The 1946 Voter Revolt Against Government Regulation

The Freeman via Libertyhaven.com ^ | February 1991 | Gary M. Anderson Gary M. Anderson

[B4Ranch]

I hope we can stop them at the ballot box this time. Myself unfortunately, I doubt it!

[dasboot]

Thanks, good read: another embarrassing sniglet of socialist American political history glossed-over in the texts.

[LarryLied]

Anyone have memories of this election or anecdotes from those who were there?

Must have been a wonderful day for conservatives who had suffered through 14 years of FDR and Truman.

[Fast 1975]

Today, half of the ordinary citizens don't care about government and only a fraction seek reducing it. The true beginning of this revolution was the Roosevelt court-packing scheme. Prior to 1937, the Supreme Court invalidated most federal regulation as beyond the scope of the Commerce Clause. After rewriting the Constitution, Congress was given unrestricted authority in legislation. Politicians continue to use this authority for regulation bidding to solve all of society's problems with Washington. For instance, the whole Enron ordeal and the losses to shareholders has instigated calls for regulating the accounting industry, 401ks, and everything else with little opposition.

The other catalyst is the progressive income tax, which disproportionally burdens high income earners to pay the costs, and leaving a the vast amount of voters paying a little, no taxes at all, or even getting a credit from the IRS.

[Senator Pardek]

Anyone have memories of this election..

Er - I'm flattered you think I'm so "experienced"...

[Senator Pardek]

But we must remember that ordinary citizens have on many occasions effectively exercised their franchise to stop Big Government in its tracks, or at least slow it down.

But seriously, that quote says it all. I gotta laugh at the monkeys at this site who continually cry "the politicians want to increase the size of gubmint to buy votes!"

The sad truth is, politicos keep it growing because that's precisely what most voters want...

[backhoe]

Oddly enough, I tried unsucessfully, to locate a short piece I wrote on another post, "1945- the year my Dad quit working so hard..."

Basically, that year his company had $210,000 left at year's end, which he took as salary- being the owner. First the IRS picked his pocket- I think the top rate was 70-90%, then some board "renegotiated his contract" and he was left with $11,000 to take home.

Bear in mind you could buy a luxury car for about $3,000 or a new, average home for about $7,000.
( and they always depreciated- being a "used" house! )

My Mom also recalls well that when FDR died, "the way all the old women on the Island carried on, you'd have thought God Himself had died instead..."

[elbucko]

Thanks for the post. Great read.

[LarryLied]

The sad truth is, politicos keep it growing because that's precisely what most voters want...

Exactly. We is the enemy. Health care is the most obvious example. Americans are radical equalitarians when it comes to access to medical services. Unlike transportation where people accept the fact that some people will drive Kias, some a Taurus, some a Lexis and others will have private jets, most every believes all medical procedures should be available to everyone, regardless of ability to pay.

[elbucko]

"Price control made the cost of the war seem to be lower than it really was.

FDR and the Democrats were "cooking the books"?
So this is where Enron/Anderson learned its accounting methods!

[LarryLied]

Your dad did good. He was rich. He must have been a Republican But Truman needed that money of his. The Democrat machine had so many mouths to feed. Here is a fun site to play around with:

The Inflation Caculator

"What cost $1000 in 1946 would cost $9468.46 in 2001.

Equivalently, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2001 and 1946, they would cost you $1000 and $105.61 respectively."

[tubebender]

I was 13 years old in Nov 0f 46 but I beleive I was in the Shriners Hospital in SF earlier that year and would not have any interest in these things. I remember the war years somewhat because of so many things...shortages, rationing and the fact my life was turned upside down in 41 when my 4 older siblings started leaving and I was left alone with my parents. I remember my mom hoarding 25 # of sugar under my bed to use for canning fruit and I remember saving lard and tin foil etc for the "war effort". I wonder today about the beating that Hoover takes today if it isn't socialist bashing just like bashing McCarthy.for spooking the communist.

[elbucko]

"I wrote on another post, "1945- the year my Dad quit working so hard..."

Interesting. My Dad became a Republican at this time. We could probably swap our fathers stories.

[Fish out of Water]

fyi

[backhoe]

I think he was a Goldwater Conservative before there was a Goldwater, and much I learned was from very early talks with him. He grew up so poor on Cape Hatteras that when he didn't hunt or fish his Mom & Sibs went hungry. When his Dad died when he was 16, he became the provider....

And even though he had 600 electricians working for him, and about 30 men in the HVAC shop, he always called himself a small businessman, because by the Fortune 500 definition, he was. He was also the most charismatic person I have ever personally known, although my late first wife was close- he lit up a room when he walked in, everyone gravitated to him like a magnet.

[Centurion2000]

over 8.26 million in 1945. The United States produced 300,000 war planes, 100,000 tanks and armored vehicles, 124,000 ships, and 41 billion rounds of ammunition during World War II, to mention a few examples

Just had a thought. How would the rest of the world react if we armed up like this again ?

[BluesDuke]

This was the election that produced the Congress Harry Truman thrived on denouncing, during his 1948 election campaign, as "that good-for-nothing 80th Congress." One of his favourite techniques for ginning up that one was to send them legislative packages that he knew good and goddamn well didn't stand a cat's chance in hell of passing (unlike contemporary Republican Congresses, the 80th Congress knew what walking the walk means), and then would denounce them as a bunch of obstructionist reactionaries, in his own distinctively, er, salty tongue, of course. It worked so well that Congress stayed Republican-controlled in spite of Truman's eleventh-hour election win over a man whom we might deem today as a kind of prototype postwar RINO, Thomas E. Dewey...

There is an excellent essay on Truman and the 80th Congress, "Not So Wild About Harry," in Mr. David Frum's book, What's Right. Among other things, Mr. Frum discourses on one side or Mr. Truman that is long neglected: he was, as a campaigner, one of the sleaziest rhetoricians in the history of the modern Presidency - Bill Clinton and his fellow contemporary Damnocrats almost (underline that, gang) resemble rabbis and ministers by comparison. The book may still be in print, or you can probably find it in a used bookstore on or offline...

[BluesDuke]

FDR and the Democrats were "cooking the books"? So this is where Enron/Anderson learned its accounting methods!

Banner seen at Olympic Stadium, Montreal: Bud - We Hear There's An Opening at Enron!

[LarryLied]

Oh it is that congress! See how good the propaganda is? I grew up hearing about the "do-nothing" congress but I never knew what the deal was.

See why I think Libertarians are off on a doomed mission? If the New Deal could not be rolled back in 1946 it will never be rolled back. The best we can do is see things don't get worse, channel as much of the Federal money we can into non-destructive programs and find alternatives to government such as home schooling. Robert Bork and others have suggested a social withdrawal into private schools, gated communities, home schooling and self-employment. I don't see any real alternative.