At the Politico, Joel Kotkin describes how the wheels came off:
In contrast, contemporary liberals seem more concerned about controlling soda consumption and choo-chooing back to 19th-century urbanism. This poverty of ambition hurts Democrats outside the urban centers. For example, when I met with mayors from small, traditionally Democratic cities in Kentucky and asked what the stimulus had done for them, almost uniformly they said it accomplished little or nothing.
A more traditional liberal approach might have focused on improvements that could leave tangible markers of progress across the nation. The New Deal’s major infrastructure projects — ports, airports, hydroelectric systems, road networks — transformed large parts of the country, notably in the West and South, from backwaters to thriving modern economies.
AdvertisementWhen FDR commissioned projects such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, he literally brought light to darkened regions. The loyalty created by FDR and Truman built a base of support for liberalism that lasted for nearly a half-century.
Today’s liberals don’t show enthusiasm for airports or dams — or anything that may kick up some dirt. Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior Deanna Archuleta, for example, promised a Las Vegas audience: “You will never see another federal dam.”
Harold Ickes, FDR’s enterprising interior secretary, must be turning over in his grave.
Like the TSA agent who’s feeling neglected while groping innocent airline passengers for eight hours a day, spare some sympathy for the average big government leftist. It can’t be very easy for President Obama and his fellow “progressives” to stamp out a century of material progress, while having to deal with everyone complaining about how their efforts have wrecked the economy.
Ed, I think you miss his point. Even if you believe FDR was Lenin in a wheelchair, his stimulus actually BUILT something. You can find roads and dams that were not there before, that still provide a service to the nation. Obama couldn’t even manage to leave any legacy from the stimulus spending except debt. For that much money, I’d at least hope for high-speed rail, new power plants, or clearing out the deferred maintenance backlog for every government agency.
The difference between a liberal and a leftist is a liberal wishes to expand the government to help build up the country and to help middle America thrive.
A leftist wishes to expand their influence in government to help tear down the system and views middle America as the enemy.
This is not merely a difference of degree(s), it is a difference of seminal intent.
Yet, we continue to use the words as if they are interchangeable. They are not. And we ignore the difference at our peril.
Leftists / marxists also don’t get discouraged or mitigate their views.
Faced with defeat, there is no re-examination of the vision, only a re-examination of the political approach.
Defeated by the US’ superior military capabilities in the 40′s and 50′s, they changed their approach from military controntation to subversion. Defeated by Reagen, they changed their approach from overt activism to “Community Organizing”. Defeated by the fall of the USSR, they became Greenies.
When we defeat them this time, they will morph into something new again.
We can’t ever let our guard down again.
What cf said. Excellent. As an example, democrats in democrat party have promised and campaigned to “rebuild this nations infrastructure”. Like, for instance, those roads bridges or dams that were built in the old heyday of thirties expansion of government to help build up the country and to help middle America. In now three successive elections. Going back to 2006. How much better their political prospect might be if they had not only listened to themselves when the spouted these platitudes, but actually focused their attention on this something so important and followed through on their own otherwise self-serving rhetoric and accomplished something that the people whom they so despise, and who live in places they so despise, would notice.
Liberals are now so invested in victimization and grievance bearing, that the FDR-type programs such as the WPA and the CCC in modern times wouldn’t just be attacked from the right as an over-reach by the federal government, they’d be savaged by the left for potentially destroying the environment and upsetting some peoples’ lifestyles, as well as unfairly forcing people to work excessively on those federal projects to earn their government benefits instead of simply being able to stay home to earn their benefits.
Kotkin: [edited]: “A more traditional liberal approach might have focused on improvements that could leave tangible markers of progress across the nation – ports, airports, hydroelectric systems, and road networks.”
Unfortunately, liberal regulation and law have reduced our ability to build or produce anything. “Shovel-ready” projects were 5 years away. The government could only spend stimulus money on its own reglatory agencies, school teachers, and soon-to-fail green energy startups. The stimulus was stupid, but failing to spend it on capital projects was idiotic.
Just Try to Get a Permit, I Dare You
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However, imagine trying to get permits from our bureaucrats to build or even refurbish a manufacturing complex for 10,000 jobs in this country on the required time-scale. The environmental impact report on traffic impacts alone would take several years, and a single law suit on one component of the supply chain would delay the entire project for years.
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Reviving the US economy is easy. Stop treating industrial activity as a scam on working people and poisonous to Gaia.