Republican War On Christmas Might Be Over For The Year, But Their War Against Women Never Ends

Sometimes we cover the Republican War on Women, and invariably some pompous Republican asshat denies that there's any such thing. But it's very real and very serious and profoundly undemocratic. And it's got to stop. I've been reading The Brothers, Stephen Kinzer's much-acclaimed book about the two most venal Republicans who lived in any of our lifetimes, John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles, two deeply corrupt men-- in terms of using government office for self-enrichment-- the former the most destructive Secretary of State in American history and the latter, the bumbling head of the CIA. They founded the Council on Foreign Relations and refused to admit any women. In fact, no woman was ever admitted until a year after both were in their graves (1970).

It wasn't a whim; it's how they were raised and it's part of what made them Republicans-- and two of the most influential Republicans of the Twentieth Century. Even before Foster became the prototype for the modern-day lobbyist, the young men were completely disdainful of women. Using family connections, both weaseled their way into the Peace Conference in Paris that ended World War I. Their uncle, Robert Lansing, was Wilson's mediocre Secretary of State. That turned out to be fortuitous for them-- though not for their sister Eleanor. She was eager to get in on the action in Paris as well.

She had asked "Uncle Bert" to find her a useful position in the post-war relief effort, but he dismissed her, saying that the only way a woman could contribute would be by knitting socks. Infuriated, she paid her own way to Europe and went to work for a Quaker reilef group that was building homes for refugees along the Marne River.

Lansing was a conservative, but a conservative Democrat. It was his two nephews who joined the GOP and who brought their inbred misogyny to its upper reaches. Neither Dulles brother had close relationships with any of their children, but a story Kinzer relates early in the book will give you more of an idea about the formative state of the Republican war on women.

Foster's middle child, Lillias, offended her father's sense of order by announcing that she wished to attend college and, like her aunt Eleanor, make a career for herself. Foster believed education spoiled women and disapproved. "He didn't want her to learn anything, except maybe the feminine charms, which he thought she lacked," Eleanor later wrote. Finally Lillias persuaded her father to allow her to attend Bennington College, which he mistakenly believed to be a finishing school... "His work [overthrowing governments around the world and making millions along the way] was very important to him, and he felt a real sense of obligation toward colleagues and subordinates," Eleanor wrote of her elder brother. "He couldn't neglect them for his children."

His attitude of disdain for women and his embrace of a narrow, air-less and tightly ordered world, ultimately lend him to embrace fascism. His firm did more business with Nazi Germany than any other firm in America. He was a staunch admirer, like so many from his class and upbringing, of Hitler. Starting in 1933, all letters from the German offices of Cromwell & Sullivan the biggest law firm in America, over which he presided, were signed with the salutation "Heil Hitler."

The firm brokered a trillion dollars (in 2013 dollars) in loans to the Hitler regime-- most of which had to be written off by his clients. Kinzer called him "the preeminent salesman of German bonds in the United States, probably the world. He sharply rejected critics who argued that American banks should invest more inside the United States, and protested when the State Department sought to restrict loans to Germany... 'Without Dulles,' according to a study of Sullivan & Cromwell, 'Germany would have lacked any negotiating strength with [the International Nickel cartel], which controlled the world's supply of nickel, a crucial ingredient in stainless steel and armor plate.' [He and the Nazi Finance Minister Hjalmar Schacht, were extremely close.] Like Dulles, he projected an air of brisk authority. He was tall, gaunt, and always erect, with close-cropped hair and high, tight collars. Both men had considered entering the clergy before turning their powerful minds toward more remunerative pursuits. [Foster] fought successfully to block Canada's effort to restrict the eexport of steel to German arms makers."

Foster had clear financial reasons to collaborate with the Nazi regime, and his ideological reason-- Hitler was fiercely anti-Bolshevik-- was equally compelling. In later years scholars would ask about his actions in the world. Did he do it out of a desire to protect economic privilege, or out of an anti-Communist fervor? The best answer might be that to him there was no difference. In his mind defending multinational business and fighting Bolshevism were the same thing.

...This put Foster at odds not only with Allen but also with their sister Eleanor, who had traveled to Nazi Germany and was horrified by what she saw. She appealed to Foster to change his mind, but he never took her seriously and told her she was "working herself up" over nothing.

She was right, of course, and he was tragically, horrifyingly wrong. But the Republican Party missed that lesson and that message and they just stuck with the age-old conservative values that demean and denigrate women as little more than property for the pleasure and convenience of men. And like most misogynists, Foster Dulles was also homophobic. He helped establish the Republican Party as a bastion of hatred and bigotry against gay people. Partially the placate a deranged and alcoholic Senator McCarthy-- his day's Ted Cruz-- Dulles moved against gay people working in the State Department.

During his first weeks in office, Foster dismissed twenty-three diplomats as security risks, apparently after being told that they might be homosexual.