Charles Coughlin

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[[File:CharlesCouglinCraineDetroitPortrait.jpg|thumb|165px|Coughlin in 1933.]]
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'''Father Charles E. Coughlin''' (pronounced "cog-lin") {{lived|1891|1979}} was a [[Canadian]]-[[United States|American]] [[Roman Catholic]] [[priest]] who is often cited as a prototype of [[conservative talk radio|right-wing talk radio]]. He was popular during the [[Great Depression]], and was an outspoken critic of [[Franklin Roosevelt]]’s [[New Deal]]. Coughlin was significant for being a major pundit for [[fascism]] in the United States before and during [[World War II]].

==Early FDR supporter==
He was originally a supporter of Roosevelt and the New Deal, using his [[radio]] program to promote Roosevelt for president in 1932. He was known for the slogan "Roosevelt or Ruin!" and referred to the New Deal as "[[Christ]]'s Deal".<ref>[http://www.speeches-usa.com/Transcripts/042_coughlin.html Roosevelt or Ruin] by Father Charles E. Coughlin (November 27, 1933) ''Speeches-USA''.</ref> After 1934, however, he turned on Roosevelt for supposedly being too soft on the big banks and he began taking on an increasingly [[crank]]y tone, turning toward the political right.

[[Irony|Ironically]], the man who made a name for himself spewing [[antisemitism]] and [[conspiracy]] [[Mass hysteria|hysteria]] began his radio preaching in 1926 (on Detroit radio station WJR) after members of the [[Ku Klux Klan]] burned a [[Crucifix|cross]] on the front lawn of his church.

==Money crankery==
Coughlin was obsessed with [[monetary policy]], espousing some crank ideas about "[[sound money]]" which he claimed would put an end to the Depression. Unlike many modern proponents of similar ideas, he opposed the [[gold standard (economics)|gold standard]], which he saw as putting control of the U.S. money supply under the control of "the money manipulators". Likely, his early support of Roosevelt came about because he saw Roosevelt as somebody who would, in his words, "drive the money changers from the temple", and Roosevelt did indeed take the U.S. off the gold standard in 1933. It is also likely Coughlin turned on Roosevelt shortly thereafter because Roosevelt showed no interest in enacting Coughlin's other, more esoteric proposals. Among Coughlin's views was an opposition to the [[Federal Reserve]] bank, a view held to this day by many cranky "sound money" advocates, some of them for antisemitic reasons on the grounds the Fed is allegedly [[Rothschild family|controlled by Jews]].

==Rightward swing and Nazi sympathy==
{{main|Nazi}}
In 1936 he formed a short-lived alliance with Francis Townsend (originator of the [[Townsend Plan]]), and with antisemitic demagogue and [[Nazi]] sympathizer Gerald L. K. Smith, to form the Union Party to contest the 1936 elections against Roosevelt. After the Union Party failed miserably at the polls and disbanded following the 1936 elections, Coughlin announced his retirement from the airwaves, but returned within a few months with a program which often increasingly expressed antisemitic views, opposition to the League of Nations, and sympathy for Italian dictator [[Benito Mussolini]] and for [[Francisco Franco]]'s far-right insurgency against [[republic]]an [[Spain]]. He peddled [[International Jewish conspiracy]] theories about [[Jews]] as the driving force behind major world events such as the [[Russian Revolution]] and the Great Depression, and as Jews being in league with [[Communism|communists]].

While repeatedly claiming to oppose "Hitlerism" and the Nazis, he also excused Nazism as coming about as a self-defense mechanism against Communism, which in turn had come about as a necessary self-defense mechanism against (Jewish) [[capitalism]]. He also claimed that [[German]]s wouldn't be persecuting Jews if "Jews" hadn't first persecuted [[Christians]] in the [[Soviet Union]]. Yes, he conflated Jews with communists, and the [[Soviet Union]]'s official [[atheism]] policy with the persecution of Christians. Coughlin would also conflate atheism with Jewish people. You get where this is going. Shorter [[tl;dr]] version: Coughlin would have people believe Nazism was [[blaming the victim|the Jews' fault]].

By 1938, Coglin was so closely aligned with [[Nazi Germany]] that he was [[Plagiarism|plagiarizing]] from translations of [[Joseph Goebbels]]'s speeches, the German Minister of [[Propaganda]].<ref name=lee>[https://dn790005.ca.archive.org/0/items/LeeFineArt/lee_fine%20art.pdf ''The Fine Art of Propaganda: A Study of Father Coughlin's Speeches''], edited by Alfred McClung Lee & Elizabeth Briant Lee (1939) Harcourt, Brace and Company</ref>{{rp|86-91}}

He founded an organization called the National Union for Social Justice and a publication called ''Social Justice''<ref group=note>If you are wondering if there is any connection to the modern incarnation of [[social justice]], it's rather slim at best. In Coughlin's use, "social justice" was a [[euphemism]] for tying [[Papal]] encyclicals on alleviating the conditions of the masses to proto-fascist monetary and employment policy in order to halt the spread of communism (all with strong antisemitic undertones), and while there are certainly modern social justice movements based on religion, in general the term refers to the mostly unrelated movements trying to ensure that everyone enjoys equal opportunities. Of course, the term has such a [[vague]] feel-good definition that a huge number of varying agendas can get lumped together, some with more merit than others.</ref>, which in 1938 printed weekly installments of the antisemitic fraud ''[[The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion]]''. In 1940, he published copies of the book ''The Rulers of Russia'' by Father Denis Fahey, which singled out Jews to blame for the [[Bolshevik Revolution]] in Russia.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/TheRulersOfRussia-AmericanEdition-ByRevDenisFahey/page/n1/mode/2up ''The Rulers of Russia''] by Father Denis Fahey (1940). Social Justice Publishing Co. 3<sup>rd</sup> edition.</ref>

