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Tuesday, September 23, 2014

MOORE: The enduring myth of FDR and the New Deal

Rather than end the Great Depression, his policies prolonged it

My seventh-grade son recently wrote a U.S. History paper extolling the virtues of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. “It ended the Great Depression,” he wrote with great certainty. He’s only 12 and parroting what the history texts and his teachers told him.

That’s his excuse. What’s Ken Burns’?

Mr. Burns’ docudrama on the Roosevelts — for those who weren’t bored to tears — repeats nearly all the worn-out fairy tales of the FDR presidency, including what I call the most enduring myth of the 20th century, which is that FDR’s avalanche of alphabet-soup government programs ended the Great Depression. Shouldn’t there be a statute of limitations on such lies?

Ask nearly anyone over the age of 80, and they will say that FDR cared about the working man and “gave the country hope,” a point that Mr. Burns emphasizes. Roosevelt exuded empathy, which isn’t a bad thing — remember Bill Clinton’s memorable line “I feel your pain”? — but caring doesn’t create jobs or lift gross domestic product.

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3 comments:

  1. The part that made me cringe the most was at the end when they compared all of the recent Democrat presidents with FDR....

    As far as I'm concerned, the democrat party went downhill starting with LBJ...his remarks when signing the civil rights bill showed their actions were politically motivated - not for the good of the people...Carter pardoning the VietNam draft evaders was another liberal vote-getter...between slick Willie's enactment of NAFTA and his affairs while in office ruined the reputation of the office of the president....BO has taken us in to an entitlist state for the benefit of votes....

    Not that the republicans were angels - but they weren't compared in this documentary....

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  2. History shows that the quickest way out of depression or recession is to have nice little war.

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  3. My parents and grand parents labeled Franklin Roosevelt the Great Destroyer.

    Barack Obama is Great Destroyer II.

    Sand Box John

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