Economic Depression: 2008 = 1932?

Posted by Tom Degan, The Rant at 5:02 PM on September 16, 2008.

The trillion dollar shit hammer hit the fan yesterday and I'm loving every minute it! How could that possibly be? Aside from feeling personally vindicated, I think that the events yesterday on Wall Street just might be the long-feared cataclysmic meltdown that will finally awaken the comatose American people from their twenty-eight year slumber. Wakey! Wakey, kiddies!

Seventy-six years ago, on the eve of the election that sent Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the White House, President Hoover received the following, very cheeky telegram from an unnamed citizen:

"VOTE FOR ROOSEVELT AND MAKE IT UNANIMOUS"

By that time, the Great Depression which was unleashing such economic horror across the American landscape was already three years old. It's not as if the stock market had crashed less than two months before. In the columns I have posted in the last few months, I have made many references to that campaign of 1932. Forgive me for sounding repetitive, but the parallels are to numerous to ignore. Analogies are literally screaming to be made.

With all that has happened in the last twenty-four hours, you would think that Senator Barack Obama receives a major boost in the polls. We shall see. Recent weeks have seen he and John McCain in a virtual dead heat. The so-called "pundits" have come up with scores of reasons why this would be so, totally ignoring the real and only reason: McCain is white. Obama is not. It's as simple as that.

"The economy is fundamentally sound"
Herbert Hoover 1929

"The fundamentals of the economy are strong"
John McCain 2008

Hmmm. Call in a hunch but I get this creepy feeling that when a politician in 2008 inadvertently paraphrases Hoover in 1929, it's generally a pretty good idea to fold up the tents and go home for a nice, long nap. I'm just waiting for the poor old bugger to proclaim that prosperity is just around the corner.

When some of the largest and oldest financial institutions in the country collapse overnight, like a house of marked cards, to even imply that one's economy is "fundamentally strong" reminds me of Hitler and Goebbles in April of 1945, rejoicing in the bunker on learning of the death of FDR - while the allies were pounding the hell out of the city of Berlin a mere one-hundred feet above their clueless heads - an awfully good time for a little reality check to say the least.

At this moment, McCain is being interviewed on Morning Joe on MSNBC. He just made the statement, "Wall Street has betrayed us". He's only half right. It was also Ronald Reagan who betrayed us. It was both Bushes who betrayed us. It was the Republicans (and more than a few Democrats) that betrayed us. And, most assuredly, it was also John McCain who betrayed us. It was the orgy of deregulation - supported and enabled by McCain from the moment he came to Congress in 1983 - that brought us to this point. Anyone who would deny as much hasn't been paying attention.

It's curious. People who tend to vote for right wing candidates have absolutely no understanding of American history. None. I'll prove it to you. Ask all of your conservative friends the following question: Who was president during World War One? That doesn't sound like a very difficult question, does it? We're talkin' History 101 here! I guarantee it - most, if not all of them, will be unable to answer that mind-numbingly simple question. Try it some time (For the viewers of FOX Noise: The answer is Woodrow Wilson).

Here's another question you can ask them (and this one is such a no-brainer, you might be embarrassed even asking it): What was the name of President McKinley's Assistant Secretary of the Navy who resigned his position, donned a uniform and went off to Cuba to lead a brigade in the Spanish American War? They won't know the answer. Give them this hint: He later served as McKinley's vice-president. They won't know the answer. Give them a third hint: He became president on McKinley's assassination in September of 1901. They won't know the answer. Give them a fourth hint: His face is on Mt. Rushmore. They won't know the answer. By this time you'll be tearing your hair out in utter exasperation, but give them this fifth and final hint: Within a quarter-of-a-century, his distant cousin would become the president of the United States. I guarantee it! Most of them will not be able to answer this unbelievably basic question of American history (Again, for you FOX fans: It was Theodore Roosevelt)

If our conservative brothers and sisters had so much as a remedial knowledge of the history of their once-great nation, they would know the answers to those questions. They would also know that every time the "plutocracy" (as the loony right wing was called in the good old days) seized control of all three branches of their government, they ran this country right into an economic ditch. That is not just my opinion, folks - that is an undeniable historical fact! LOOK IT UP!

