Plausibly Live! - The Official Podcast Of The Dave Bowman Show

Back in the 1870s Otto von Bismarck coined a term that still resonates today, despite the fact that purists on both political sides hate it: realpolitik In December of 1941, a Congresswoman – the first ever – learned a lesson in realpolitik. In April of 1917 she had been among fifty US Representatives who felt that a US Declaration of War on Imperial Germany was a mistake and to be opposed. In retrospect and in the minds of many millions of Americans that day, she was right. But twenty-four years later, she would find herself as the ONLY US Congressperson, House or Senate*, to vote against declaring war on Imperial Japan after the attacks of December 7th. She would pay a personal price for her vote, including some merciless mockery for hiding in a closet after the vote and losing her seat permanently. Rankin claimed that it had been a vote of principle, stating that war is always wrong. Three days later, she would vote “Present” on a Declaration of War against two other countries that had not attacked the