History Can Still Guide You
"There was desperation in the mail sacks of almost every Congressman it seemed. Americans everywhere were asking their government for help. Despair was stalking city streets as well as the countryside. In Chicago, 600,000 persons were unemployed, in New York, 800,000: the total of unemployed men in America's cities was between 15 million and 17 million, and many of these men represented an entire family in want. Witnesses were telling congressional committees that private charities had run out of money, that states and local municipalities which had attempted to shoulder the burden had run out of money -- that for want of federal assistance in relief, growing numbers of America's people were, literally, starving."
That's half a paragraph from the great Robert Caro's first book on Lyndon Johnson, "The Path to Power". At this time, LBJ was a Congressman from the Hill Country of Texas. (1931) And Herbert Hoover was President. I snuck away to the quiet of my basement to copy the text of another passage quoting President Hoover. As usual, I got distracted. I was simply trying to read the lead-in to the passage I had heard on one of the podcasts to which I listen (the 11th Hour?). Having read it, I can't leave you with the impression that Hoover was totally to blame.
(Again, from Robert Caro) "A columnist, more succinct, called the House of Representatives 'The Monkey House', and his sentiment was echoed by some of the congressmen themselves; declared McDuffie of Alabama: 'representative government is dead'."
Perhaps now I can get to the passage I heard and was trying to quote. As Bonus Marchers camped out in Washington, DC, Hoover increased the police patrols and barricaded himself in the White House before sending MacArthur (yes, that MacArthur) into their camp to drive out the veterans with bayonets and tear gas. (Assisted by his aide, future President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Major George S. Patton.)
"He (Herbert Hoover) handled the Depression with equal firmness. In December, 1929, he had said 'Conditions are fundamentally sound.' In March, 1930, he said the worst would be over in sixty days: in May, he predicted that the economy would be back to normal in the Autumn; in June, in the midst of still another market plunge, he told a delegation which called at the White House to plead for a public works project, 'Gentlemen, you have come sixty days too late. The Depression is over'."
There's more, but I think you get the drift (if not my point). This isn't the first time America has had an uncaring and incompetent President. It isn't the first time we've had a gridlocked Congress. I think it is the first time all that has coincided with a pandemic. But history can still guide you.
"Feel good" posts are not my forte. I expect an economic calamity on par with the Great Depression. But just like in the Great Depression, there is always hope. The Great Depression roused the same electorate that had elected an uncaring incompetent like Hoover to elect the man I think of as the greatest President of all time -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I'm just hoping we can skip the World War II part of that history. (You might want to steel yourself for the possibility that we may not.)
Just to whipsaw you back into the world of hope, look at the excellent public policies that were enacted during FDR's Administration. Social Security, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration. He signed the Glass–Steagall legislation that safeguarded America's financial system for the next 50 years.
These are the kind of opportunities that await us. We can get Universal Healthcare with a Democratic Administration and a Democratic Congress. That our for-profit health system has failed us is blindingly obvious. We can get critical manufacturing back in America because it is now obvious that the richest nation on earth should be able to produce a 75¢ face mask. Suddenly, we have discovered that we are dependent on the uncommon courage of a common cashier to be able to eat. And we are now embarrassed at her pay and benefits. We can fix this. We can fix most of our problems. Banking, Farming, Global Warming. If we elect the right people.
The first step -- your first priority -- is to make sure that Donald J. Trump doesn't get re-elected. Vote. Get everyone else to vote. Trump has never had a majority of the country backing him and he never will. Do not let his mobs intimidate you. Do not be silent. Do not be afraid.
"This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days." -- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933
Your country needs you to vote.
Don Brown
May 7, 2020
That's half a paragraph from the great Robert Caro's first book on Lyndon Johnson, "The Path to Power". At this time, LBJ was a Congressman from the Hill Country of Texas. (1931) And Herbert Hoover was President. I snuck away to the quiet of my basement to copy the text of another passage quoting President Hoover. As usual, I got distracted. I was simply trying to read the lead-in to the passage I had heard on one of the podcasts to which I listen (the 11th Hour?). Having read it, I can't leave you with the impression that Hoover was totally to blame.
(Again, from Robert Caro) "A columnist, more succinct, called the House of Representatives 'The Monkey House', and his sentiment was echoed by some of the congressmen themselves; declared McDuffie of Alabama: 'representative government is dead'."
Perhaps now I can get to the passage I heard and was trying to quote. As Bonus Marchers camped out in Washington, DC, Hoover increased the police patrols and barricaded himself in the White House before sending MacArthur (yes, that MacArthur) into their camp to drive out the veterans with bayonets and tear gas. (Assisted by his aide, future President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Major George S. Patton.)
"He (Herbert Hoover) handled the Depression with equal firmness. In December, 1929, he had said 'Conditions are fundamentally sound.' In March, 1930, he said the worst would be over in sixty days: in May, he predicted that the economy would be back to normal in the Autumn; in June, in the midst of still another market plunge, he told a delegation which called at the White House to plead for a public works project, 'Gentlemen, you have come sixty days too late. The Depression is over'."
There's more, but I think you get the drift (if not my point). This isn't the first time America has had an uncaring and incompetent President. It isn't the first time we've had a gridlocked Congress. I think it is the first time all that has coincided with a pandemic. But history can still guide you.
"Feel good" posts are not my forte. I expect an economic calamity on par with the Great Depression. But just like in the Great Depression, there is always hope. The Great Depression roused the same electorate that had elected an uncaring incompetent like Hoover to elect the man I think of as the greatest President of all time -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I'm just hoping we can skip the World War II part of that history. (You might want to steel yourself for the possibility that we may not.)
Just to whipsaw you back into the world of hope, look at the excellent public policies that were enacted during FDR's Administration. Social Security, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration. He signed the Glass–Steagall legislation that safeguarded America's financial system for the next 50 years.
These are the kind of opportunities that await us. We can get Universal Healthcare with a Democratic Administration and a Democratic Congress. That our for-profit health system has failed us is blindingly obvious. We can get critical manufacturing back in America because it is now obvious that the richest nation on earth should be able to produce a 75¢ face mask. Suddenly, we have discovered that we are dependent on the uncommon courage of a common cashier to be able to eat. And we are now embarrassed at her pay and benefits. We can fix this. We can fix most of our problems. Banking, Farming, Global Warming. If we elect the right people.
The first step -- your first priority -- is to make sure that Donald J. Trump doesn't get re-elected. Vote. Get everyone else to vote. Trump has never had a majority of the country backing him and he never will. Do not let his mobs intimidate you. Do not be silent. Do not be afraid.
"This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days." -- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933
Your country needs you to vote.
Don Brown
May 7, 2020
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