The President of Me

Constitutional Guardian ^ | 9/14/15 | Nancy Tengler

[timesthattrymenssouls]

Have you ever had that feeling sweep over you that you have been in the very same place before? That out-of-body, deja vu realization that something was happening that had happened before?

While reading Amity Shlaes' history of the FDR Administration, The Forgotten Man I have experienced instance upon instance of that very sensation. I find myself checking the publication date again and again: 2007. She published the book in 2007, wrote it in the years leading up to 2007. While Bush was still president. Before Obama was the certain Democrat candidate, the president. There is no way she could have molded the narrative to fit our current political situation. No way she could have known just how eerily similar Obama's policies would be to FDR's. She is brilliant but she is not psychic.

The latest wave of deja vu came when I read the following few paragraphs.

"As Roosevelt in 1936 would freely acknowledge to another adviser, the election was about a single issue--Roosevelt (249). It seems that everything political over the past 20 or so months has been about one thing: Obama. There is no other way to view the bulldozing through of ObamaCare. He, in fact, said so himself. The Founders anticipated leaders like Obama and FDR. Madison wrote in Federalist 10: "Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm." And, thus they provided an intricate set of checks and balances to mitigate tyranny. Hamilton summarized, perhaps, the most effective check against tyranny in Federalist 22: "The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of the THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority." In other words, it is about us, not the Me occupying the White House.

"The president (FDR) relished squeezing cash for the poor out of the well-to-do...The country was splitting into those who were Roosevelt favorites and everyone else. The division started at the top" (248-249). So obviously similar to what we are experiencing today and anticipated by the Founders. They understood that the very nature of man ensured society would have factions. The owners, the renters, the employer the employee, the religious, the atheist. Society (government) should not inflame the factions, increase the chasm of separation as FDR did and as Obama is doing, rather government should seek as Madison proposes in Federalist 10 "to control its effects. "Justice," he wrote ought to hold the balance between them."

"He (FDR) illuminated objectives--even fantastically unrealizable objectives. These excited and inspired. When one...faded, he provided another." The fact that he shifted did not have to matter (248). And this, too, is familiar. Obama talks of jobs, then health care, then castigates the rich, then castigates the Republicans, then talks of the need for increased spending to stimulate, then lectures on religious freedom, back to health care, jobs again, more stimulus. Each speech overflowing with the pronoun "I." Ever focused on himself, his legacy, his agenda. One new idea after another. Spinning. Spinning.

Out of control.

[ClearCase_guy]

Shlaes' book is well worth reading. As is this one:

[downtownconservative]

Fascinating homology.

[longfellow]

There is a big difference, roosevelts legs didn’t work. We would have to put oboobas brain in a wheelchair.

[Carley]

Am reading Schlaes book now. With each chapter I see the plan laid out for us. Obama following the same path, the descendants of some of those same FDR advisers here in his administration.

This devastation cannot be an accident but a deliberate attempt to destroy our economy and capitalism along with it, once and for all.

The irony of watching Cuba move towards capitalism while we are moving towards socialism with this despot at the wheel.

[huldah1776]

“Have you ever had that feeling sweep over you that you have been in the very same place before? That out-of-body, deja vu realization that something was happening that had happened before?”

Yeah, I used to have epilepsy and that is considered a petit mal seizure. Nothing major, just one side of your brain going a little slower than the other and so it feels like you have done something before. :)

For God, it’s when people don’t learn from history, and He does the face palm.

[iceskater]

I read this book last year. The comparisons are amazing. Although the damage the One is doing is epically worse than what FDR did. And we are starting from a worse position - government debt in 2007 was waaaaaay more than for FDR; corporate and consumer debt likewise; and the ignorance of the sheeple. It’s going to take a miracle from God to help us out of the mess we’re in. It can happen but it’s going to be painful and we’re going to have to make some really painful/difficult decisions.

[ClearCase_guy]

I agree that it will be painful, but it can be doable.

I seriously think that a "Plan B" should be worked on so that some level of food and fuel could be made available to people in the event of a crisis. I'm talking about rice, beans and cheese. No more than that. And heating fuel in some parts of the country.

No one wants people starving or freezing. But government entitlement programs need to be pretty much ended. Poor people are going to suffer. No one wants that, but there it is.

I have long proposed a 10% cut in the federal budget, each year, for 5 years minimum. Cut the budget in half. Then see where we are. Focus on lifting the tax burden and on paying down debt. Embrace the pain. In five years or 10 years, we will be very strong once again.

But the cries of "That's gonna hurt! That's not fair to me!" need to be pretty much ignored.

I oppose any dictator who seeks to expand government power "for the greater good".
I welcome a dictator who crosses his arms and says "I absolutely forbid the government from taking such an action."

Limited government is our strength. It's there for us any time we want to reclaim it.