I finally decided that I needed to address the horseshit flopping around in the media, spurred on by the leader of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh and his many imitators.
As most people know, FDR and his New Deal policy has been a throbbing thorn in the ass of every Republican for decades.
One of the most successful programs ever, the New Deal elevated thousands of people out of poverty and kept just as many from starving to death. The thousands of jobs created turned the country around from the disastrous policies of the Herbert Hoover administration. Social Security implemented made sure that everyone would at least have a roof over their head and something to eat in their elder years. The TVA not only created thousands of jobs, but also put the rural areas of the south on a power grid and provided flood control along the Tennessee River.
The Repugs are now using their monopoly on the media to try and rewrite history to say that the New Deal was a failure and actually dragged the Great Depression out longer.
Of course this is fucking bullshit in the highest caliber and most people don’t believe it, despite the non stop bobble heads on Fox “News”, Cable “News” Network (CNN) and other corporate ran fascist propaganda outlets parroting the same talking points.
Their argument is, the New Deal never actually did anything for Americas economy. In fact it delayed it longer until FDR “lucked out” (their words not mine) with World War II.
The other night in a drinking hole, I got into a debate with one of these wing nuts. Keep in mind he is a working class fellow not some lying ass millionaire crying about needing a fucking tax cut.
He started parroting the shit he had heard Rush or some other fucktard say that day about how World War II had taken us out of the Great Depression, not the New Deal.
This is where I baited him: “How in the hell did a war get us out of a depression?” I exclaimed with fake shock.
Keep in mind I already knew what his answer would be. I guess I was kind of like a shyster in court knowing what a witnesses answer would be to a question ahead of time, but needing to ham it up for dramatic effect for the jury.
He started his practiced answer in detail saying how gearing up for war created jobs. Factories rehired to make tanks, guns, jeeps, ect.
I sat and listened to him nodding my head and answering affirmatively where he prompted me, building him up into thinking how he has managed to educate this dimwit liberal.
When he finished I said, “So you are saying the economy rebounded from all the work it took for the government to put into the war effort to fight the Empire of Japan and Fascist Europe?”
“That is right”, he elucidated proudly. “Just think of all the work needed to go from a peace time economy to war time. The economy had no choice but to rebound!”
“So”, I asked, “how come the economy can rejuvenate itself manufacturing bullets and shit to be sent and deployed in Europe and the Pacific, but money spent on building dams, roads, sewer systems, bridges, pipelines, stuff that we will utilize here in the U.S. will not?”
He opened his mouth to answer, but nothing immediately came out. Before he could stammer out some horseshit, I said: “It seems to me that all the stuff we made for war ended up staying overseas. Granted, the money spent to make it was spent here in America, but the product all went away. How can that be better than spending money on our own infrastructure? At least we will be using the product after it is done, will we not?”
Of course he had no answer, as there is none. Spending money on tangibles is much more efficient than burning it away.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for a strong military and I know that we need to spend money on defense, but lets be realistic here. Rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure is very much needed, despite the cost, and we need the work. If war is the answer, the four trillion we have spent so far in Iraq should have us living in the land of milk and honey.
Don’t let the fucktards tell you different.
