"The Rush" is On
 On the way to FDR's inauguration in 1932, outgoing President Hoover never spoke to his Democratic replacement. Fortunately, other Republicans were more helpful in reaching out to help the new president during the harsh economic times they all shared. |
This week when Dick Cheney was asked about the Bush administration's handling of the economy, he responded, “We worried about it . . . to some extent.” I was expecting him to continue with, “What did you expect of us? We wiretapped, we tortured, we chased imaginary WMDs. Hell, we couldn’t do every little thing.
Thank heavens, the economy is finally at the top of the White House to-do-list. Now that House Republicans are having to face up to their party’s mistakes, they are channeling their idol of laissez-faire government, Herbert Hoover. During the midst of the Great Depression, he clung to his belief that the economy would eventually right itself; it was not the purpose of government to intervene. Besides, Hoover declared, government assistance harms one’s character and encourages idleness. (Let’s hope that’s not the case today when big corporations are the recipients of federal bailouts, else they may need moral assistance as well as monetary aid.)
But during the Depression, it was hard for hungry, jobless, hurting people to accept Hoover’s long run, wait-it-out approach. As Franklin Roosevelt’s close advisor Harry Hopkins, pointed out, "People don’t eat in the long run, they eat every day." With one-quarter to one-third of the nation unemployed, a lot of people weren’t getting many meals, not even once a day.
In 1932, a weary nation sent Hoover a-packin’ and with hopeful hearts turned the reins of government over to FDR. (Hoover carried only six states; thankfully, Missouri was not among them.) Arriving in Washington, the new president immediately gathered about him a group of men, (plus Frances Perkins), people of good will from both parties, “willing to try something” to save the nation. Inaction had been the trademark of the Hoover administration, now bold action became the theme of FDR’s first one hundred days.
One can only wonder if FDR would find any bipartisan support today among GOP lawmakers hogtied to Rush Limbaugh, the de facto leader of today’s Republicans and the man who announced that he wants our newly elected president to fail. Sadly, House Republicans are knuckling under to The Rush, fearful they will be smitten by his tongue lashing on national radio. Such blatant partisanship during times of common hardship is both deplorable and dangerous. If President Obama fails to stem this recession, we are all in for trouble.
Roosevelt showed us that government could be “the instrument of our united purpose.”In times like these, let’s hope that President Obama can do the same.
Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.
