Republicans Repeat 1936

All right, this will be just a short post. Mainly, I just wanted to put something up because I haven't in a little while.

I do not pretend to know all the relevant history concerning what I am about to briefly reflect on. But here I go anyway. Apparently, after Democrats had taken power in the mid-1930s in overwhelming numbers during an economic crisis (sound kind of familiar?), Republicans voted, to a man, against all of the economic policies implemented by the Democratic majority to stimulate the economy Keynesian-style. Only 3 Republicans last week voted for the stimulus package. So true that history repeats itself.

Other parallels are striking. The 1920s saw large-scale de-regulation under Republican administrations and Congressional majorities. So did the early 2000s and even the late 1990s under a centrist Clinton administration and the later Bush administration, together with Republican majorities in Congress. (As an aside, surely it made more sense in the 1920s than in the 1990s/2000s to de-regulate, as most of the woker protections and etc. were "new" (though more were introduced in the 1930s and 1940s, things we are very familiar with today like Social Security)).

I can only hope that efforts to produce a broader consensus are more successful in further initiatives by the Obama administration to resolve the financial crisis and jerk the economy back on track than we have seen so far in 2009. I also consider it a bit of a foolish political gamble by the Republicans to take the contrarian view in the current climate. People want solutions, not invective. If the last few weeks becomes the norm rather than an aberration-- if Republicans continue to unite in opposition primarily to be the opposition-- then I think they may find themselves on the wrong side of history yet again. And hoping for a future age in which to resurge.