sentence of ailing American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier who has been behind bars for 40 years and will now surely die in prison.

Barack Obama was unusually active with clemency orders and pardons in his last days in office.

However disappointing and mystifying that travesty of justice was, Obama gets credit for at least wrestling with the catastrophic effects of the lock-‘em-up-and-throw-away-the-key mania Americans.

No one, except possibly sex offenders, gun nuts, and White nationalist terrorists should expect any such displays of mercy from the incoming occupant of the Oval Office.  On the contrary.  Look for him and his administration to swell the prison population with those who resist his autocratic rule, immigrants, and minorities of every sort.

Forty-four years ago today another incoming president on his first day in office, January 21, 1977 issued a blanket amnesty of most draft evaders, including those who went to Canada or assumed new identities and went underground in the states.

On his first day in office President Jimmy Carter ordered a sweeping amnesty for Vietnam era draft resisters including those who had fled the country or gone underground.

President Jimmy Carter’s controversial act, which brought harsh criticism from veterans’ organizations and near mutinous grumbling from some high level officers in the military, was not unexpected.  It fulfilled a campaign promise.  The idea was to put the bitter national divisions over the Vietnam War and Nixon years behind us, or in Carter’s own words, “to bind up the nation’s wounds.”

The accidental President, Gerald Ford, had issued a conditional pardon for draft offenders, including those who were abroad, in September of 1974.  That was mainly to provide cover on the left for his pre-emptive pardon of his predecessor, Richard Nixon for any offenses that he “may have committed.”  The Ford conditional pardon is generally better remembered than Carter’s much more substantial action because of that linkage despite requiring those who accepted the pardon to work in alternative service occupations similar to those of conscientious objectors for six to 24 months.  Far fewer men than expected took Ford up on his offer.

Carter’s action was much more sweeping, but a little noticed provision said that amnesty would be given to all offenders who requested one.  Some resistors refused to make a request because to do so was an admission that they had committed a crime in the first place.  Many, many more were unaware, because of hazy press coverage, that they had to make a request.  The Justice Department did not even make a cursory effort to inform the eligible by a letter to a “last known address.” 

The wording also was unclear on an important point for men like me—did the amnesty cover those who were already convicted and had served sentences for draft offenses?  I don’t think that last point has yet been fully answered.

None-the-less tens of thousands of draft refusers, evaders, and military deserters acted on the assumption that they were covered and the Justice Department de facto ceased actions against anyone who could have been covered by amnesty.  

More than half a million young men were either charged with draft evasion and resistance, or avoided or refused to serve in the Armed Forces but were never charged during the Vietnam War.

During the war, and continuing after it ended until Draft call-ups stopped in 1973, 209,517 men were accused of violating draft laws, and another 360,000 were never formally charged.  Around 100,000 went abroad, 90% of them to Canada.  The exact number who went “underground” has never been established, but is thought to be in the tens of thousands.

Upwards of 50,000 of those in Canada chose to stay there rather than return home.  Most were granted Landed Immigrant status and eventually Canadian citizenship.  A highly educated group with significant resources, these people had an impact on Canada.  Many became leading figures in academia, the arts, and in politics.  They are widely credited with/accused of moving Canadian politics generally to the left.

Likewise a good, but unknown, number of those who went underground chose to continue to live their lives under the identities that they assumed.  In the 1960’s and early 70’s it was absurdly easy to establish a new identity.  It is thought that as this cohort becomes eligible for Social Security or die many of these assumed identities will unravel.

As for an old Draft con like me, I never got any amnesty papers.  But I have lived my life quite openly, and even drawn some modest attention to myself.  So far so good. 

Ford to Trump—Presidential Mercy

Barack Obama was unusually active with clemency orders and pardons in his last days in office.

In 2017 Barack Obama spent the last days of his Presidential term churning out sentence commutations.  Hundreds were given to non-violent drug offenders facing draconian sentences under the exceptionally harsh Federal Sentence Standards, the most vindictive in the world.  But there are so many of those victims of the failed war on drugs that the commutations hardly made a dent in the American gulag.  Also given leniency were some white collar criminals, the kind of offenders that drew the more stingy grace of Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush.  Even a beloved baseball icon, Willie McCovey of the San Francisco Giants who was convicted on Income Tax evasion was one of 64 that drew and outright pardon from the President.  

