David H. Bennett Quotes & Sayings

The image of life forces diluted and diseased by contact with the intruders revealed a telling insecurity. How confident were these men in the power of their idealized country or in themselves as its protectors? Where was the tradition of resilience and absorbing strength that their florid rhetoric celebrated at other times? In the very metaphor of infection, the nativists uncovered their fears that "America" was but a fragile essence. Like latter-day "defenders" who saw other alien dangers in communism, they attributed enormous influence to the enemy. Their angry words betrayed the desperation of those who half fear the battle is already lost. — David H. Bennett