Mark Twain said that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” I think it’s important to keep that in mind as we look at our current political landscape. One difference between the Great Depression and the Great Recession is that Franklin Roosevelt didn’t take power until more than three years had passed from the October 29, 1929 stock market crash. Barack Obama arrived a mere four months after the September 2008 meltdown. While polls show that the people still largely blame President Bush for the economic conditions of the country, he isn’t as uniformly blamed as President Hoover was during the 1930’s.
What rhymes better is the reaction of the Republican Party and its denizens to the Democratic solutions. There is no buy-in on the GOP’s part to the Dodd-Frank reforms. They won’t confirm a head to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They have voted more than thirty times to repeal the Affordable Care Act. They blame their woes on political consultants, but they seem to have no recognition that they wrecked this country and that people are pissed about it. People don’t think our excellent adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq were worth the cost, however you might want to define the cost. People sure as hell know that President Obama wasn’t in the White House when the economy turned to shit.
The Republicans dominated federal elections in the 1920’s, but they screwed things up so badly that they barely had a sniff of power in Washington again until the 1950’s. And they didn’t win back total power in Washington until 2002. So, basically, their reaction to Roosevelt was so poorly adapted to political realities that it took them seventy years to recover all the ground they had lost in the 1932 elections.
I think that is about where the GOP is today. They have a nicely gerrymandered congressional map that is helping them cling to a bit of power in the House, and they have the filibuster to contain things in the Senate. But they are behaving like a permanent minority party, just like they did from 1933-1994.
Yes, not so much a political party that governs but an anti Party that looks upon themselves as Destroyers. In a convoluted way have they not become the Destroyers that their idol Ayn Rand railed against?
Hate to pee in the parade, but the GOP won’t be out of power as long this time. Just look around the world. “Socialists” in Spain, Greece & Hungary refused to fix the problems and now look what is happening. And the “Socialists” in France aren’t doing a whole lot better right now. Yeah, they didn’t cause the problems in any of the three places, but they failed to implement known solutions that would fix things. We see that same thing here as well.
pee in the parade?
Pee on the parade. Sorry about that typo.
It’s the mixed-metaphor I was responding to. The ‘in’ was just gravy.
Not so sure that Austerity and it close cousins, that continue to fail across Europe, added to the penchant for financially punishing the people while protecting the banks aren’t starting to perk up the ears of even the least informed Rep. Add to that the laudable success of Iceland, which grabbed financial institutions by the throat and wrung restitution from them…which turned out to be a bloody but short lived correction and there’s a strong example of why Rep protectionism of the Too Bigs will continue to keep them in the minority.
There is a problem with what you say. Plenty of elected Democrats don’t see a problem with TBTF.
Right you are! I’m thinking there’s not too many who favor austerity though.
Yes, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Both the GOP and Democrats in congress have factions that don’t see a problem with TBTF, yes, but I expect the Republican plutocratic faction is much the larger in percentage. And both the GOP and Democrats have factions that do see a problem with TBTF, so there is at least the potential for an alliance.
There is a lot of juicy propaganda emanating from the Tea Party and the emoprogs about how the national democrats won’t oppose TBTF, but the fact is that Democratic Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur on January 3 of this year introduced HR 129 “Return to Prudent Banking Act” to reinstate Glass-Steagall, which would break up the TBTF banks, and as of now it has 40 co-sponsors. Of these, only three are Republicans: Rodney Alexander of Louisiana, Mike Coffman of Colorado, and Walter Jones of NC.
It is also supported by Sens. Carl Levin and John McCain, and is being strongly advocated by Tom Hoenig, former chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve, and Richard Fisher, current chairman of the Dallas FR. In other words, it has the support of a considerable segment of the banking industry itself.
http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/129
I thought one peed in the punch bowl…….and rained on the parade???
I’m missing something. I have to get out more.
The socialists in Europe didn’t just “fail to implement” stimulus – they actually went along with austerity. That is not the case here. In the US, the knock on the Democrats is that the program of Keynesian stimulus the implemented (on both the fiscal and monetary ends) has not been aggressive enough.
And you can see this difference in our different economic tracks. The American economy has grown in every quarter since the end of the recession, while countries in Europe actually sunk back into a double-dip recession, undergoing actual economic contraction.
