Troubling Reading for Troubled Times

I've been reading Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, by H.W. Brands this week. It's very timely reading. I've been especially fascinated by the chapters on the famous Hundred Days -- i.e., the first hundred days of Roosevelt's first term, in which he and a pliant Congress delivered an enormous amount of legislation which remade many of the foundations of our Republic.

Well, actually, I don't know that "fascinated" is the right word. "Horrified" might have been better.

I hadn't known about so much of what happened in those years -- ranging from the Blue Eagle campaign to the slaughter of pigs and destruction of milk in the face of widespread hunger to "prop up demand". It's amazing how little resemblance what actually happened bears to the simplistic popular understanding so many people hold that "Franklin Roosevelt brought us through the Depression". I was also struck by how common it was among Democratic demagogues in those days to admire European fascism and to self-consciously model things along this statist, fascist ideal. (As an aside, it's one of the great accomplishments of the political left to have attached the label "fascist" to conservatives when historically all the fascist movements were movements of the left -- another good read on the latter topic is Liberal Fascism, by Jonah Goldberg.)

There are many parallels between those early days of the Roosevelt presidency and the early days of the Obama presidency. First, and most obviously in the pervasive atmosphere of "crisis" which pervades the political scene. Second, in the extent to which class warfare and wealth redistribution are popular matters of political debate. And third, in the characterization of the existing problems as having been caused by "private capital" (apparently without the involvement of government).

The parallels are ominous, and as a result, the reading is somewhat depressing. Notably because in some ways we have even fewer defenses against socialist engineering now than we had then. For instance, the Supreme Court, which played a key role in slowing the advance of the New Deal in the 1930's seems unlikely today to stand in the way of statist intrusions (witness the refusal to protect the rights of contract of the bondholders of GM and Chrysler).

So why read something so depressing?

For a couple of reasons.

First, because I'd like to understand what it is that causes people to be open to the suasion of "Demo-gogues".

Second, because I believe there will be good evidence, data, and anecdotes to be used in convincing people of how foolish these statist projects are.

Third, because I'm fascinated by the psychology of people like Franklin D. Roosevelt. Did he really believe in these programs? Why? Were his motivations at root philosophical or political? How much of his belief in them was consciously motivated vs. subconsciously motivated? It's been said (and I believe it) that people have a remarkable ability to see what they want to see. Why was FDR inclined to see the need for state intervention as a positive good?

Fourth, because it's possible, just possible, that I might be wrong in some of what I believe about the follies of New Deal socialism. And I want to remain open and rational.

In any case, the book is well-written, generally balanced, and very timely. I recommend it.