Colman: THE PERVERSION OF GOVERNMENT POWER

The “New Deal” of FDR was an effort to move the socialist Platform of Woodrow Wilson from 16 years before.  The “Great Society” of Lyndon Johnson was a continuation of the socialist policies of Wilson and Roosevelt.  Now we have Biden, Sanders and Warren looking to go the next step—ending the private sector in the United States in transportation, banking, health care, education and control of manufacturing.

“ Building roads, dams, and other projects came to be seen as granting special privileges in government hiring.  The average American began to see more and more favoritism in providing jobs to certain types of Americans.

 Americans began to hear about such government-sponsored programs as “affirmative action,” “set asides,” and “diversity” in the hiring of government workers.  Many Americans began to see their tax dollars going to special groups.

 Thus, what started in the 1930’s — and continued through the 1960’s — as programs for economic development began to be seen as programs that produced biases in hiring.

Unions, ID politics, “diversity” and quota’s are no longer in vogue by “deplorable” Americans.  They see it for what it is—the buying of votes and bigotry.   The good news, whether it is Biden or Sanders, the 2020 race will be the fight of socialism vs. freedom/capitalism.  We win that battle.

THE PERVERSION OF GOVERNMENT POWER

By Richard Colman, Exclusive to the California Political News and Views,  3/4/20 

 There was a time in American history — mainly in the 1930’s — when government projects offered solutions to economic difficulties.

 A good example was the lack of electricity in the Texas Hill Country, an area of Texas running roughly from Austin to San Antonio.

 Around 1935, the Hill Country had no electricity.  That meant that there was no air conditioning.  Also, there were no washing machines and no refrigerators.

 In 1937, a young man named Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, won a congressional seat in the Hill Country.  (Later, from 1963 to 1969, Johnson was president of the United States.)

 As a congressman, Johnson helped bring electric power to the Hill Country.  In his quest for electricity, Johnson sought the assistance of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, also a Democrat.

 In 1959, Johnson wrote a letter, saying, “I think of all the things I have ever done, nothing has given me as much satisfaction as bringing power to the Hill County of Texas.”

 In Depression-era America, Roosevelt brought jobs and economic development to much of the United States.  Roads, hospitals, schools, and dams were built.  The Depression, often called the Great Depression, went from 1929 to 1940, when the nation began to prepare for World War II. 

 In 1932, Roosevelt was overwhelmingly elected president as the nation’s unemployment soared beginning in the late 1920’s.  As the Depression continued, banks and other businesses failed.  Americans lost their homes and their savings.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average of stocks, went from 400 in the late 1920’s to 40 by 1932 — a 90 percent loss.

Roosevelt promised America the New Deal, a series of programs to put unemployed and impoverished Americans back to work.

 Electrifying the Texas Hill Country fit in well with the aims of the New Deal.

 During the New Deal, many Americans began to see that government power could bring about economic development.

 As president, Johnson created the Great Society, a series of endeavors to bring government power to aid such fields as transportation, housing, and education.

 In complied.

 1965 and 1966 Johnson asked Congress to fund the Great Society.  Congress

The Great Society might have continued for more years, but the Vietnam War, which escalated sharply between 1965 and the end of Johnson’s presidency in 1969, prevented more government expansion.

Now, some 55 years later, the Great Society can be re-examined.  During the beginning of the Great Society, many Americans were supportive of government’s doing more to aid the economy.

 But, eventually, Americans turned against government expansion.  The presidencies of Ronald Reagan (1981 to 1989), George Herbert Walker Bush (1989 to 1993), and Donald Trump (2017 to the present) were — and have been — geared to limiting government involvement in society.

 A major reason for Americans’ dissatisfaction with government had to do with how government money was spent.

 Building roads, dams, and other projects came to be seen as granting special privileges in government hiring.  The average American began to see more and more favoritism in providing jobs to certain types of Americans.

 Americans began to hear about such government-sponsored programs as “affirmative action,” “set asides,” and “diversity” in the hiring of government workers.  Many Americans began to see their tax dollars going to special groups.

 Thus, what started in the 1930’s — and continued through the 1960’s — as programs for economic development began to be seen as programs that produced biases in hiring.

 No one knows if Lyndon Johnson saw that his programs would be perverted by special interests and special groups.

 But so-called Middle America became fed up with big-government programs and rebelled.

 If, in 2020, Donald Trump is re-elected for a second term as president, a major reason might be Middle America’s continuing dissatisfaction over how government has been operating.