Democrats and the Economics of Apocalypticism
Have you ever heard the old German legend of Frederick Barbarossa? There was a legend that this medieval king slept under a mountain. His beard grew long, perhaps becoming white as snow (Barbarossa means red beard), and one day he would return to make Germany great. Legends are magical arent they? Read on if you want to hear about a new legend.
Well, if you havent heard it in the media, the economy is actually pretty good. The federal deficit is lower (good news). Tax revenues are higher (because taxes have been lower). How does that work out you might ask? Part of the reason is because businesses arent overtaxed, and they are able to put more of their money back into the economy, allowing it to grow. In spite of the fact that the tax rate is lower, the government will receive more revenues.
However, you probably keep hearing lots of assessments that confidence in the economy is not good. Theres lots of negative news out there, but that doesnt mean the economy isnt good. Judge for yourself. Do you have a job right now? Are you paying your bills, and making ends meet? Have you been through worse times? I remember my parents having some tough times economically, but we always made it through.
So why all the negative news? Theres a story that goes back to the time of the Great Depression. In 1929 Herbert Hoover was President. He was elected shortly before the Great Depression, and guess what, he was a Republican President! For four years people suffered under the tyrannical hand of Herbert Hoover. Thats right, a Republican was responsible for the Great Depression! And in 1933 Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt came to the rescue. And then the Great Depression ended.
Well, thats not exactly how it happened. After World War I the United States economy was really humming. In 1929 Herbert Hoover just happened to be in the Presidents seat when something really catastrophic happened: the stock market crashed in 1929. Millionaires became paupers overnight. It didnt help when severe droughts affected the Midwest in 1931 and dust storms hit a huge portion of the country; the drought lasted for several years!
The Great Depression was a case when events were so much bigger than Herbert Hoovers presidency. In fact, the United States wasnt the only country where the economy was really bad during that time. The major events of the Depression were terrible, but Herbert Hoover didnt have a lot to do with them. In fact, history bears out the fact that the Depression was much bigger than FDR too. The Depression didnt really truly end until the beginning of World War II. And Americas entrance into World War II was also the result of an event greater than FDR, Pearl Harbor. All of these events are important, but we cant pin them to one president or the others policies. Just imagine if the roles were switched. Perhaps FDR would have been the scapegoat had he presided during the Stock Market Crash of 1929.
By no means did FDR hold to policies that Republicans would traditionally agree with, but he was a truly important president for the decisions he made during wartime, and so he will always go down as one of the greatest of the 20th century.
However, in modern days the story of FDR is regularly played out this way. Let me paint the new legend of FDR in a simple way. If a Republican is President, the economy is always bad. Only Democrats hold the key to the economy. FDR waits under a Dust Bowl area in Kansas somewhere until that day when a Democrat is elected President. And when that happens, he will come back, pipe in mouth ready to share the wisdom of his economic policies from days of yore!
Sound ridiculous? Just consider the presidential days of George H.W. Bush. The still trumpeted call of Bill Clinton concerning the nation at that time was, Its the economy stupid. The economic picture that was painted at the time of the elder Bushs presidency is that the economy was bad. However, as has been pointed out, the economy was already turning around before Clinton ever came into office. In fact, by the end of Clintons presidency there was a recession in swing. So George W. Bush inherited a recession from his predecessor.
The inherited recession has been an excuse to paint the picture of a bad economy. But the economy doesnt lie. Things are actually pretty good right now. The Democrat vision, is that if taxes are raised, then and only then can the government make life better for you. No, that only means that you will be more dependent on government to spoon feed you because more of your income is being taken away. The lie that is regularly perpetrated is that the tax cuts were only tax cuts for the rich. That idea is preposterous. Even I can say that my tax situation was better shortly after Bush lowered taxes. With the salary I receive by no means can I be considered a part of the upper class.
And besides, the wealthiest of the nation are having an inordinate amount of their income being grabbed away by the government in taxes. These people are in the position to give people jobs and spur the economy. You have the opportunity to judge these things for yourself. If you believe that tax cuts should be made permanent so that you can keep more of your incomethat is typically in line with present Republican policies. Democrats will surely raise your taxes. A persons party affiliation is not what makes him or her a bad leader, it is his or her policies and voting record.
Dont stay home this fall. The economy doesnt lie, and voting records dont either. Pay attention to your candidates voting record, as well as his or her platform. Liberal policies stand for doing things like increasing the minimum wage. Conservative policies stand for making sure that that minimum wage worker through hard work and determination has the chance to move up and become prosperous.
Heres an example of the prosperity story: In Indiana, Representative Mike Sodrels opponent has called him Millionaire Mike. Mr. Sodrel is actually a truck driver who is a self-made millionaire who has become a congressman. He is living out his own American dream. His opponent paints him as Millionaire Mike because that is supposed to make him sound bad. I understand politics, and I have no reason to rag on Sodrels opponent, but heres the question though, whats wrong with being a millionaire? Everyone gets excited when a person wins the lottery. Why shouldnt someone who has earned their millionaire status be able to enjoy the benefits of his prosperity? Through hard work, sacrifice, and determination this dream isnt beyond most people.
