A profound thanks to those who invoke FDR and the New Dealers

[AverageJoe90]

67. I'm sorry, but no. Just no, dude.

Having looked at the evidence myself, Katznelson's thesis ultimately ended up being so full of holes that it made Howard Zinn's "A People's History" look like a literary masterpiece(and I mean no disrespect to the late and great Dr. Zinn, but his own work was itself pretty flawed).

He absolutely does NOT take into account how the Dixiecrats actually acted during that time: neither he or Coates will admit this, but, as I have correctly pointed out several times on this site, the Dixiecrats actually HATED the New Deal(even if not always open about it at first), not just because they feared it would break the Southern system, but because they hated progressivism *in general*. And the only reason they eventually backed off, is because F.D.R. eventually became so popular, that even some Southerners genuinely respected the man, and it was either stick to their principles or lose their political clout. And as it turns out, that didn't actually last. Another thing Katznelson either didn't know or decided to omit, was the fact that many of these same Dixiecrats actually went back to their old ways, and even went so far as to collaborate with conservative Republicans to prevent any more new legislation from being passed, after the '38 elections. (In short, F.D.R. couldn't do a lot of the things he wanted to do, and the conservatives hamstrung him every step of the way.....just like what's happening to Obama, now.)

That alone, destroys his thesis. And Coates' alleged "journalism" on this only clinched it further for me, as he basically went to a fairly incredible length to make him a "shill", as it were, for this book.