| Actually, this is a Franklin Roosevelt speech from the 1936 campaign, but not much needs changing. It's the same situation in that a struggling economy was much improved by the Democratic incumbent's policies, so the Republicans, the same ones who caused the crisis, tried to claim the Democrat was too slow to fix it.
Address at the Democratic State Convention, Syracuse, N.Y. In the spring of 1933 we faced a crisis which was the ugly fruit of twelve years of neglect of the causes of economic and social unrest. It was a crisis made to order for all those who would overthrow our form of government. Do I need to recall to you the fear of those days-the reports of those who piled supplies in their basements, who laid plans to get their fortunes across the border, who got themselves hideaways in the country against the impending upheaval? Do I need to recall the law-abiding heads of peaceful families, who began to wonder, as they saw their children starve, how they would get the bread they saw in the bakery window? Do I need to recall the homeless boys who were traveling in bands through the countryside seeking work, seeking food -desperate because they could find neither? Do I need to recall the farmers who banded together with pitchforks to keep the sheriff from selling the farm home under foreclosure? Do I need to recall the powerful leaders of industry and banking who came to me in Washington in those early days of 1933 pleading to be saved?
Most people in the United States remember today the fact that starvation was averted, that homes and farms were saved, that banks were reopened, that crop prices rose, that industry revived, and that the dangerous forces subversive of our form of government were turned aside.
A few people- a few only-unwilling to remember, seem to have forgotten those days.
In the summer of 1933, a nice old gentleman wearing a silk hat fell off the end of a pier. He was unable to swim. A friend ran down the pier, dived overboard and pulled him out; but the silk hat floated off with the tide. After the old gentleman had been revived, he was effusive in his thanks. He praised his friend for saving his life. Today, three years later, the old gentleman is berating his friend because the silk hat was lost.
In 2010, Democrats were in the awkward position of having to tell people who were unemployed or unable to pay their mortages or afraid they'd be next that the disaster would have been even worse without Democratic policy changes, and we know how that worked out. Now Republicans are in our former position of arguing a counter-factual. Theirs isn't quite as bad a position, aruging an improving economy would have improved faster versus arguing a lousy economy would have been worse, since the public won't have the same gnawing fear when election day happens to come around. On the other hand, Democrats don't have to explain how they let the crises pile up, while Republicans, well, ... Is there anything that didn't collapse when conservatism collided with reality? So, GOP, our apologies about your lost silk hat. |
