EduClaytion

Big Government Criticism: Legacy Of The Democrats?

Political allegiances shifted during the four-term presidency of Franklin Roosevelt.  Some high profiled left wingers and democrats broke with the president during the controversial New Deal era.

Ronald Reagan, prominent actor of the time, was a New Deal democrat into the 1940s.  Over time, Reagan drifted towards the right and limited government.  He later said, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party.  The party left me.”  Maybe that’s how some of Obama’s current supporters will feel in a few years. 

The recent death of conservative actor Ron Silver and subsequent tribute from not so conservative Alec Baldwin got me thinking about democrats who turned on Roosevelt as he blitzed America with New Deal programs during the Great Depression.  

Ron Silver was called a 9/11 conservative, a former liberal who saw his right wing light after American planes and citizens were used as weapons against their own country.  There are others like him, but Silver–who died of cancer March 15–was high profile as a former liberal activist whose whiplash turnaround culminated in a speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention.

The Alec Baldwin connection is interesting, especially after his recent rant against high taxes.  Whoopi Goldberg also went off on taxes and the extent of government pressing in on her.  Left-leaning individuals may support a political platform but will still feel the pinch of government like everyone else, maybe more so for those with a lot of money.  It all makes me wonder if today’s players might break with President Obama as supporters of FDR once did.

Some Depression-era politicians like Virginia Senators Carter Glass and Harry Flood Byrd (no relation to Robert) opposed the high-spending, big government ways of FDR.  Another democratic senator to switch allegiances was Burton Wheeler of Wyoming who broke with Roosevelt in 1937 after the president’s attempted court packing scheme to gain control of the Supreme Court by adding extra justices.  These men are like the current and sizeable group of “blue dog” democrats pressuring Obama to pull back on the spending throttle.  Continuous, heavy blows like these eventually fracture party loyalties.

Then there’s old “Cactus Jack” Garner, onetime Speaker of the House of Representatives and Vice President under FDR from 1933-1941.  You probably won’t find his name in your textbooks.  The prickly VP broke with President New Deal.  Garner feared an overreaching executive and even took on FDR for the democratic nomination in 1940, although he couldn’t quite muster the popularity to stop Roosevelt’s third term.  Imagine Joe Biden serving two terms with President Obama only to resign and challenge the incumbent leader.  Okay, so first you have to imagine Joe Biden as a competent campaigner.

Al Smith, democratic presidential candidate in 1928 formed the American Liberty League in 1934 to oppose his party’s New Deal politics.  Specifically, Smith detested the growing class conflict cultivated by such government policies.  Could you see John Kerry or Al Gore forming a political action committee to take on President Obama?

Former Republican President Herbert Hoover (the George W. Bush of this analogy) published Addresses Upon the American Road in 1941, less than a decade after leaving the White House.  Let’s just say he wasn’t exactly glowing about the New Deal even though he had a hand in its genesis, similar to how Bush worked to throw TARP together before kickin’ it at the ranch.

Perhaps the most relevant New Deal critic to break with FDR was media mogul and political stalwart William Randolph Hearst.  The most influential news publisher in the world, Hearst supported Roosevelt in 1932 but broke with his president over an issue relevant to today: Taxes.  (Like the ones getting Whoopi and Alec so huffy).

FDR’s plan included heaving tax burdens on the wealthy–increasing the inheritance tax and eliminating loopholes for the rich.  Hearst, one-time leader of the Democratic Party, wielded massive power in the 1930s.  You may be familiar with how Hollywood and Orson Welles came to the president’s aid with Citizen Kane, A scathing bio often acclaimed as the greatest film ever made.  Apparently the movie voters side with FDR.

Could you imagine George Soros suddenly using his resources (he’s the 29th richest person in the world) in opposition to Barrack Obama?  Could you imagine a daring Hollywood production casting the life of Soros in its darkest possible form? 

Good thing Obama is only a couple months in.

Although some of these critics did turn against FDR early on, many waited until his second term.  Maybe they finally realized their values had been offended.  Possibly they just jumped on popular backlash as Americans went republican and launched democrats from Congress bigtime in 1938, the people’s punishment for yet another recession some five years into Roosevelt’s solution. 

We know from history that sometimes people switch sides.  Ron’s Reagan and Silver did.  So have others.  Maybe one day we’ll speak of bailout conservatives in addition to 9/11 republicans. 

We also know that sometimes circumstances are beyond a president’s control, that sometimes the more they do the worse things get.  And we know that if things get too far out of hand even the most ardent backers may not be there when the president turns to them for support.

March 25, 2009 - Posted by educlaytion | History, Politics