How the Left Cut Down a Democratic Frontrunner

[merrily]

68. You are stating a more conventional view.

I am considering a less conventional one.

I don't say I am converted to that way of thinking yet, but I see it as a definite possiblity, especially in light of things I heard during the coverage of the 50th anniversary of the march on Washington and the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination.

As to the latter, to observe the 50th anniversary of the assassination, Meet the Press showed a clip of JFK being interviewed, wherein he said that Democrats had saved capitalism in America. I assume he was speaking of the New Deal, in which his father had very actively participated.

And, after the crash, Joe Kennedy had been quoted as saying, "I would gladly give half of all I have in order to be able to keep the other half in peace." So, what most Americans saw as a benovolent government program, the architects of the program may have seen as forestalling a revolution, so that they could hang onto most of their wealth "in peace," even if it meant a little more in taxes.

The New Deal did have a lot of components that were very beneficial to banks and Wall Street, too. So, it wasn't all Social Security and Conservation Corps. Indeed, in terms of government dollars (as opposed to payroll deductions), the provisions that were designed to protect banks and encourage investors to get back into the stock market cost a hell of a lot more than the other bits of the New Deal.

Maybe. It's a huge paradigm shift, but no propaganda efforts have been devoted to publicizing the version that I am considering. On the other hand, many billions have been spent trying to avoid a people's revolution.

As far as "progressive" versus "liberal" I don't think either FDR or LBJ would have called themselves "progressives." And I try to avoid the term "progressive" like the plague. I find a lot of Third Way/DLC types use it to describe themselves.