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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2008 > October > 11 > Entry
it feels like 1932…FDR where are you??
After the stock market crashed things got bad quickly. Banks failed. Millions were out of work. People starved. The Republican president didn’t have a clue what to do.
Sounding familiar? President Herbert Hoover was deeply unpopular. They called the shantytowns where Americans struggled to survive HOOVERVILLES. By 1932, things had gotten really rough.
Fortunately for America, a visionary man became our president in 1932. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a product of an affluent upbringing. He was also a man who felt the pain of ordinary Americans and he had the gumption to do something about it. They called it the NEW DEAL.
America took a long time to recover - but it did. FDR had the courage to pursue bold initiatives that alleviated America’s economic ills. I’m reading a superb book that provides new insights into this man who came from privilege - a man who never stopped caring about those who had a lot less. TRAITOR TO HIS CLASS - The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Doubleday, Nov. 4) by H.W. Brands is being published at the perfect moment. It comes out right at the same time that we will be electing our next president.
FDR had a legion of critics. They called him a socialist and much worse. My maternal grandfather, a son of rural Iowa, a Marine veteran of WWI, a schoolteacher, and a life long Republican, despised Franklin Roosevelt.
The next occupant of the White House will face a daunting task. Will our next president possess the genius and the leadership to extricate us from this incredible mess? Will he be someone like FDR? We need leadership and we need bold thinking. We need another FDR….
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: clearing the cobwebs
Comments
By Mike
October 13, 2008 2:03 PM | Link to this
Mark, I think it is going to take some time before there will be any kind of significant reemergence of the “real conservative” within the GOP. The Republican base has essentially coalesced into a montage of several disparate groups. There are hegemonic personalities, tax cutters at any cost, bigots who fear a loss of societal and economic status for Caucasians, NRA diehards and fundamentalist Christians. There is no collective view within the party of how to convince a sufficient number of people to rally around a common philosophy which they can agree reflects the basic tenets of Republican governance. It seems like it has become a party of dozens of single interest groups who are so locked into their own solitary world views that they cannot find a way to make peace with other groups under their own common Party umbrella. The leadership is fractured, fingers are being pointed and they are looking for scapegoats. If only one of these current segments vying for power within the party manages to take hold of the leadership baton after the Party’s implosion is complete, much like the Tom Delay wing took over in the 90’s, then they risk, once again, of reemerging as a one dimensional party that does not represent a cross section of its members. They need to develop a consensus within the Party as to what a Republican will be going forward. If not, it will be reborn as a clone of the current failed strategy. And once again, the movie will be replayed and will likely end up with the same results we are seeing today.By Mark from St Paul
October 13, 2008 12:29 PM | Link to this
What’s really startling is that prominent conservatives are beginning to say they won’t vote for McCain, not with Palin on the ticket. The best thing that could come out of this election would be the re-emergence of real conservativism in the Republican party — no more of this gobsmacked authoritarian horse puckey that has absolutely no historical GOP roots .By vick
October 13, 2008 11:42 AM | Link to this
“A new ABC/Washington Post poll shows Democrat Barack Obama with a 10-point lead over McCain, whose favorability ratings are falling as Obama’s rise. In Virginia and North Carolina, where McCain will campaign today, the candidates are statistically tied, according to an average of recent polls by pollster.com. In Pennsylvania, where McCain heads tonight for a rally in Blue Bell tomorrow, pollster.com shows McCain behind by an average of nearly eight points.” (The LA Times/10-13-08)By vick
October 12, 2008 11:08 AM | Link to this
Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) — “Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama made gains in a series of polls in states including Iowa and Florida, advantages reflected in a widening lead nationally over Republican John McCain. Obama holds a lead in six of nine new state polls, while McCain claims the advantage in Alabama, and the two are statistically tied in Georgia and North Carolina. The Democrat’s edge, on average, is now almost 8 percentage points in national polls, according to realclearpolitics.com. McCain has lost ground to Obama as Americans become more focused on the financial crisis. Polls have long shown that voters trust Obama more than McCain when it comes to handling the economy, and Obama is focusing on the issue at every stop. “I think people are starting to say to themselves, we’re tired of the old ideology,” Obama, 47, told about 250 donors at a fundraiser in Philadelphia last night. He noted that the campaign was gaining points in Republican strongholds such as Virginia, North Carolina and Montana.”By vick
October 11, 2008 2:19 PM | Link to this
Good point, Page Turner. Unfortunately, everything is much faster these days…Globalization has created a high speed connection with the world. The devalued German Mark of 1929 could be the Icelandic, or Zimbabwean currency of 2008…By Page Turner
October 11, 2008 2:13 PM | Link to this
Don’t think we’ve quite reached 1932 yet. It still feels a lot like 1929.