The difference between FDR and Obama is that the former rejected the policies of Hoover and the latter not so much: Barack Hoover Obama. And FDR never managed to get as much spending out of Congress as Obama has until WWII.
Also Democrats of that time got it that Prohibition created more problems than it solved, created unnecessary significant costs for government, and facilitated an underground economy. That was one easy way to increase GDP.
Your second paragraph could still happen after more states oppose the federal policies. Indeed, prohibition wasn’t repealed until many states told the feds to fuck off. New York repealed prohibition in 1923; California in 1932, prior to ratifying the 21st amendment in 1933. 10 other states repealed theirs prior to the amendment, too.
We will see if 2016 is the equivalent, as the circumstances will be very similar.
The difference between FDR and Obama is that the former rejected the policies of Hoover and the latter not so much:
Wow. This is exactly the opposite of reality.
FDR actually cut the federal budget in 1936, running during the campaign on deficit reduction (as he had in 1932), and sending the country back into recession.
Obama, on the other hand, has never cut the federal budget, and has never advocated for the type of short-term deficit reduction that FDR ran on, and implemented, in 1936.
If FDR has set the increased federal funding in his first term to the side and labeled it “stimulus” that expired in four years, he wouldn’t have cut funding either. Of course back then Congress actually created and passed budgets.
FDR also quickly learned that cutting the budget was a bad idea. Plus he raised taxes on the wealthiest early in his first term instead of dicking around and sucking up to Wall St.
Now for the last time, leave me alone.
If FDR has set the increased federal funding in his first term to the side and labeled it “stimulus” that expired in four years, he wouldn’t have cut funding either.
The federal budget has increased every single year under Obama. There has been no budget-cutting under Obama.
Now for the last time, leave me alone.
No.
That is so narrowly true that it can be misleading.
Certainly, the administration does not want people arguing that they have done no budget cutting, particularly now that the Sequester is in effect.
The thousands upon thousands of government jobs lost have certainly done their part to stymie any recovery. This is one of the few things I agree with Yglesias on: this is a Conservative recovery, government cutting, jobs generated by private sector.
I see the Midwest in a flux state. The Dems control IL, now. This may not last, and the reason is pensions. IL has a terrible pension problem. They have underfunded the pension system, and the Dem majority has refused to fix it. IL was just downgraded by S&P or some ratings firm. If they don’t fix the pension system, there will be hell to pay. There is terrible corruption, and part of it is public unions who will not face reality. Yes, the pensions are promised. But the abuse is real. If you want to see some dreadful stuff, look at how ex-Mayor Daley doubled his pension from 90K to 190K by a scum-fuck movement.
The republicans have done a lot of ground-gaining with the opposition to public unions, and IL is one place where we may see some movement toward the Repukes.
I agree with all you say but have this one amplification. Illinois did fund their pensions but “borrowed” from the pension funds year after year to “balance” the budget. This is very analogous to how the Social security trust Fund was set up then borrowed against. Very similarly, Illinois politicians like federal politicians don’t want to pay back what they borrowed. Instead they want to shaft the public employees just like the feds are about to shaft the SS recipients. Granted, there are a whole lot more abuses of the pension system in Illinois, like the Daley rip-off that you mention. Still, I have not heard one single politician propose fixing the abuses, save the Republican that I voted for state rep last year. Instead, they want to screw the teachers and firefighters or alternatively, push the burden onto the local property tax. As for my Democratic state rep that I always supported before, he was the chief architect of the Sears/K-Mart property tax giveaway.
I suggest that all IL dems look at MI, WI, and PA. These are all states with a long tradition of public employee unionism, which are all reconsidering the issue as we speak. Public employee unionism was invented in WI, and it is almost dead there. Unfortunately, Walker was strengthened by the failed recall attempt.
IL is only Dem at this point because of Chicago. I used to live in Belleville, near St Louis. It remains democratic, as does Rockford and the Chicago area. But all this could change and change strongly if those fucking morons cannot get the pension thing fixed. Yes, they borrowed against it. But what all of those fucking moronic turds want is the ability to do the same disgustingly corrupt thing that Daley, may he have infected hemmarrhoids, did. They all want corrupt deals. Disgusting.
infected hemorrhoids
Fantastic Twain quote Booman.