History Never Repeats Itself--Or Does It?

There was a time long, long ago when the foul odor of fear clogged all American's nostrils. There was a time long, long ago when US banks quivered and fell, when businesses closed. There was a time long, long ago when the sound of the auctioneer's call sounded from a thousand courthouse steps as tens of thousands lost their homes, their farms, their hopes.

A charismatic man with a winning smile and an awesomely beguiling voice accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party for the office of President.

At this man's acceptance speech he made a promise to the American people. This promise became the mantra for the campaign.

No. It wasn't a call for "change."

FDR promised the American people a "new deal."

The words were in and of themselves meaningless. What else could be promised in the midst of the worst economic collapse the US had experienced in over a half century. More of the same?

Not hardly. FDR's promise of a "new deal" and his skillful working of the fears which struck so deep and hard in the collective psyche of We the People gave him the election. Sent him to the Oval with an overwhelming mandate. At the same time We the People, expressing both fear and hatred for the Republicans who were (wrongly) indicted in the court of public opinion for having both caused the depression three years earlier and being indifferent to its effects upon the people, gave FDR a veto proof Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.

At his inauguration FDR spoke the most true and accurate words of his fourteen years in the White House when he said that the only thing the nation had to fear "was fear itself." He went on to address this fear in a flurry of legislation meant to provide for recovery, relief and reform. This legal snowstorm is the First New Deal. It lasted one hundred days.

For all the hype and hoopla, for all the bloviation then and now regarding whether or not FDR was a socialist or a conservative, the most important reality of the First New Deal was that it failed.

Not completely, of course. Some of the actions meant to alleviate human misery did do some good, did palliate some wretchedness. Some of the reforms did bring a greater measure of order, stability and fair play to the stock market.

But, in the area that mattered most, in the centrality of defeating the depression, the First New Deal failed. The American public grabbed its collective gonads not in a gesture of defiance but in token of fear and looked inward. Gazed at themselves and the systems of government and economy in which they lived and hoped to work.

Fear brought dismay. While many young Americans joined with the legions of young ideologues who believed in the majestic effectiveness of centralised, rational planning by "experts" and descended upon the new New Deal agencies, others, also true believers, followed the seductive message of social justice, political equality and economic parity coming from the Soviet Union. These Americans believed along with journalist Lincoln Steffens that, "I've been over to the future--and it works."

Under the lashes of fear and distrust, Americans flung ideological grenades at each other, enlisted under banners of foreign origin and doubted that the nation could survive--at least in the form which they had inherited.

The seemingly intractable depression went on and on. The First New Deal was followed by the Second. FDR challenged the Supreme Court and won--using fear as a weapon. The Court submitted in 1937 and allowed the creation of the administrative state--the system of federal authority under which we currently exist.

The administrative state was one of the many unintended consequences of the rather conservative FDR's efforts to defeat the depression. Other legacies of his fight against the uncertainties and deficiencies of the market are not so unintended.

An example is Social Security. FDR rejected the economically sound approach preferring instead the politically invulnerable "contract between generations" course of action. The FDR decision has saddled our young with the impossible task of providing for their own lives while carrying an enormous aging population on their backs. The polite term is unfunded entitlements.

"Wait one, Geek! Where the hell are you going with this? You're supposed to be focused on foreign affairs, military matters and that sort of good shit."

The Geek hears you, my friend, and is heading in that direction. But, it is necessary to understand first and foremost that there is no disconnect between domestic affairs and foreign policy. That is true in good times. It is even more true when We the People are consumed with fears over what is happening here at home and don't want to notice a damn thing outside of the scope of our up-close-and-personal apprehensions.

The decade of the Thirties was a time like the present. Both then and now illustrate why the Chinese toast, "May you live in interesting times," is actually a curse.

Throughout the years of the depression, throughout both of FDR's first two terms, the world grew increasingly dangerous for the US. The emergence of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan threatened core national and strategic interests of the US.

While we cowered in our cloud of fear and while our conflicting ideologies battled one with the others, we ignored what was happening over there--and over there and over there. These years, the years when the threats of Germany, Italy and Japan could have been dealt with quickly and effectively, were the period of most profound isolationism.

There is an irony here. A profound irony. A delicious irony for those who appreciate such things.

While We the People sat in our morass of fear, uncertainty and battling ideologies waiting for FDR and his bright core of experts to solve the never ending depression, war was brewing away in both Europe and Asia. When the war broke over our heads and shoulders with unmistakable force on Sunday 7 December 1941, it solved our depression.

Within six months of the bombs falling on Pearl Harbor we had suffered defeats on every front except one. That one? The Home Front.

The depression was as dead as the men lost at Pearl or on Bataan. We had full employment, full paychecks and would have had full lunches had it not been for rationing.

Playing to our fears FDR brought us a few reforms--some of which were and remain both useful and important. He also brought us the administrative state. Unfunded entitlements. And, worst of all, the unfounded expectation that the Federal Government could effectively address all the ails of economy and marketplace.

In conjunction with the fears of We the People, the administration of FDR also helped bring about as an unintended consequence the greatest and most destructive war in human history.

The New Deal for the American people may not have ended the depression but it did do much to assure the outbreak of the war which did bring recovery. At the cost of nearly a half million American lives.

That is something to remember today as we face genuine global threats to us and our interests. It is something to remember today as we face the latest storm of fears.

It is something to remember today as a man with a winning smile and a real gift for public speaking promises us "Change."