Most controversially Obama commuted the sentences of whistleblower Chelsea Manning, the former Army Private Bradley Manning, and Puerto Rican nationalist leader Oscar Lopez.  Inexplicably he did not commute the sentence of ailing American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier who has been behind bars for 40 years and will now surely die in prison.

However disappointing and mystifying that travesty of justice was, Obama gets credit for at least wrestling with the catastrophic effects of the lock-‘em-up-and-throw-away-the-key mania that created the school to prison pipeline.

Trumps swift pardon of racist Arizona Sheriff Joe Aripio, set the patter for his later favors.

No one, except possibly sex offenders, gun nuts, and White nationalist terrorists could expect any such displays of mercy from his successor as occupant of the Oval Office.  On the contrary.  Trump and his administration have sought to swell the prison population with those who resist his autocratic rule, immigrants, and minorities of every sort.  And the recipients of his tender mercy were of a very different sort including pardons for the ilk of Arizona racist sheriff Joe Aripio, Watergate figure Scooter Libby, right-wing commentator Dinesh D’Souza, Army Lt. Michael Behenna who was convicted of murdering an Iraqi man, right wing Canadian media mogul Conrad Black, Chalmer Lee Williams convicted of illegal firearms sales, Army Major Mathew Golsteyn who was awaiting trial on a charge of murdering a suspected Afghan bomb maker, and Lt. Clint Lorance convicted of murdering two Afghan civilians.  

Trump’s sentence commutations have included well connected bank fraudster Sholom Rubashkin, arsonists Dwight and Steven Hammond who inspired Nevada anti-government extremists Ammon and Ryan Bundy in their armed seizure of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and Medicare scammer Ted Shul who ran faith-based behavioral healthcare treatment centers for juveniles.  

Do you detect a pattern here?  And it is widely believed that Trump has promised eventual pardons or commutations to those who have been loyal to him in various corruption investigations.  

Forty-three year ago this week another incoming president on his first day in office, January 21, 1977, issued a blanket amnesty of most draft evaders, including those who went to Canada or assumed new identities and went underground in the states.

On his first day in office President Jimmy Carter ordered a sweeping amnesty for Vietnam era draft resisters including those who had fled the country or gone underground.

President Jimmy Carter’s controversial act, which brought harsh criticism from veterans’ organizations and near mutinous grumbling from some high level officers in the military, was not unexpected.  It fulfilled a campaign promise.  The idea was to put the bitter national divisions over the Vietnam War and Nixon years behind us, or in Carter’s own words, “to bind up the nation’s wounds.”

The accidental President, Gerald Ford, had issued a conditional pardon for draft offenders, including those who were abroad, in September of 1974.  That was mainly to provide cover on the left for his pre-emptive pardon of his predecessor, Richard Nixon for any offenses that he “may have committed.”  The Ford conditional pardon is generally better remembered than Carter’s much more substantial action because of that linkage despite requiring those who accepted the pardon to work in alternative service occupations similar to those of conscientious objectors for six to 24 months.  Far fewer men than expected took Ford up on his offer.

Gerald Ford's limited conditional pardon for draft resistors and evaders was meant to placate the Left and distract from his pardon of Richard Nixon for "crimes he may have committed.

Carter’s action was much more sweeping, but a little noticed provision said that amnesty would be given to all offenders who requested one.  Some resistors refused to make a request because to do so was an admission that they had committed a crime in the first place.  Many, many more were unaware, because of hazy press coverage, that they had to make a request.  The Justice Department did not even make a cursory effort to inform the eligible by a letter to a “last known address.” 

The wording also was unclear on an important point for men like me—did the amnesty cover those who were already convicted and had served sentences for draft offenses?  I don’t think that last point has yet been fully answered.

None-the-less tens of thousands of draft refusers, evaders, and military deserters acted on the assumption that they were covered and the Justice Department de facto ceased actions against anyone who could have been covered by amnesty.  

More than half a million young men were either charged with draft evasion and resistance, avoided, or refused to serve in the Armed Forces and were never charged during the Vietnam War.

During the war, and continuing after it ended until Draft call-ups stopped in 1973, 209,517 men were accused of violating draft laws, and another 360,000 were never formally charged.  Around 100,000 went abroad, 90% of them to Canada.  The exact number who went “underground” has never been established, but is thought to be in the tens of thousands.