"How did Coughlin come to revive the notorious document and resuscitate a villain most assumed was long buried? His biographer Donald Warren identifies the likely vehicle as non other than Coughlin's new friend, Ernest Liebold. Indeed, Liebold was a constant source of material for the pages of Coughlin's magazine. Each week, he would provide the priest with his personal copy of [[Hitler]]'s favorite magazine, ''[[Der Stürmer]]''…"<ref>''The American Axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the Rise of the Third Reich'' by Max Wallace (2004) St. Martin's Publishing Group. ISBN 0312290225.</ref>{{rp|143}}

[[Joachim von Ribbentrop|Ribbentrop]] was an admirer of Father Coughlin.<ref>Illinois Digital Archives -
The Sentinel, v.142 no. 03, 1946.
[https://www.idaillinois.org/digital/collection/p16614coll14/id/50629/] [https://archive.ph/Ntqmo]</ref>

In 1940 with the imminent U.S. entry into World War II, the [[Catholic Church]] finally ordered Coughlin&nbsp;— who by then was openly expressing support for the [[Axis]] powers&nbsp;— off the air and to return to his duties as a parish priest in [[Michigan]]. His periodical ''Social Justice'' was barred from the U.S. mail shortly afterward in early 1942 as the U.S. media went on a heavily-[[censored]] wartime footing. He remained a parish priest until his retirement, resurfacing only decades later to do the occasional interview, and he died in obscurity in 1979.

==Style and influence==
Coughlin's radio program employed a ranting style which often began soft-spoken and "religious" sounding, often with gusts of purple prose (such as using the term "[[Marxian]]" instead of "[[Marxist]]"), but grew in intensity until he was ranting against Roosevelt, [[Great Britain]], the [[League of Nations]], "international bankers", communist influence in America, the Jews, and anyone else he decided to rant about that day. Far too many of today's radio hosts, such as [[Michael Savage]] seem to have borrowed their style from Coughlin.

Couglin's speeches were used as the singular example in the 1939 book ''The Fine Art of Propaganda''. The seven propaganda techniques analyzed in the book that were used by Coughlin are:<ref name=lee/>{{rp|22-131}}
{{collist|2|
#Name calling (''[[Argumentum ad hominem]]'')
#[[Glittering generality]] — terms intended to invoke warm-and-fuzzy feelings
#Transfer ([[transference]])
#[[Testimonial]]
#Plain folks — similar to the [[common sense]] fallacy, but attributing things to what "plain folks" are purported to believe
#Card stacking ([[cherry picking]])
#Band wagon (''[[Argumentum ad populum]]'')
}}

Coughlin was praised by Issa Nakhleh,<ref>[https://digital.bentley.umich.edu/djnews/djn.1984.08.03.001/14 Lifting the Veil] by Alan Abrams (Aug. 3, 1984) ''Detroit Jewish News'' p. 14.</ref> the [[Holocaust denier]] at least since Nov. 14 1972.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=4AENAQAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=Nazi+extermination ''Jewish Observer and Middle East Review,'' Volume 21, William Samuel & Company Limited, 1972. p.7]</ref> Nakhleh attended the [[IHR]] Holocaust Denial 1981 convention of [[neo-Nazis]] seeking a "white army".<ref>[https://patron.uflib.ufl.edu/AA00014307/00309/zoom/22 Propaganda Spurs Invitation to Join Rising "White Army"] by Ian Barnes (October 29, 1982) ''The Jewish Floridian and Shofar of Greater Hollywood''. p.B-7.</ref>

==See also==
*[[John R. Brinkley]]
*[[Nathanael Kapner]]
*[[Huey Long]]
*[[Louis Thomas McFadden]]
*[[Calvin Robinson]]

==External links==
*[http://www.archive.org/details/Father_Coughlin MP3 archive of his broadcasts]
*[http://www.fathercoughlin.org/ fathercoughlin.org]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927212640/http://www.ajcarchives.org/main.php?GroupingId=6060 American Jewish Committee's archive of Coughlin-related material]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100615191439/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005516 Entry in Holocaust Encyclopedia with film footage]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzLMRAz5G_4 Father Coughlin speaks against the Federal Reserve]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFDuGNCxyl0&NR=1 Father Coughlin in Action]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS9_gqCytV4 Father Coughlin Before the 1936 Election]
*James P. Shenton. [http://www.jstor.org/pss/4633567 Fascism and Father Coughlin.] ''The Wisconsin Magazine of History'', Vol. 44, No. 1, Autumn, 1960

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coughlin, Father Charles}}
[[Category:Antisemites]]
[[Category:Atheophobia]]
[[Category:Catholics]]
[[Category:Christians]]
[[Category:Conservative deceit]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theorists]]
[[Category:Fascists]]
[[Category:Great Depression]]
[[Category:Leftists who turned right with age]]
[[Category:Media]]
[[Category:Ministers]]
[[Category:Radio]]
[[Category:Social justice]]
[[Category:We're on a mission from God]]
[[Category:Pseudohistory promoters]]

Categories: Antisemites, Atheophobia, Catholics, Christians, Conservative deceit, Conspiracy theorists, Fascists, Great Depression, Leftists who turned right with age, Media, Ministers, Radio, Social justice, We're on a mission from God, Pseudohistory promoters