Its just that when it comes to economics the Democratic plan always seems to be leveling the playing field by holding everyone down, whereas, the Republican plan says, if youre willing to achieve the dream, were not going to stop you from attaining it. Thus, the bar is raised for everyone. Whatever you do, dont stay home this fall to punish your candidates if you dont agree with everything they do. Look at the best policies and best voting records, and vote based on that. Go out and vote for who you believe is the best, and may the best policies win. Cal Samuel August
In spite of how he has been painted in the past, check out this link about Herbert Hoover. Youll find out a lot of interesting things you didnt know about him. Below that link, also check out the link to the Dust Bowl. In spite of what anyone says, youll understand how what happened was truly beyond anyones control (and it wasnt due to global warming):
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/hh31.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/timeline/
Cal,
you make some helpful points about being captivated by legends
Can I ask if the news really isn’t negative after all. sure we have had the Wall St fall in place sionce you wrote, but surely the writing was on the wall since then. Even back in 2003 Warren Buffett wrote warning suggesting derivatives which no one understood were “weapons of financial mass destruction.” cf Time Sept 29 issue. It isn’t just the sub-prime problem and it’s not just a few high fliers such as the ex Lehman CEO Dick Fuld. It is rooted in Greed. but it goes further than Wall Street. How can any great Country live with a 5 trillion dollar debt in a 13 trillion dollar economy? If I budgeted that way I would be on the street in no time. I can see that your President doesn’t want to spook an already spooked economy, thus he says “we have a fundamentally sound economy”, but that is to not deal with the problem. And he said that before buying out the banks in a “rescue mission” costing a further 700 billion dollars. Which means he just passed on the Wall St debt to the public purse. We now are in recession, but what will people do with a depression?
I am reminded of the rubber band theory of the fall of the Roman Empire. It had overstretched itself financially and militarily and imploded in upon itself. Will this be America’s fate?
When we fail to learn from history we are doomed to repeat it.
Where in today’s climate is the prophet who calls for repentance.
Burn your plastic Jesus, burn your plastic gospel of wealth and health and happiness, burn your plastic bible which is made politically correct and return to the God of the bible who has revealled himself and acted in Jesus for salvation for all mankind.
God Bless.
Gary
I wrote this article in 2006, and things have changed greatly since then. In terms of the Iraq War, the “fever has broken” and it seems that we are winning. It’s not the main issue on the table. Now, it is most certainly the economy.
In dark times so often we think it is up to government to save us. Government often has ways of exacerbating problems; we simply cannot idolize government. In fact, we should do everything we can to shrink it. The reason spending is out of control is due to the fact that government is out of control.
This is not going to get better with a Democratic president and congress. What is so ironic about the situation is the very people who blocked any progress on dealing with Fannie and Freddie before the economy went so far downhill are the very ones who have gotten the lift politically from bad economic news. This is downright craziness.
It’s like the murder mystery where the murderer becomes the trusted confidante and the hero has no idea that he’s in great danger. The hero in this picture is the voter, but will he realize before it’s too late that the Democrats will surely wreak havoc in times like these?
Six years of a Bush presidency were not able to mess up the economy. In fact, he had some decent ideas, such as fixing Social Security. The Democrats in congress hooted and hollered at his State of the Union address where he said he tried to do something about Social Security, but it was voted down.
What on earth were they thinking? Doing nothing about Social Security was a good thing? Here we realize that it is congress who does the most to set the policies. The president can make all kinds of promises, but if he doesn’t have a congress that will write decent bills, he either has to veto the garbage, or swallow the bitter pills with the good ones. People mistakenly put the economic woes on the President, when it is congress who has the most power to affect economic policy with the bills they write. Who is in control of congress right now? The Democrats. In two years of a Democratic congress, sound energy and economic policy have been blocked or disregarded, and gas prices have skyrocketed. All it took was two years. And yet, it is the Democrats that benefit from terrible economic news! That’s crazy! The Democrats always seem to benefit from bad news, and yet they are the ones who contribute to it.
Perhaps you’ve heard this: in other countries the “Great Depression” was just the “Depression.” Only in the United States was it “Great.” If the Democrats do all the things they say they’re gonna do, look out. Their “leadership” will make the problem worse. We need to cut government, and send a lot of politicians packing.
Yes, there is a “culture of corruption” in Washington. Remember that phrase that the Democrats carted out a few years ago? Well, voters got rid of some “corrupt” Republicans. When are we going to get rid of the Democrat culture of corruption?
Yes, there is plenty of greed on Wall Street. CEO’s don’t need golden parachutes from the “burning” companies, especially when companies have “burned to the ground” on their watch. But don’t forget all the politicians that have a hand in all of this.
Many were warning that there were problems on Wall Street. Many of those who were making the warnings were Republicans.
Now that I’ve finished blaming the Democrats for all our economic woes, the reality is we need to elect politicians who are not in it for themselves or for partisanship but want to put their country first. Joe Lieberman is a liberal, but I think he really gets it. Country first is what we need in politics, not party first. Gary, I think we may be on the same page on a number of things. I appreciate and respect your thoughts. -Cal