Upwards of 50,000 of those in Canada chose to stay there rather than return home.  Most were granted Landed Immigrant status and eventually Canadian citizenship.  A highly educated group with significant resources, these people had an impact on Canada.  Many became leading figures in academia, the arts, and in politics.  They are widely credited with/accused of moving Canadian politics generally to the left.

Likewise a good, but unknown, number of those who went underground chose to continue to live their lives under the identities that they assumed.  In the 1960’s and early 70’s it was absurdly easy to establish a new identity.  It is thought that as this cohort becomes eligible for Social Security or die many of these assumed identities will unravel.

As for an old Draft con like me, I never got any amnesty papers.  But I have lived my life quite openly, and even drawn some modest attention to myself without further molestation.  So far so good.

Women’s History Month Returneth

Note—I seem to have woken up channeling a Trumpling…

Well that was close!  The country just escaped the annual ordeal of Black History Month.  There should be an investigation of that.  Clearly a Barack Hussain Obama Muslim Commie Plot to bring this Great Country to its knees.  We have to endure those smug Black History Minutes on our TVs and other assaults on White goodness.

Now no sooner is that nightmare behind us than we discover the whole damn month of March is supposed to be given over to Women’s History!  Don’t get me wrong, I adore women.  Love ‘em to death!  I always open the door for Ladies and tip my Make America Great cap to them.  My sainted Mother was a woman and my wife—when she is not in one of her moods—is an angel on earth.  But lately it like Satan has taken possession of most of them!  They have forgotten their proper duty as obedient wives and pure daughters waiting to be the vessel of the race. 

A lot of the blame goes to this Women’s History Month which has filled their airy heads with ridiculous notions, holding up harpies and nags as heroines, and making examples of women pushing their way into the God-given realms of men.  The whole thing even started with those damn socialists and was pushed by the black helicopter crowd at the United Nations!  Look it up yourself.

I say we put an end to this now!  Let’s declare this White Man’s History Year.  It’s always been that way before.  Let’s make it official.  That’ll shut ‘em all up!

Phew!  That was exhausting and draining.  I can’t keep it up even in the tradition of internet snark.  Let’s play it straight now for a look back at the real origins of Women’s History month. 

The first Women's Day march grew out of the struggle of female garment and needle trade workers in 1909 and their Socialist allies.  It was the root of International Women's Day and eventually American Women's History month.

***

The loonytoon I was channeling got one thing right—we owe it to trade unionist and members of the Socialist Party in New York City who on February 28, 1909 organized a Women’s Day to celebrate the anniversaries of a garment workers’ strike the year before and a march by women in the needle trades for the 10 hour day back in 1857.  The event was such a success the Socialists made it an annual event and took it national the next year.  In 1911 the Socialist International took it up and spread it across Europe.  After the interruptions of all solidarity movements caused by World War I, the celebrations resumed and spread.  They were also adopted by the new Communist International (Comintern.)

In America, however, the post-war period was marked by a Red Scare and a wave of the greatest repression in U.S. history aimed squarely at Socialists, Communists, anarchists, and militant unionists.  Despite the long fought for victory of women’s suffrage in those same years, the mostly middle class women who had led the struggle did not want to identify their movement with the radicals.  Even as Women’s Day spread globally, its observance here was limited to a kind of labor ghetto.

It took decades to regain a foothold in this country spurred by the new wave of feminism in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s the rise of Women’s Study and History in the colleges and universities.  They got a boost in 1975 when the United Nations officially adopted International Women’s Day on March 8.

First to act were educators at the Sonoma, California school district in 1978 who added a Women’s History Week centered on International Women’s Day the official curriculum.  It mostly centered on age appropriate projects highlight leaders of the suffrage movement.  The press picked up the story and spread it.   Sonoma teachers spread the idea in state and regional conferences and by the next year school districts across the country were adopting or adapting the idea and curriculum.  

National Women’s History Project cofounders Molly Murphy MacGregor, the Sonoma County California educator who helped pioneer a National Women’s History Week curriculum on the left with Paula Hammet, Mary Ruthsdotter, and Maria Cuevas.

Sonoma’s Molly Murphy MacGregor brought the idea to a 15 day conference of the Women’s History Institute at Sara Lawrence College in September 1979 organized by Professor Gerda Lerner.  The idea of Women’s History week caught fire and Lerner became a vocal national spokesperson for creating an official national event.

