Return of the Hooverites

[depakid]

Republicans are willing to put the brakes on now despite the fact that the economy has not gained enough lift to take off. Indeed, their deficit-mongering is already causing a drag, which is slowing down the economy, and may well make it crash again. It is precisely the policy that Hoover notoriously embraced.

More surprising is that many Democrats do not dare point out the ill effects of this GOP maneuver. Privately they acknowledge that more stimulus is now needed and that deficits will become a problem only later, but they claim this sounds like "political double speak." For that reason they, too, tend to at least make Hooverite noises.

However, when I asked a bunch of primary school kids if they understood that the need for heating in the winter does not deny the need for air conditioning in the summer, sure to follow, they had no difficulties in coping with such a 'complex' thought.

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amitai-etzioni/return-of-the-hooverites_b_636361.html

[Chulanowa]

1. For thirty years...

Republicans have been telling us that all government spending is bad. All of it. Every ounce, barring that reserved for the military, the purpose of which was to protect us from the commies who would come and - get this - expand government spending (THOSE MONSTERS!)

And what have the democrats - and liberals with them - been doing all that time?

Wandering about the wilderness, looking for a Starbucks to bitch about.

So here we are, Joe Public is pretty sure that government spending any money is a terrible act of tyranny, and the Democrats are trying to figure out how to start winning again... hey, why not play into the irrational shit the Republicans have been saying for thirty years?

Now... I'd love to stick my nose in the air, sniff derisively, and pontificate about how the democrats could just say fuck it and explain why spending is good, and that this explanation would cure everything, and how the Democrats are *sniff* just like the Republicans and not up to my *sniff* exacting standards. But the fact is?

The voting public is a bunch of ill-informed dipshits who I swear would drown in a birdbath if left unsupervised... and they like it that way. Yeah, the Democrats could try. I've seen the president give it a go. And the American reaction? TL;DR. We are a culture that prizes ignorance and quick convenience. So you get this situation...

REPUBLICANS: Spending is bad!
Public: Yeah! Big government's spending MY MONEY!

DEMOCRATS: Well, not all spending is bad. Certain economic situations clal for the government to stimulate the economy through spending to...
Public: Oh hey, Full House reruns are on!

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Here's a great article from Harpers

http://harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005235">Barack Hoover Obama

Obama's been working from Hoover's playbook from the start.

[90-percent]

3. G20 Summit

The outcome from this recent summit was as if they were channeling the ghost of Hoover himself! Our World Leaders are seeking to create a Second Great Depression! Isn't that nice!

-90% Jimmy

[depakid]

4. To his credit- the President did make some attempt to advocate continuing stimulus

unfortunately, due to the administration's behaviors and choices at home, he's lost credibility abroad.

Didn't help of course that his more economically successful political soulmate, Kevin Rudd- got rolled out of government on the eve of the summit.

For failing to stand up and fight for policy promises that he'd made during the last election.

[treestar]

5. It's not the 1930s

Enough with this stupid comparison.