[quote]endgamer711 wrote:
pat36 wrote:
Mikeyali wrote:
You guys can flame away, but the reality is that the guy that REALLY set us down the socialist path was FDR. The man was a VERY bad thing for America.
Amen, yet he gets credit for being great though none of his plans worked in terms of moving the U.S. out of the Great Deppression.
It’s true that FDR’s policies couldn’t really end the depression, it took the spending of the war effort to do that, as well as a turn-around in policy at the Federal Reserve.
On the other hand, a lot of Americans survived the depression years who might not have otherwise, due to FDR’s policies. I think he deserves some credit there, not only for things like WPA, but also for adroit collaboration in preventing a major collapse of the banking system.
Ayn Rand types are unimpressed with FDR, because they fundamentally don’t care if anybody else survives or not. For them, everything is neatly summed up by the DJIA. Also, of course, few alive today realize in any visceral way just how dreadful the Great Depression was.
The country needed a very strong and capable leader just to get through those years, never mind end them.[/quote]
Your point is well taken. I think the problem isn’t what he did then so much as what impact it had later, something he probably could forsee focusing on the present issues. After all he had to do something. I don’t think he was bad for the country because he was a dick. His policies just set us on the path to increased socialistic policies. Perhaps people more crooked than himself saw this as a way to create indebtedness (not sure that’s a word), which in the end secures votes and power. This in turn cause the creation of more social programs and hence greater dependence on the government.
If you really look at it the most dangerous populous in any region is the poor. They will support any regime or idology which promises them a leg up. Through out history, that is how some of the most vicious regimes came to power, through the poor. Venezuela is a great modern day example. Hugo appealled to illegal aliens mainly, columnbians and others who escaped to Venezuela to get away from other oppresive regimes. He promised them legal status, food, shelter, etc. In the end they are viciously defensive of him. They don’t care that he seizes land and wealth and reditributes it because they are the benifactors,and there are lots of poor fuckers in Venezuela. BTW, don’t think that this most recent election wasn’t rigged. I don’t think any South American election is strait up.
My solution is to implement time limits on laws and established government entities, say 10 years. After 10 years laws should be reviewed and revoted on to make sure they are still valid. That way perhaps we could have unloaded some of FDR’s social reforms in the '50’s. And in the end maybe we would not have such government intrusion into our lives.
