<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1664815134307,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000162-07b6-de22-a173-2ffe05de0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1664815134307,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000162-07b6-de22-a173-2ffe05de0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_64804829", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1110034"} }); ","_id":"00000183-9eb6-d69e-a3a7-beb7dce90000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedFellow Granite Stater Ken Burns’s latest PBS documentary, chronicling America’s attitude toward Jews fleeing the Holocaust, tells a captivatingly tragic story. Sadly, it is reminiscent of the Biden administration’s negligence toward Afghan refugees following our disgraceful withdrawal from Afghanistan.
While undeniable that Burns is a great documentarian, his liberal bias regarding President Calvin Coolidge’s immigration views demand refutation.
YOU CAN’T FIGHT ANTISEMITISM WHILE IGNORING ITS SUPPORTERS ON THE LEFT
While Coolidge signed the immigration restricting the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act, he deplored several provisions — particularly an exclusion of Japanese immigrants, saying, “If the exclusion provision stood alone I [would veto] it.” However, it passed with congressional majorities too overwhelming for a veto to overcome. Burns excludes these facts.
Further, Burns’s suggestion that Coolidge was antisemitic or xenophobic is meritless. The predominant motivation behind Johnson-Reed was to counteract the proliferation of communist and dictatorial sentiments in America. Debate over that law’s approach is fair, but it was not driven by prejudice.
Coolidge rejected prejudices that sometimes colored our immigration debates. Speaking in 1925, he said: “Whether one traces his Americanism back three centuries to the Mayflower or three years of the steerage, is not half so important as whether his Americanism of today is genuine. No matter by what various crafts we came here, we are all now in the same boat.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Burns is perpetuating a longtime campaign by liberal historians to distort and tarnish Coolidge’s legacy. While a conservative, I believe liberals can promote their own ideology without such dishonesty. Coolidge was not antisemitic or xenophobic. He deserves better from Burns and many others.
D.J. Bettencourt is the deputy commissioner of the New Hampshire Insurance Department. He also serves as a volunteer editor with the Coolidge Foundation.
