Another New Deal?

There is much speculation (see Time Magazine) that the election of Barack Obama will usher in the second 'New Deal', following in the footsteps of FDR. Be careful of what you ask for.

It is amazing that the myth of the success of the New Deal is still perpetuated as a common fact. Many historians now concede that the New Deal may well have been responsible for turning a recession into the Great Depression.

If it had not been for the coming of WWII, there would have been no third term for FDR and his reputation would have been one largely of failure. As he took the oath for the third time, the unemployment was still at the same level as when he started eight years earlier.

So why would we want another New Deal?

The answer is in the myth making of the modern political legacy. After Lenin's death, Stalin had his body preserved and made his tomb into a shrine so as to legitimize his own position as the follower of Lenin's policies and his rightful heir. A similar tribute was paid to Roosevelt by putting his face on the dime before the mid-term elections. He had brought his party power for sixteen years and the next generation was anxious to cash in on his legacy. The timing of his death was impeccable, coming just before the end of the war he became the American Moses leading but never seeing the promised land.

FDR was the President who was in office when American industrial production and the American military won the war. Could we have won the war without him? Absolutely! But the bigger question would have been could he have maintained the peace? In my opinion it was Harry Truman who picked up the pieces and promises of FDR and set in motion the policies and means to preserve the peace. But since no one put his picture on American currency he is almost invisible to the myth makers. He deserves better.