When Imperialism is Tyranny

I stumbled across a headline a couple of weeks back that caught my attention. It was about William McKinley, the 25^th President serving from 1897 to 1901. The article talked about his affinity for tariffs and specifically how he used them to coerce Canada into becoming part of the U.S. That mirrors what our current president has tried, right? I looked a little deeper into McKinley and found some interesting parallels to today.

First, Trump refers to McKinley as a “major historical hero”. (New Yorker) He was egocentric, powerful and driven. He was a US Representative from Ohio when Congress approved the “McKinley Tariffs” in 1890. His tariffs were high - 17% to 70%.  In 1891 McKinley was elected Governor of Ohio saying at the time “I am a tariff man, standing on a tariff platform”. But his tariffs completely backfired. They caused increased prices for Americans and angered farmers. Canada announced “we will never annex to America” and became less reliant on the U.S. and her products. McKinley Tariffs contributed heavily to the “Panic of 1893” and was ultimately repealed in 1894.

In 1896 he ran for President and won. His platform? “Benevolent assimilation of other countries for their own good”. In another word, his platform was Imperialism.

Imperialism – A policy of extending a country’s power & influence through diplomacy or military force. (Merriam-Webster) Tariffs can be considered a “soft power” tactic of imperialism. (paxamerica.org.)

He won the Spanish-American War in August 1898 and annexed Hawaii 9 days later. He acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines in December 1898.

Back then, like now, there was controversy and opposition from people like Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie who argued McKinley’s tactics violated democratic principles and set America up for costly foreign wars. (Miller Center) McKinley answered his critics by saying he needed these countries “to safeguard U.S. interests and we will use force to secure, influence and promote America as “first” in the world”. So many parallels.

Egocentric narcissists use imperialistic tactics to exploit others under the paternalistic guise of “for their own good”, but in truth it’s for domination and subordination….and that’s tyranny.

RESIST

Janet Jeffery, Gold Beach