FDR And Ideology
Thinking back to the many discussions in my grandmother’s kitchen among the group that lived through WWI, the Depression, and World War II, I remember that they knew that FDR was not tied to any particular policy.
Some of the relatives had been associated with programs among the “alphabet soup” pouring out of Washington that didn’t work, and they noted with approval that FDR wasn’t a man to stay with something that was failing. The programs weren’t simply pushed out the door, they were watched for their effectiveness. If a program didn’t do what they expected, it was shut down and something else was tried.
In a way, the strength of FDR was that he didn’t have a grand strategy that everything was part of, and nothing was ignored because of the side that proposed it. There was a goal, getting out of the Depression, and if you had an idea that might help, it was tried. If it worked, it was kept. If it didn’t work, it was gone.
Hoover was a conservative, so he had already tried the conservative policies, which is why there weren’t many tried by FDR. He did back off the big stimulus packages after about 4 years to get the budget under control, but when the economy faltered, he went back to what he knew worked.
If we are going to get out of this mess, people are going to have to cut loose from their preconceived notions and go with programs that have a track record. FDR found a lot of things that worked and this is no time to reinvent the wheel – wait too long and there may be no wagon to put it on or horse to pull it.
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Since then there’s been a tradition of lambasting government programs as full of red tape, empty promises, and waste—not simply noble experiments—and for that mentality to change, there must be some unqualified successes.
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My paternal grandparents worshiped FDR. I can still see the picture of him that hung over the bed I slept in when I stayed with them. They, of course, lived the depression in the mountains of Virginia and the programs he instituted were probably the only reason they made it through in one piece. You’re right that we have to seriously reconsider the role of government in light of the catastrophe of an economy we now have. I know I am going to make good use of the lessons learned from that time and that were instilled on my all my young life. Even when things got better my family always planted a garden and put by food and watched the pennies carefully. I, like so many others, have neglected the rules of “wise living” but I am rapidly remembering them.
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Our parents and grandparents are/were better prepared for this disaster than all of the people who climbed aboard Reagan’s “don’t worry, be happy” express. Too many people who grew up under Clinton’s prosperity and moved into positions of influence have never seen truly hard times, so they don’t understand what’s about to happen. I have listened to people talking about it my whole life and I can ask my Mother if something needs clarification.
People who complain about the government have never worked in a corporation. The government maintains a predictable level of consistency, if you work your way through the system once, the same procedure will continue to work. With a corporation you have no idea what you are going to be required to do because they are constantly “reorganizing”.
The amount of total garbage that has been put out is amazing. I never had a problem with the military or New York state civil service that I couldn’t resolve using the rules and procedures. I never had a problem firing permanent civil service people who weren’t doing their job. People keep talking about how complicated things are, but they aren’t. All you have to do is read and follow the rules. It involves time and record keeping, but it isn’t difficult. People want instant gratification, and that doesn’t happen.
Frankly, the IRS is easier to deal with that the local telephone company. People who don’t believe that should try to get a rebate honored.
Our country is addicted to the “something for nothing” mentality. Gimme..Gimme..Gimme. NOW. It’s going to be a rude awakening for some folks.
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Without home equity to fall back on, a lot of people have discovered how poor they really are, and how pitiful their salary really is. All of the propaganda about the virtues of investing in stock, rather than real assets, and having your money “work for you” rather that sitting in savings making next to nothing is coming back to haunt them.
It’s not like this doesn’t almost always happen under Republican Presidents, but some want to believe that this time it will be different.
I’ve worked for government. I’ve worked for business. I can’t tell the difference to tell ya the truth. The only thing standing between my supervisors and firing someone was the problem of how to get someone to fill that position for the budgeted salary — whether we’re talking private or public employment.
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You should hear the howls when you fire someone on Civil Service – Oh, no, we’re going to have to have a test! Do you know how much that costs?
They were flushing money keeping these worthless people around, when they refused to do their jobs, and management complains about the cost of tests to find a replacement.
On the corporate side, I had to break a job down into four separate jobs so that the cost didn’t exceed the signing authority of the group who needed the work done. This was at a corporation with a rather competent in-house IT department, but the people who needed the work done, couldn’t get approval to make the request to IT. I never figured that one out, especially since it was a member of the IT department who asked me to do it and provided an excellent set of specifications.
Large organizations all suffer from the same problems, as you say.
Great post, Bryan. My parents were very enthusiastic FDR supporters, but they were mere early teens when he first ran for president. Their parents, my grandparents, were rock-ribbed Republicans on both sides. One of my grandfathers would never mention Roosevelt by name. It was only “that man in the White House.”
Why? I think it was Roosevelt’s support for unions. The grandfather in question was on the rise in National Dairy’s corporate executive structure, and made it all the way to CEO of Sealtest. I mean, he hated everything Democratic or liberal or “integrationist.”
What’s interesting is that in his dotage, when he was mentally pretty far gone, he saw a news item on Chicago TV about the arrest Martin Luther King for some anti-war protest or another — it was a highly civil affair, neatly coordinated between SCLC and the cops, and King was released almost before the camera shutters stopped clicking. But my grandfather for some reason developed the ridiculous delusion that he had “bailed out” Martin Luther King from jail.
That was something he never would have done when he was young and well, of course, so it hints at some interesting possibilities about the subconscious, the moral imperative, and man’s basic instincts. Or not. Maybe it just goes to show that a lot of senile people undergo complete personality reversals.
FDR was a lot like Edison – he had a goal in mind and kept experimenting until he achieved it. Some of the things he tried were unconstitutional, and a few were hare-brained, but they were tried if there was some reason to believe they might work.
It is amazing to see some many people who portray him as an ideologue, when he was probably one of the least rigid people ever elected. He managed to keep Churchill and Stalin from killing each other despite the level of hate being only slightly below what they felt for Hitler.
If you look at what he accomplished, the US got one hell of a return on its investment for his years in power.
Yes. 🙂 Even my grandfather spoke about FDR now and then. And he generally had little time at all for any Politician. 😉 He liked Churchill though. LOL After serving in WW1 & 2, he became a real card-carrying unionist (I still have his cards). 🙂 And he made sure I understood about ‘human rights” at the same time he was teaching me to hit a coke can in a tree from 200 yards with very accurate .22 he’d rebuilt (he was an armorer in WW2 after loosing a leg) and all about respect and honor, though he had no time for what he called “organised religion”. He said that until the various denominations allowed Unions, they were no better than non-union Corporations and would try to get away with anything to suit their own agenda. LOL Some thought he was a real contradiction. But they didn’t understand him. 🙂
Sorry… I made a mistake. My grandfather called them “Corporate Religions”. Because of their mostly corporate mentality and treatment of their *workers*. LOL
A thought just struck me… Wouldn’t it be interesting to see a chart of the ROI during FDR, Reagan and Bushmoron. LOL First, of course, you would have to try to find out where Reagan and Bushmoron ACTUALLY spent all the American’s hard earned money, to discover what you got back for it. Good luck with that! *sigh*
There are so many billions that have disappeared you have to believe we received no return on the investment. Reagan sold off assets to cover some of his deficit, and those are things we will never regain. The nation has never received a fair price for the minerals extracted from Federal lands, so that is lost wealth.
Yes, an MBA would be of more use than a theology degree in most of today’s religions. The leaders spend more time with their books, than the Book. I have long felt that government and religion are the only entities that can become wealthy stealing from the poor.