Pete Seeger - If I Had a Hammer

Pete Seeger, the folk singer, recently died. The crooner of such songs as If I Had a Hammer was mourned as an American hero by much of the media. Well, in fact, not so much. John Fund of National Review fills in the glossy blanks in the mainstream news accounts and tells us who Seeger really was.

He became a Communist at 17 and remained unrepentantly so until 1949 when he dropped his name from the membership rolls, but still described himself as a "communist" (small "c") for decades after. It wasn't until 1995 until he 'fessed up that maybe he had been a tad slavish in his devotion to the authoritarian creed and its tyrants. An example was before Germany attacked the Soviet Union in WWII and the two wary giants had signed a non-aggression pact, Seeger publicly defended Hitler. When Stalin switched his tune after Germany invaded, so did Seeger. Profiles in courage.

I liked a number of Seeger's songs, but the grandfatherly old guy consistently chose the wrong, the evil side of history. Fund repeats a warning from John Roche, the president of Americans for Democratic Action, a liberal political interest group, that bears repeating:

“If authoritarianism of the right or left ever comes to America it will come surrounded by patriotism and show business,” he told me. “It will be made fashionable by talented people like Pete Seeger.”

Point duly noted. Hollywood - are you listening?http://www.nationalreview.com/article/369828/totalitarian-troubadour-john-fund