From the Anonymous ContributorAre we about to repeat the tragic mistakes Presidents Hoover and FDR made that created the Great Depression?
Hoover was president when the Depression started in 1929. FDR was elected president in 1932 because Hoover's actions made the Depression worse. FDR's subsequent actions also made it worse by prolonging the depression, eventually resulting in a "recession within a depression" from 1937-8, almost 10 years after the initial crash. The beginning of the end started in when the US entered WW II (1941). The economics of the war was the only thing that ended The Great Depression. None of Hoover's or FDR's remedies ended it, but instead made the Depression longer and harder, turning a normal short term repression into a terrible 12+ year depression.
Is history repeating itself right before our eyes?
It appears so.
Obama modeled his economic platform after Hoover's and FDR's most disastrous policies.
Hoover implemented the catastrophic Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act which worsened the depression by seriously reducing international trade and causing retaliatory tariffs in other countries. US exports fell causing prices to fall and Americans to loose income. Hardest hit were farm commodities such as wheat, cotton, tobacco, and lumber, causing many American farmers to default on their loans, leading to the bank runs on small rural banks that characterized the early years of the Great Depression
Failing to learn from Hoover's disastrous mistakes, Obama and the Democrat Congress promise to pursue the same protectionist impulse by "renegotiating" the NAFTA trade agreement to "protect" American workers. This means that free trade will not be so free anymore, which will, again, cause other countries (e.g, Canada and Mexico) to retaliate to "protect" their citizens.
Have we learned nothing?
FDR was an excellent speaker that projected a calm persona, a "progressive" wealthy man who assailed the wealthy. He and the Democrats of the era were fascinated with the great socialist, communist and fascist experiments countries like Russia, Germany and France were undertaking. These were new and exciting ideas on how to solve real problems: even some conservatives were intrigued. As the president over a downtrodden and hurting people, FDR was excited to actually have the opportunity to try his hand at such socialistic grand experiments in American, believing it a moral and patriotic experiment to solve our country's ills.
FDR primarily blamed the excesses of big business for causing an unstable bubble-like economy. Democrats believed the problem was that business had too much money, and the New Deal was intended as a remedy, by empowering labor unions and farmers and by raising taxes. FDR lambasted "trickle down" economics, extolled "trickle up" economics and pit the middle class against "the rich", raised their taxes in order to provide a "more equitable opportunity to share in the distribution of national wealth... [in] The New Deal...." FDR comprehensively restructured the economy and Wall Street. FDR left us with huge new social programs that are still on the books, the cost and size of which have spiraled out of control ever since.
Today, Obama, exactly mirrors everything above.
He believes socialism works and wants to conduct even more experiments to see if he can solve our ills with "progressive" programs like national healthcare. He's an excellent speaker projecting a calm persona, that blames his own class, "the rich" and "big business" for the economic crisis, promises to raise taxes to "spread the wealth around", wants to strengthen labor unions, wants significant regulatory power to comprehensively restructure the economy and Wall Street, create some form of the WPA style work programs, lambasts "failed trickle down" economics, extolls "growing the economy from bottom up" and callously plays "middle" vs "rich" class warfare. He wants to permanently add significant new social programs to our government, the cost and size of which will once again balloon far beyond his already overly expensive initial proposals. Just as FDR, he and his running mate believes it to be morally "patriotic" to be forced to pay higher taxes on behalf of the greater good.
Have we learned nothing?
Americans were hurting and afraid during the Great Depression. They put their trust in saviors who only hurt them more. Theirs turned out to be a false hope. Hoover's and FDR's policies turned a recession into a 12+ year depression that was only fixed by a wartime economy. Their kind of socialism doesn't work.
Will Obama's recycling of failed Hoover & FDR policies lead us straight into another bleak era in our history? Obama appears to be pursing that same policies and same kind of radical socialism they mistakenly believed in. He modeled his campaign and economic platform after FDR's disastrous policies and includes some of the most disastrous Hoover policies. Is Obama the answer or just another FDR socialist that will give us programs that won't help and that we can't afford?
Making matters worse is the fact the far left triaxial government of President Obama, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would possess an absolute lock on Congress and the White House, with absolutely nobody able to oppose their far, far left agendas. Pelosi and Reid are far more reckless and ideological than Obama. Together they will have free, unopposed, reign and absolute power to enact any and all normal and socialist agendas they desire.
Are we again allowing our emotions and need to be rescued from our troubles to overpower our intellect and good judgement?
Have we learned nothing?
This is most definitely NOT your run-of-the-mill Democrat v. Republican election.
This is a significantly transformative turning point in our future that we dare not take lightly.
We must be sure that we know exactly what we're doing and where we're going. If we fail, we will suffer the immediate consequences, starting next year. Our grandchildren will labor under much larger tax burdens to fund the Next Great Ociety we build for ourselves.
If we absolutely must vote for Obama, we should at least provide a counter balance in Congress and demand that he refute his plans to again employ the programs and policies that led to so much misery during the Great Depression.
Do we once again permanently increase that failed dependency of socialism in our country or do we revitalize that same spirit of American Exceptionalism that our country was founded on and made it great?
Have we learned nothing?