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thatcrazycajunOur local right-wing columnist Jim Wooten (who I'm happy to say is retiring shortly, but will be replaced by a new writer being chosen by the paper in a public-submission contest) has in his column today joined the chorus of conservative pundits and scholars out to prove that the late former President Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" programs not only did nothing to alleviate the Great Depression of the 1930s, but actually prolonged it and made it worse.
On one level, of course, this is nothing new; the right has been trying to undo the New Deal and its successor, Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, since their inceptions, for reasons both ideological and mercenary: to prove their own ideas are better and eliminate expensive social programs that, in their view, forcibly confiscate money from those who worked hard to earn it and give it to slackers. But they see in the current economic crisis an alarming resemblance to that earlier worldwide one...and a dangerous opportunity for the current administration to usher in a "New New Deal" which must be stopped at all costs. Discredit the old New Deal, the logic goes, and we can discredit Barack Obama's plans too—killing two liberal birds with one rhetorical stone.
To this end, they have enlisted a fair number of historical scholars and self-styled economics specialists, one of whom, Burton Folsom Jr., is based here. His new book, which Wooten cites, joins such tomes as Jim Powell's FDR's Folly and Amity Shlaes' The Forgotten Man on the racks at your local Barnes & Ignoble. But already there are some who question the scholarship, the assumptions and the worldview of these writers, most notably Shlaes herself in a recent article at CrooksAndLiars.com.
I am once again reminded of the sage words of the late former Democratic Senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan: "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts." We need to have more people out there exposing these right-wing efforts at rewriting history to suit their own tax-cutting, government-starving agenda, and the sooner the better.
On one level, of course, this is nothing new; the right has been trying to undo the New Deal and its successor, Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, since their inceptions, for reasons both ideological and mercenary: to prove their own ideas are better and eliminate expensive social programs that, in their view, forcibly confiscate money from those who worked hard to earn it and give it to slackers. But they see in the current economic crisis an alarming resemblance to that earlier worldwide one...and a dangerous opportunity for the current administration to usher in a "New New Deal" which must be stopped at all costs. Discredit the old New Deal, the logic goes, and we can discredit Barack Obama's plans too—killing two liberal birds with one rhetorical stone.
To this end, they have enlisted a fair number of historical scholars and self-styled economics specialists, one of whom, Burton Folsom Jr., is based here. His new book, which Wooten cites, joins such tomes as Jim Powell's FDR's Folly and Amity Shlaes' The Forgotten Man on the racks at your local Barnes & Ignoble. But already there are some who question the scholarship, the assumptions and the worldview of these writers, most notably Shlaes herself in a recent article at CrooksAndLiars.com.
I am once again reminded of the sage words of the late former Democratic Senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan: "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts." We need to have more people out there exposing these right-wing efforts at rewriting history to suit their own tax-cutting, government-starving agenda, and the sooner the better.
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Date: 2009-03-01 10:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-01 11:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-01 11:39 pm (UTC)"Everybody has opinions: I have them, you have them. And we are all told from the moment we open our eyes, that everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. Well, that’s horsepuckey, of course. We are not entitled to our opinions; we are entitled to our informed opinions. Without research, without background, without understanding, it’s nothing. It’s just bibble-babble. It’s like a fart in a wind tunnel, folks."
Of course, there are people (mostly in the advertising business, also in some other businesses such as politics) who make a lot of money by finding out about people's opinions, informed or not, and if one is able to manipulate public opinion and make people believe things that aren't true, there are some excellent financial opportunities involved.