President Jimmy Carter acted quickly.  In February of 1980 he proclaimed National Women’s History Week centered around National Women’s Day on March 8.  His proclamation read:

From the first settlers who came to our shores, from the first American Indian families who befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation. Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well. As Dr. Gerda Lerner has noted, “Women’s History is Women’s Right.” It is an essential and indispensable heritage from which we can draw pride, comfort, courage, and long-range vision. I ask my fellow Americans to recognize this heritage with appropriate activities during National Women’s History Week, March 2–8, 1980. I urge libraries, schools, and community organizations to focus their observances on the leaders who struggled for equality—Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Lucy Stone, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Tubman, and Alice Paul. Understanding the true history of our country will help us to comprehend the need for full equality under the law for all our people. This goal can be achieved by ratifying the 27th Amendment [Equal Rights Amendment] to the United States Constitution, which states that “Equality of Rights under the Law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

School Districts, municipalities, and states began making proclamations.  Politicians of both political parties were eager to curry favor with the growing women’s movement realizing that women not only made up a majority of the electorate but also actually went to the polls significantly more often than men.  Even Carter’s explicit endorsement of the ERA was not then as partisan an issue as we might now believe.  Republican Party platforms from the 1920’s on had endorsed the ERA.  Many Republican women—and some male politicians—even supported the Roe v. Wade decision and reproductive choice.  In fact middle class suburban white women were a major force in the GOP.

Conservative icon Ronald Reagan was comfortable annually renewing Women’s History Week proclamations.  Republican First Ladies Betty Ford and Barbara Bush were both vocal supporters of the ERA, abortion rights, and other feminist issues.  Although not so vocal during her Born Again Christian husband’s Presidency, Laura Bush was known to hold similar views.

The non-partisan nature of support for women’s issues was illustrated when Utah Senator Orin Hatch and Maryland Democratic Representative Barbara Mikulski co-sponsored the first Joint Congressional Resolution proclaiming a Women’s History Week for March of 1992.

By the latter year Congressional Republicans were in full retreat on women’s issues as they became more and more beholden to the Religious Right who opposed both the ERA and reproductive choice.  From then on Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama all resumed issuing Presidential proclamations. 

In recent years under the influence of the Tea Party  Congressional Republicans have abandoned virtually any semblance of supporting women’s rights and have become actively hostile to the point of prideful and open misogyny while Republicans in control of state legislatures propose ever more bizarre attacks on women.  The elevation of exposed sexual predator and open misogynist Donald Trump to the Presidency and his alliance with the hard core Religious Right has made transformation of the Republican Party into a bastion of White male privilege and hostility to women.

Meanwhile on the Democratic side the Obama administration initiated the landmark 2011 Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being report and advanced women’s causes and defended their interests via appointments and executive orders when Congress has blocked action.

The bitter and hard fought contest between  Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic Presidential nomination last year largely centered on which candidate was best for women, and on if women owed their support to the possible first major party female presidential candidate.  There was a bitter and divisive split between older women and traditional feminist leaders on one hand and many younger, poorer women on that hot button issue.

Business and labor leaders were carefully chosen to balance the list of 2017 Women's History Month Honorees.

This year the theme of the 2017 National Women’s History Month harkens back to the origins of Women’s day in the Socialist and labor movements.  But the sponsoring National Women’s History Project (NWHP) was also careful to balance that by co-honoring business leaders.  That reflects the search for respectability by middle class feminists and their obsession with career advancement and the glass ceiling.  Thus the theme:  Honoring Trailblazing Women in Labor and Business.

So the official honorees for the month carefully match labor leaders and radicals with hard charging executives and entrepreneurs.  Former Labor Secretary Alexis Herman is offset by former Commerce Secretary Barbara Hackman Franklin.  Anarchist and agitator Lucy Gonzales Parson and pioneer banker Maggie Lena Walker make a matched set of Black women.  Addie Wyatt, founder of national organizations of Black and Women Trade Unionists is offset by stockbroker Norma Yeager.  The lists go on, but you get the picture.

If I seem nit-picky in my annoyance, it’s not that I don’t think that the achievements of successful women in business are worthy of note or attention, but am saddened that leading feminists are still afraid that singling out the achievements of labor and radical figures will get them identified as some sort of commies on one hand and fear that it will alienate middle class supporters on the other.