Posted by:
macaRomney
(
)
Date: October 13, 2020 05:53PM
I've just finished watching the youtube video 5.5 hours with John Dehlin about this particular book. It's totally awesome. And a great read if you've got $30, which I don't.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ9MNpmwpZY&t=4044sMy take away from this podcast was that Benson was a man between two centuries and couldn't adapt his world view to fit in with the circumstances of the mid 20th century. He was born in 1899 Cache Valley before the new deal and was from a successful farming family that had resources and felt that everyone should be like that. It was a nostalgic time of simplicity, of abundance. There were no poor people, no Irish, no Blacks, no diversity.
When Benson got to Eisenhower's cabinet he was forced to work with new kinds of people, and didn't feel comfortable with it. He didn't get along well with Jews, Blacks, and Liberals, and anyone not like him, especially feminists. Then in the 50's he came into acquaintance with Welch (a Bircher) and found the reason for why he thought he felt uncomfortable, which is that there were secret informants for the Kremlin, infiltrated in every part of the government that seek to destroy the constitution and the American way of life.
He became radicalized and went on with a new idea of who all his new enemies were. And this went on for decades. The aftermath is that many people in Utah likewise are far out on the political fringes as well. Folks like Bundy, Westover, and a good chunk of Utah county (..can I have an Amen!)
Benson worked with Strong Thurman and Governor Wallace and opposed getting rid of segregation, and the New Deal. All the Mormon brethren were in favor of segregation but slowly changed their minds over a process of many years. Though Benson was probably the most radical of the bunch. And the hardest nut to crack.
But anyway it's a great study, that explains so much of why things are the way they are today.