Legal Commentary

FDR Was No FDR: Discuss

By Big Tent Democrat

I am so nonplussed by this post by Chris Bowers, that I do not even know what to say other than you have got to be kidding me Chris.

In comments, Paul Rosenberg has an intelligent response:

You Make A Good Point, Chris about not deifying figures of the past and papering over their shortcomings.

But various commentators--particularly dandelion--beat me to the punch in making the even more important point that FDR's actions were a heck of a lot bolder than Obama's, thus giving even very similar words a very different context, and hence a very different meaning.

What's more, we should never forget that FDR was experimenting. Macroeconomics was just being invented by Keynes at the time. Obama, OTOH, had all that past experience to draw on, and a much clearer understanding of the irreplaceable role of deficit spending fiscal policy when monetary measures have exhausted themselves. And he quite deliberately chose a path that would cause enormous pain for working and middle-class Americans.

It's not just that his actions have been so Republican in their indifference to widespread suffering. dandelion already made that point quite eloquently. The point I'm trying to add here is that unlike FDR, Obama knew for certain what he was failing to do when he praised Collins for gutting close to half the state stimulus funding--funding that was already less than half what was needed.

And that was just one of many similar examples.

Discuss.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 23, 2010 (boomark / email).