FDR is dead

townhall.com ^ | 12/17/04 | Jonah Goldberg

[kattracks]

I have some advice for the real small-c conservatives and reactionaries in the debate over Social Security reform: Franklin Roosevelt is dead. Get over it. It seems every time I turn on the TV or the radio, I hear some opponent of reform whining that we're tinkering with FDR's "legacy." Who gives a rat's patoot?

Let's start with what should be obvious: If the current social security system is a good deal, then it's a good deal. Period. If it's a bad deal for 300 million Americans, then it's a bad deal. Only a moron of ground-shaking proportions would argue that we should screw millions of low- and middle-income (or even, yes, rich) Americans out of a better retirement - and their own money! - out of respect to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's memory.

[snip]

Of course, liberal mythology about the New Deal legend is, uh, legendary. Still, it's worth noting that the New Deal surely prolonged the Depression and did far less for poverty than the textbooks claim. The first point is not even particularly controversial. The second is debatable. But what isn't in dispute among scholars is that it was World War II, not the New Deal, that served to pull America out of its economic doldrums.

[snip]

Yet liberals, for the last decade or so, cannot let go of the past, cannot get beyond their talk of lockboxes and liberal legacies long lost. How strange it is that "conservatism" is now the party of "bold experimentation" and "liberals" are the horse-and-buggy crowd.

[MikefromOhio]

FDR is dead and a great majority of the people that voted him into office, especially his first 2 terms, are now gone.

It is time to fix what doesnt work anymore, legacies be dammed....

[martin_fierro]

I heard that Arafat's dead, too.

Or maybe not.

[BykrBayb]

I think he finally died for the ninth time. If I counted right, that pretty much makes it permanent.

[Agrarian]

Jonah Goldberg is kind of like a stopped clock -- right once in a while by pure accident.

Now, if he can just convince the RINO's who put FDR in the conservative pantheon alongside other conservative heroes like MLK to take him out and put him back in the anti-pantheon, where he belongs...

[26lemoncharlie]

FDR is dead !

Believe me, where I live, people are still voting for him!!

[MikefromOhio]

socially and econonmically you are correct.

But its great to tell a liberal that you look up at FDR as a great war leader to see their face crinkle, because the two liberal morons I work with out here think of his as a Social genius, not the wartime leader....

[martin_fierro]

Hey, whazzat you're ridin' there?

Looks like an Aermacchi/AMF Harley from the 70s. Yes?

[shibumi]

Social Security!!! Brought to you by the same team that gave you Yalta and the sell-out of Eastern Europe!

[FreeKeys]

Of course, liberal mythology about the New Deal legend is, uh, legendary. Still, it's worth noting that the New Deal surely prolonged the Depression and did far less for poverty than the textbooks claim.

"There is no need here to attempt to explain FDR's economic reasoning, if such an explanation is even possible. Speaking of the President's acquaintance with economics, biographer John T. Flynn noted that 'it is entirely possible that no one knew less about that subject than Roosevelt.' [from The Roosevelt Myth]  What is important is that these economic fallacies would have terrible consequences. The President's faulty grasp of what had caused the Depression led him to introduce a system whose operation was quite similar to the old guild structure, with the explicit intention of reducing competition." -- Thomas E. Woods, Jr., HERE

[Jackson Brown]

The most important fact about Social Security is the number of people paying in VS those receiving it.

40+ for every recipient when started, now about 2 1/2.

It is absolutely unsustainable if it stay constituted as "FDR's legacy"...period.

I'll see it, but by kids won't...unless it is reformed. There's NO chance a president who has to run for re-election will try to fix it, so the best chance to do something before 2018 is NOW!

[NutCrackerBoy]

This country needs bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

That's odd. I seem to prefer "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." I guess I am not FDR (and therefore I am not dead).

[Hostage]

FDR was successful for his time. It is the time since that has ruined his work.

1. Social Security was introduced as a 1% tax on payroll.

Today it is 15%.

2. The Social Security Trust Fund was set up to fund a very modest subsistence for retirees.

Today the fund is nothing more than a ledger of IOUs. The Social Security tax revenue goes straight to the general fund where for the past 40 years it was spent on whatever political whim was prominant for the day.


Here's an analogy:

A beautiful painting depicting calm in a storm sits in its own portico inside a museum of treasures. The painting becomes legendary for its healing powers. The legend grows into a belief that all that touch this painting will be healed of their ailments.

Over the years patrons have touched, scratched, marked, ripped, smoked, cut this painting as there was never a thought to its security. Shreds of it have been shorn away leaving nothing but tattered remnants of micro sections of canvas. The picture of calm is gone.

And yet the legend continues among the painting's believers.

When the museum curator orders removal of the painting frame, the believers revolt and move to stop the removal of tattered nothingness.

They defend a cultural legacy with no proximity to reality.

[shibumi]

I'm not sure why you are addressing me - I did not write that.

[NutCrackerBoy]

It was an observation about the article. Sometimes people just click on whatever the last reply happens to be.

[Bullish]

Yet liberals, for the last decade or so, cannot let go of the past, cannot get beyond their talk of lockboxes and liberal legacies long lost. How strange it is that "conservatism" is now the party of "bold experimentation" and "liberals" are the horse-and-buggy crowd.

Liberals can't be honest about anything anymore, let alone social security.

[Allegra]

I heard that Arafat's dead, too.

Oh, is he still dead? I hadn't heard the latest update on that.

[Elkiejg]

Hey Mike = good to hear from you. Will you get home for Christmas? God Bless you for your service and for protecting us and our country. Please pass on our thanks and appreciation to all your troops there.

[MikefromOhio]

they know they are appreciated. Mojo has been sending some packages through Norfolk our here to me for the guys here. Needless to say, the stuff they sent has been very useful and appreciated.

I wont be home for Christmas. I will get home about 2 weeks after the new year....

[Elkiejg]

It will be Christmas when you get home!! God Speed and stay safe.