In Defense of Neville Chamberlain

    Hey, Boys and Girls! I trust every Mom out there had a wonderful Mother's Day. You deserve it. So now that we're back in business, as it were...let's kill a few birds with one essay, shall we? Because we've got political, historical, AND entertainment stuff to talk about! After all, we are a full-service website. Dork...

    First of all, from the entertainment desk: If you haven't already seen it, I HIGHLY recommend streaming the mini-series Peakey Blinders. It's a tale based on a true story of an Irish clan that started out as run of-the-mill bookmakers in Birmingham, England right after World War I, and then parleyed that into becoming one of the leading crime families in all of England. While it owes a lot to The Godfather as well as The Sopranos, it's a great, great series that stands on its own merits. It stars Cillian Murphy (he of Oppenheimer fame) and a host of other really good actors. You can find it on Netflix right now. From The Golf Room gives it 5 STARS! You are such a dope...

    I bring this up for a couple of reasons. First of all, it really is a great series. Secondly, it is faithful to history. A young Winston Churchill makes multiple appearances and it shows a dark side of him before he becomes Prime Minister on down the historical road. Also, it introduces many viewers to a man by the name of Oswald Mosley. Mosley, in this series was just starting out in British politics as a Member of Parliament. Later on (in real life) he would become the leader of British fascism. And, because I really am a dork, this got me to thinking about Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Neville Chamberlain. Wait, what? Huh? Mother's Day to Peakey Blinders to Cillian Murphy, Winston Churchill, and Oswald Mosley? Then to Marjorie Taylor Greene and Neville Chamberlain? I've got intellectual whip-lash, Boss! I know! Pretty good, huh?

    Which brings us to the following: Not long ago, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Jared Moskowitz, offered an amendment to a Ukraine aid bill that would have renamed the office of the aforementioned Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the "Neville Chamberlain Room." Moskowitz was following the age-old trope that Chamberlain was the ultimate appeaser, and that he sold out his country for peace. It also seems that Moskowitz had had it up to "here" with Greene's tireless dedication to serving Moscow's interests. So, in his mind he was comparing the two: Chamberlain and Greene. In a vacuum, I agree wholeheartedly with Moskowitz vis-a-vis Ms. Greene. She is a moron (I could use a more vile description of Ms. Greene, but this is a family publication). And to Mr. Moskowitz's point, she has no problem getting on her knees for Vladimir Putin. I mean, she does the same thing for Donald Trump, so at least she's consistent! One hopes that she has a great international calling plan for all the phone sex that must take place between her and the leader of Russia. She's an idiot and a closet fascist who has no business being a member of the most august political institution in the world. 

    But, and there's always a "but.” What Rep. Moskowitz said was a juvenile, stupid, and ugly insult. Say what you will about Marjorie Taylor Greene, she is no Neville Chamberlain. 

    Like many, if not most, politicians, Neville Chamberlain was an honorable and decent man, a patriot to England and a statesman who led the United Kingdom during the first months of World War II before serving with honor in Winston Churchill's war cabinet for the few months he had left before succumbing to intestinal cancer as the German blitz raged overhead. He died not long after, in November of 1940. When Churchill offered the dying Chamberlain the Order of the Garter, he declined saying, "I prefer to die plain 'Mr. Chamberlain', like my father before me, unadorned by any title." 

    Marjorie Taylor Greene is no Neville Chamberlain. 

    Chamberlain was a late bloomer, as it were, in national politics. He was already 50 when elected to the House of Commons. He had failed at some businesses and prospered at another and then found himself in municipal government as a councilman and planning commissioner, and then mayor of Birmingham during the hard times of World War I. He did his job as mayor and did it with distinction. At some point he disagreed with then Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and he resigned. No bitching; no threats to unseat the Prime Minister; he just resigned from a very influential post. As I said, Ms. Greene is no Neville Chamberlain.

    After the war, he ran for the House of Commons and won a seat...overwhelmingly. He worked his ass off and was even offered a ministerial post in his former foe's, David Lloyd George's, cabinet. He declined. He finally worked his way up to the Chancellor of the Exchequer (our Secretary of the Treasury) and won a challenge by the aforementioned fascist, Oswald Mosley! Chamberlain, during this time, was the lead figure in turning England’s war-ravaged economy around. You could say he had turned England from the last page of Dickens' Bleak House, to the first chapter of Great Expectations. 

    And here's where people sometimes get stuck with labels. As prime minister, Chamberlain made a bad bet. He thought he could buy off Hitler so that England could avoid a war they couldn't afford with a continental tyrant. I mean, England had been doing this for years, and it had often been the right policy. Well, this time it wasn't right. And it wasn't right in a huge way. When it all hit the fan, Chamberlain manned up and admitted his error to the British people: 

"This country is at war with Germany. You can imagine what a bitter blow it is to me that all my long struggle to win peace has failed. … We and France are today, in fulfillment of our obligations, going to the aid of Poland, who is so bravely resisting this wicked and unprovoked attack upon her people. We have a clear conscience. We have done all that any country could do to establish peace. … Now may God bless you all and may He defend the right. For it is evil things that we shall be fighting against, brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution. And against them I am certain that the right will prevail."

    

    In disappointment...honor. And he stood by his pledge to help Poland against an evil tyrant, as well as telling the truth about it. No, Marjorie Taylor Greene is no Neville Chamberlain. 

    Kevin Williamson writes: "It fell to Neville Chamberlain in one of the supreme crises of the world to be contradicted by events, to be disappointed in his hopes, and to be deceived and cheated by a wicked man. But what were these hopes in which he was disappointed? What were these wishes in which he was frustrated? What was that faith that was abused? They were surely among the most noble and benevolent instincts of the human heart—the love of peace, the toil for peace, the strife for peace, the pursuit of peace, even at great peril, and certainly to the utter disdain of popularity or clamour."

    Neville Chamberlain made the wrong decision at the most important juncture of his public life. But he was an authentic statesman who put service over self, even at the cost of his reputation, personal fortune, and health. For most of the world—and particularly for Americans, who care so little for history (including Representative Moskowitz)—all that remains of Neville Chamberlain is his worst mistake. But he did what he thought was right, received very little thanks for it in the end, and never stopped working for his country until the last few weeks of his life, when he was physically unable to continue. He died, as he wished, plain Mr. Chamberlain.

    Marjorie Taylor Greene is no Neville Chamberlain. Not on her best day.

write to Peter: magtour@icloud.com