And now, to the surprise of no one with a freshman history major's understanding of the past, our monetary systems are once again falling apart. During the campaign of 1948, President Harry S Truman, referring to "that good fer nothin' [Republican] Eightieth Congress" pointedly asked his fellow countrymen the following, very pertinent question:

"How many times do you have to get hit over the head before you realize that you're getting hit over the head?"

Damned good question! Any takers?

The American people are now in the process of relearning a lesson a lesson they should have learned nearly a century and a half ago during the administration of Ulysses S Grant. That lesson is this: Conservative philosophy of governance does not work - PERIOD. It never has. It never will.

"But what about Ronald Reagan?", your conservative friend may ask, "The economy did great under Ronald Reagan!" As the late Lloyd Bensten once said, "You give me four trillion dollars in hot checks and I'll give you one hell of an illusion of prosperity. And yet, given all of the recklessness of the Reagan administration, John McCain was able to say yesterday (with a straight face - so help me Alan Greenspan!) that America "must return to the fiscal responsibility of the Reagan era". So reckless and irresponsible has the Bush Mob proven to be, McCain was able to make that incredibly stupid comment and no one, thus far (with the exception of yours truly, of course) has called him on it. .

As I said before, it was only when the right wing seized control of "all three branches" of the government that they were able to ruin the economy. Reagan never had a Republican majority in the House of Representatives and his party only had control of the senate for a few years during his reign of error. Back then, the Supreme Court was much more moderate than it is today. Had Reagan had the legislative freedom that the current president enjoyed for six long years, he would today be remembered as the worst president in history and the world would never have known the name, George W. Bush. Sooner or later, the people of this country are bound to recover from their positively dysfunctional love affair with the twisted legacy of the Gipper. The truth is, everything Bush has done to you, Ronald Reagan tried to do to you - and would have done to you - had he had control of both houses of congress.

As I wrote on this site over a year ago, what must be understood is that Ronald Reagan was essentially a mask, with a twinkle in its eye and a fine, Irish smile. Remove that mask and what is revealed is the hideous smirk of George W. Bush - That's the real face of the "Reagan Revolution". Wake up, America. We're about one half of a step away from the point of no return.

Well, now! Where do we find ourselves now? We have John McCain and Gidget asking (and expecting) the American electorate to commit economic suicide by sending to the White House the very people who are responsible for the mess we are in to begin with! Isn't that lovely? Just imagine what would have happened to this country had the people stupidly reelected Hoover in 1932. This would be a very different world today. You don't believe it? Remember it was the right wing who wanted to appease Hitler in the nineteen-thirties. "America Firsters", they were called. One of their head spokesmen was Charles A. Lindbergh. Can you imagine what this planet would have been like today had those assholes been in power in 1939? I get the dry heaves just thinking about it!

Do you or a loved one depend on a monthly Social Security check from the government? Now just whom do you think you have to thank for that? Newt Gingrich? It was the very liberal Roosevelt Administration. In 1935, when that program came into being, every single conservative commentator in the print and electronic media - without exception - predicted that it would result in the ruination of the United States. Honestly now, do we really want the ideological heirs of those jackasses to retain control of the executive branch of our government? As someone once said, be careful what you wish for.

While (as some are suggesting) this might merely be a temporary glitch in the market and that everything will be back to normal in a day or two, what happened on Wall Street yesterday is an ominous sign which should give every citizen of this troubled republic pause. As one of the numerous bumper stickers on the back of my van says:

"TURN LEFT AT NEXT ELECTION"

We have no other choice. You think I don't know what I'm talking about? Then vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin on Election Day. You'll deserve everything that happens to you.

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Tagged as: obama, history, mccain, depression, hoover, fdr, crappy days