Saturday, October 15, 2011

Parallels

OK, who said this:

...For one thing, the confusion of the administration’s utility, shipping, railroad, and housing policies had discouraged the small individual investor.  For another, the administration’s taxes on corporate surpluses and capital gains, suggesting, as they did, the belief in a recovery based upon capital investment is unsound, discouraged the expansion of producers’ capital equipment.  For another, the calling of names in political speeches and the vague, veiled threats of punitive action all tore the fragile texture of credit and confidence upon which the very existence of business depends....

You were right if you answered "Raymond Moley" in his 1939 memoir After Seven Years.

As long as we're into history, let's try another:

Some day, a President, if he is to save the country from bankruptcy and its people from ruin, must make the old fight over again, and this time the battle will be waged against desperate disadvantages. Against him will be arrayed the largest, strongest, and most formidably entrenched army of interested government spenders, wasters, and patronage-dispensing politicians the world has yet known

Yah, that would be Harding's Budget Director, Charles Dawes.  (And before you equate "Harding" with what your high-school history teacher told you--i.e., 'failure,' you'd best read the linked article.)

HT:  PowerLine

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Harding--Ha! More revisionist history on the part of conservatives, and no less from the Weekly Standard.
Of course, no mention of the scandals that occurred under his watch, one of the most corrupt presidencies evah!

Zorro

Anonymous said...

That's right zorro, attack the man. I mean he did try to stop the lynchings and lord knows you Democrats fought him on that.

I mean what was he thinking with all these "equal opportunity" crap. No way in hell the Democrats would let him let some uppity black people have a chance. Right?

Anonymous said...

SOUTHERN Democrats, not Democrats in general.

Zorro

Anonymous said...

Not Democrats in General who elected the KKK Grand Kleagle to leadership positions within the Senate?

David

Anonymous said...

Robert Byrd, I presume. And it was Southern Democrats who had the votes to put him in key leadership positions.

I'm sure there were some northerners who knew about his leanings, but ignored it for a host of reasons. Doesn't make it justifiable.

Zorro