Economic Depression: 2008 = 1932?

The trillion dollar shit hammer hit the fan yesterday and I'm loving every minute it! How could that possibly be? Aside from feeling personally vindicated, I think that the events yesterday on Wall Street just might be the long-feared cataclysmic meltdown that will finally awaken the comatose American people from their twenty-eight year slumber. Wakey! Wakey, kiddies!

Seventy-six years ago, on the eve of the election that sent Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the White House, President Hoover received the following, very cheeky telegram from an unnamed citizen:

"VOTE FOR ROOSEVELT AND MAKE IT UNANIMOUS"

By that time, the Great Depression which was unleashing such economic horror across the American landscape was already three years old. It's not as if the stock market had crashed less than two months before. In the columns I have posted in the last few months, I have made many references to that campaign of 1932. Forgive me for sounding repetitive, but the parallels are to numerous to ignore. Analogies are literally screaming to be made.

With all that has happened in the last twenty-four hours, you would think that Senator Barack Obama receives a major boost in the polls. We shall see. Recent weeks have seen he and John McCain in a virtual dead heat. The so-called "pundits" have come up with scores of reasons why this would be so, totally ignoring the real and only reason: McCain is white. Obama is not. It's as simple as that.

"The economy is fundamentally sound"

Herbert Hoover 1929

"The fundamentals of the economy are strong"

John McCain 2008

Hmmm. Call in a hunch but I get this creepy feeling that when a politician in 2008 inadvertently paraphrases Hoover in 1929, it's generally a pretty good idea to fold up the tents and go home for a nice, long nap. I'm just waiting for the poor old bugger to proclaim that prosperity is just around the corner.

When some of the largest and oldest financial institutions in the country collapse overnight, like a house of marked cards, to even imply that one's economy is "fundamentally strong" reminds me of Hitler and Goebbles in April of 1945, rejoicing in the bunker on learning of the death of FDR - while the allies were pounding the hell out of the city of Berlin a mere one-hundred feet above their clueless heads - an awfully good time for a little reality check to say the least.

At this moment, McCain is being interviewed on Morning Joe on MSNBC. He just made the statement, "Wall Street has betrayed us". He's only half right. It was also Ronald Reagan who betrayed us. It was both Bushes who betrayed us. It was the Republicans (and more than a few Democrats) that betrayed us. And, most assuredly, it was also John McCain who betrayed us. It was the orgy of deregulation - supported and enabled by McCain from the moment he came to Congress in 1983 - that brought us to this point. Anyone who would deny as much hasn't been paying attention.

It's curious. People who tend to vote for right wing candidates have absolutely no understanding of American history. None. I'll prove it to you. Ask all of your conservative friends the following question: Who was president during World War One? That doesn't sound like a very difficult question, does it? We're talkin' History 101 here! I guarantee it - most, if not all of them, will be unable to answer that mind-numbingly simple question. Try it some time (For the viewers of FOX Noise: The answer is Woodrow Wilson).

Here's another question you can ask them (and this one is such a no-brainer, you might be embarrassed even asking it): What was the name of President McKinley's Assistant Secretary of the Navy who resigned his position, donned a uniform and went off to Cuba to lead a brigade in the Spanish American War? They won't know the answer. Give them this hint: He later served as McKinley's vice-president. They won't know the answer. Give them a third hint: He became president on McKinley's assassination in September of 1901. They won't know the answer. Give them a fourth hint: His face is on Mt. Rushmore. They won't know the answer. By this time you'll be tearing your hair out in utter exasperation, but give them this fifth and final hint: Within a quarter-of-a-century, his distant cousin would become the president of the United States. I guarantee it! Most of them will not be able to answer this unbelievably basic question of American history (Again, for you FOX fans: It was Theodore Roosevelt)