Mr. Phillips’ Warning

I can still clearly remember sitting in my high school Journalism class on Wednesday, November 9, 1960 -- the day after the presidential election. Everyone in the classroom couldn’t stop talking about the exciting election results that we had watched the night before on our grainy black and white TVs.

Our teacher, Mr. Robert Phillips, a man whom I admired greatly then and remember fondly now, stood before our class and made a statement that I still recall quite well. After he was finished, everyone in the class sat quietly in their seats. All of us there that day were either confused, scared, or just plain angry when he finished his little speech to us. He did not ask for comments and did not entertain any questions. He simply went back to supervising the production of the next issue of our school newspaper, the “Poly Spotlight.”

Because of its particular timing and its warning of trouble ahead for America, I think what Mr. Phillips said to us that day might be instructive and of interest to the readers of Just One Opinion.

Please realize that it’s been nearly fifty years since I heard Mr. Phillips give this speech. I have trouble remembering what someone said to me yesterday -- so trying to recall exactly what was said in my high school classroom forty-nine years ago will not be the easiest thing for me to do. But I’m going to try my best to present his words as accurately as I can, while preserving his message and intent. It’s true, I can’t remember exactly every word he said, but I sure remember his message. Here it is paraphrased to the best of my ability:

Mr. Robert Phillips addressing the students of his Journalism class, Riverside (CA) Poly High School, November 9, 1960 (reconstructed from memory):

“You know me -- I don’t usually bring up politics in this class except as part of your training on how to present a subject when you write a news article. You know that I believe in being fair and impartial as a reporter, and that I tend to grade you harshly whenever I see your personal bias or opinion sneaking into one of your assignments.

“But this is a sad day for me because I think that it is a sad day for America. As you know, John F. Kennedy was elected to be our next President last night. I have nothing against Catholics and I know that many of you belong to that faith, as are many of my own friends and some of my relations. That’s not the point.

“My point is that Democrat John Kennedy is young and immature and comes from a very dedicated Roman Catholic family from liberal Massachusetts. As our President, I can not see how he can serve both his religion and his country at the same time.

“What choice will he have if the Pope tells him to take a particular stand or orders him to do something that would favor the Catholic Church over other religions in this country? How can he possibly say ‘no’ to the head of his church?

“We’ve always had Protestant presidents in this country and there is a reason for that. Protestants don’t answer to one man in the Vatican. John Kennedy will have no choice but to do what he is told by the Pope or face excommunication from the Catholic Church.

“Yes, he’s young and good looking -- he’s very bright and has written a best seller (Profiles in Courage), but he hasn’t faced the real test of leadership in America. Do we want America to become a Catholic country like France, Spain or Italy? Do we want the Inquisition to be instituted in this country like it was in Europe for over 300 years? Do we want the Catholic Church to become our national religion like it is in Mexico?

“That, my students, is what we face in the next four years. Maybe not -- he may play it safe his first four years and then allow Rome to take over and dictate our future during his second term. I don’t know how it will happen -- but I know that our country is in deep trouble and we have only seen the very tip of the iceberg.

“Richard Nixon had more votes than John Kennedy. By all rights he should be our next President. But Kennedy manipulated the system so that he only had to win the Electoral College votes, not the vote of the people. Richard Nixon could be the greatest president in this country’s history if he ever gets the chance. He is honest, a good Quaker from California who believes in religious freedom, and an active anti-Communist who loves America. He served under President Eisenhower, so he has been trained by the very best President to serve in your lifetime.

“Kennedy is a good looking man with a pretty wife and cute little girl. He could become very popular among those who like movie stars but don’t really care about what happens to America. My guess is that after four years, if he doesn’t set up a Roman Catholic dictatorship in America during his first term, that he will be voted out of office and the Pope will find someone else to try and take over America.  If good Americans stand up for what is right, John Kennedy will not be reelected and instead will become just a footnote in our history as the first -- and hopefully the last -- Catholic to be elected president in our country.”

Looking back at history, Mr. Phillips, in his soft-spoken but deeply felt rhetoric, got one thing absolutely right:

No other Catholic has been elected President since John Kennedy. Surprisingly, Joseph Biden is the first Catholic ever to be elected to the office of Vice-President.

But Mr. Phillips also misread the course of both John Kennedy’s presidency and the next fifty years of our country’s history:

John Kennedy did not take any action to give the Catholic Church an advantage within United States politics or culture.

The first Pope to make an official visit to the United States was Pius VI in October, 1965 during the term of President Lyndon Johnson (Disciples of Christ).

Pope John Paul II was was invited six times to visit the United States: the term of Jimmy Carter (Baptist); Ronald Reagan (Presbyterian) -- three times; and Bill Clinton (Baptist) -- twice.

President Kennedy’s administration was noted for effective management of the federal government, for taking on both the Mafia and the corrupt Teamsters Union, and his intelligent dealings with European and South American countries. His general popularity among all groups, except for extreme southern state right-wing Republicans, continued to rise until his assassination in 1963.

Richard Nixon, despite landslide victories in 1968 and 1972, mishandled the economy by freezing wages and increasing taxes, allowed the Viet Nam War to continue for another five years, and abolished the gold standard. His popularity evaporated quickly after his second election among all voter categories. He completely destroyed his reputation and presidency by lying and trying to cover-up the scandal of the Watergate break-in. He only avoided sure impeachment by resigning during the second year of his second term. Even his hand-picked Vice President, Spiro Agnew, was forced to resign in disgrace to face criminal charges in his home state of Maryland. In spite of some impressive diplomatic gains with Europe and especially China, Richard Nixon’s presidency is generally considered to have been scandalous and badly mismanaged.

After I graduated from high school in 1961, I only saw Mr. Phillips one more time when I happened to see him several years later while shopping in a hardware store. He was still as friendly and soft-spoken as I remembered him and he seemed truly happy to see me again. It never occurred to me to ask him if he ever changed his mind about John Kennedy.

I don’t know if Mr. Phillips is still alive, but if he somehow happens to read this, I hope that he understands that I was pretty much a conservative Republican for many years because of what he said that day. I also want him to know that I understood that his words were supposed to help us to understand his view of our country’s direction at that particular moment in time and that he did not mean any disrespect to the office of the president.

History seems to repeat itself, no matter our good intentions. Some of the same attitudes that Mr. Phillips expressed about John Kennedy are now being directed toward President Obama.

It is clear that the far right in the United States is doing everything it can to paint Obama with the same broad brush of slanderous lies and rumors. They say that he is trying to overthrow constitutional American government, steal our freedoms away from us, and that he is really a Muslim in disguise. They assert that he is trying to turn our government into a communist or socialist state -- some even claiming that he is a “Manchurian Candidate” born in Kenya, trained in Indonesia, and put into power by New Age, One World Government, Priory of Sion internationalists who want to make slaves out of “freedom loving true Americans.”

The sad thing is that so many patriotic, god-fearing Americans -- and others like Mr. Phillips in 1960 -- sincerely believe these lies and false rumors to be true and are afraid of what might be in their future. Fear makes people take shameful and self-destructive actions that would not normally be a part of their daily lives. The far right-wing element in this country is doing everything they can to fan those flames of fear -- just as they did during John Kennedy’s campaign and presidency.

How will those sincere, but deluded Americans feel about Obama after he leaves office in eight years? All I can say is that I hope to live long enough to be able to answer that question.

[Read a followup article about Mr. Robert Phillips. Click here...]