America as Farce

[midcan5]

....Consider as you read the excerpt below that America had her best years after FDR's New Deal and read carefully the bold words and then ask your self, maybe history does repeat itself. Maybe today we are living in the time of farce.

"The thin veneer of civility between Roosevelt and the Liberty League did not last long. In dozens of speeches and pamphlets, the organization depicted the "ravenous madness" of the New Deal as a monstrous usurpation of power: "Businessmen are denounced officially as 'organized greed," unscrupulous money changers' who 'gang up' on the liberties of the people ... 'The dragon teeth of class warfare are being sown with a vengeance." The New Deal thwarted the Constitution, the league claimed, by elevating the federal government over the state governments, leading to a frightening, even "totalitarian" centralization of power. The policies of the New Deal were only exacerbating the economic downturn. As the chairman of the Illinois division insisted, "You can't recover prosperity by seizing the accumulation of the thrifty and distributing it to the thriftless and unlucky." The league asserted that the Federal government should keep out of the relief business, leaving it all to the Red Cross. Indeed, the New Deal bureaucracy a vast organism spreading its tentacles over the business and private life of the citizens of the country" - would ultimately prevent the return of any prosperity at all.

The league took special pleasure in attacking Social Security, arguing that the hastily planned system infringed on the rights of states, that it was fiscally unsound, and that it would hurt the economy. Social Security, said the president of the league, was far too heavy a burden for the delicate economy to bear. In 1936 one lawyer associated with the league sought to mount a legal challenge to Social Security, suing on behalf of a New Jersey milk company. His argument was that the effect of the law was "to take the property of employers and of certain employees for the benefit of a class," resulting in the "taking of property without due process of law."

Despite the league's claims to be coordinating a mass movement of the common man, when the Du Ponts sought to build their organization, they turned to other executives. 'There is no secret that one of the 'experiment's to endeavor to redistribute wealth, in fact, that is what the 'New Deal' really means," Irenee wrote to the president of Eastman Kodak..."

Except, page 11, 'Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan' by Kim Phillips-Fein

If there is any doubt that Americans on the right, republicans and conservatives, are braindead robots who can only repeat ideological corporate nonsense, I give you their replies above to a piece written about history in the thirties, a well documented piece that includes a comprehensive bibliography. I will again reference the book below.

Imagine yourself a teacher with these puppets as students? Now students, this book is a study of the corporate, aka wealthy, of the thirties reaction to the New Deal and the creation of an ideology machine that still operates today. The excerpt I gave you to read includes words boldened that are still used today by many on the corporate right and political right. I started the lesson with quotations on history and what we can learn from it. Your task is to consider since the years from the New Deal to the eighties were some of best for most Americans, were these words reflective of the subsequent history, or were they like today, simply biased political jargon. Now study the words and their use and please stay on topic.

Hint: 'Liberty, constitution, class warfare, redistribute, thriftless.

"Historian Phillips-Fein traces the hidden history of the Reagan revolution to a coterie of business executives, including General Electric official and Reagan mentor Lemuel Boulware, who saw labor unions, government regulation, high taxes and welfare spending as dire threats to their profits and power. From the 1930s onward, the author argues, they provided the money, organization and fervor for a decades-long war against New Deal liberalism—funding campaigns, think tanks, magazines and lobbying groups, and indoctrinating employees in the virtues of unfettered capitalism." [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Hands-Making-Conservative-Movement/dp/0393059308/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247845984&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan (9780393059304): Kim Phillips-Fein: Books[/ame]

 

[MuadDib]

FDR couldn't pull off an FDR New Deal today, not even if he was POTUS.

What this economy faces today is far different than the problems facing the US economy in 1932.

I dunno. Obama got ACA passed. That was worse than anything FDR did. Hopefully it will have a shorter duration. Obama too.

 

[daveman]

If there is any doubt that Americans on the right, republicans and conservatives, are braindead robots who can only repeat ideological corporate nonsense...

That's especially rich coming from a guy who can only cut and paste leftist nonsense.

 

[Solius]

The New Deal averaged 20% unemployment for 8 years! Two whole terms of total failure!

The only thing that saved FDR was Hitler and WWII

Typical argument from a Hoover economist... guess what, sometimes the economy needs a little probing, sometimes it needs vast infusion of capital! And if not government, where will that money come from?

 

[Solius]

We had our "best years" after New Fail Deal...lol

You mean when soviet spies helped FDR get us into war with japan?

Wow! Just wow! You do realize that Stalin was an ally of Hitler, then. Don't you?

You "America First" idiots have bee relegated to the dust bin of history, and with just cause- you, and your type, are dangerous to democracy, and should be treated as thus--

 

[daveman]

We had our "best years" after New Fail Deal...lol

You mean when soviet spies helped FDR get us into war with japan?

Wow! Just wow! You do realize that Stalin was an ally of Hitler, then. Don't you?

You "America First" idiots have bee relegated to the dust bin of history, and with just cause- you, and your type, are dangerous to democracy, and should be treated as thus--

So what are you going to do about it, boy?

 

[Unkotare]

There had already been fighting between the Russians and the Japanese and a General by the name of Zhukov showed them a few things about modern war that made them retire to lick wounds and leave the Bear alone.
Japan was quite happy to let the Germans fight Stalin and he did not want another war on his other flank.
If Germany had won, the US would have been at a huge disadvantage.

Don't imagine that the Russians had fogotten their humiliation from the Russo-Japanese War. It pretty much brought down the Czarist system.

 

[daveman]

We had our "best years" after New Fail Deal...lol

You mean when soviet spies helped FDR get us into war with japan?

Wow! Just wow! You do realize that Stalin was an ally of Hitler, then. Don't you?

You "America First" idiots have bee relegated to the dust bin of history, and with just cause- you, and your type, are dangerous to democracy, and should be treated as thus--

So what are you going to do about it, boy?

I guess he's going to whine like a little bitch on the internet.