Guardian Mary Silver: President Franklin D. Roosevelt- Great Depression Fireside Chat

Source:Guardian Mary Silver- America in the 1930s, during the Great Depression.

Source:FreeState MD

“AP US History Assignment.

7th Hour

Great Depression/Unemployment

By: Riah Countryman, Kevin Islas, and Hector Mirelez” 

From Guardian Mary Silver 

“President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took office in early 1933, would become the only president in American history to be elected to four consecutive terms. He would lead his nation through two of the greatest crises in its history—the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II (1939-45)—and would exponentially expand the role of the federal government through his New Deal reform program and its legacy. From March 1933 to June 1944, Roosevelt addressed the American people in some 30 speeches broadcast via radio, speaking on a variety of topics from banking to unemployment to fighting fascism in Europe. Millions of people found comfort and renewed confidence in these speeches, which became known as the “fireside chats.” 

Source:History- President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democrat, New York) 32nd President of the United States (1933-45)

From History 

The fact that President Franklin Roosevelt was speaking about a recession in America in 1938, is pretty good evidence that five years after becoming President of the United States, that we were still not out of the Great Depression yet.

The economy was getting better in 1938, but we slipped back into recession in 1936 or 37. We were still looking 20-25% official unemployment. Maybe half of the country living in poverty. By the time the United States got involved in World War II in 1941-42, we were still dealing with the Depression, Recession and high unemployment. And it was really World War II that moved the country to full-recovery from the Great Depression. With all the money that was spent financing our involvement in that War.

What the New Deal deserves credit for, is establishing a public safety net that the country could turn too, when they are unemployed, or don’t have a large enough retirement account, to protect people’s savings in banks. And the New Deal did put some unemployed workers back to work through infrastructure investment.

But the Great Depression was so deep which is why it was labeled the Great Depression with so many people losing all of their money and jobs at the same time. With so many banks and business’s all failing at once. What the New Deal did was help sustain the country through the Great Depression, so things couldn’t get worse, but it didn’t bring us out of it.

It was World War II that brought the United States out of the Great Depression and back to prosperity and an economic power, as well as a world power, where we’ve remained ever since with the millions of people it employed, either in the Defense Department, or working with private contractors that did business with DOD. Making all of our equipment and the American auto industry did very well during World War II making all of those tanks And President Roosevelt deserves a lot of credit for this as well.

The New Deal, served as a buffer from the Great Depression. Put in the floor that the American economy could cash on and buy it time to recover. But it didn’t get us out of it and back to full-recovery.

Salon: Alex Pareene- Rick Santorum: ‘Liberal Penn State Punished Me For Being Conservative’

Source:Salon Magazine- "Rick Santorum's 1976 high school yearbook photo" From Salon Magazine.

Source:FreeState MD  

“Rick Santorum hates college. The former senator from Pennsylvania and current presidential candidate has lately taken to declaring that Barack Obama’s promotion higher education is both elitist snobbery and a insidious attempt to “indoctrinate” the children of America’s hardworking conservative parents into socialism. His crusade against the ivory tower took an even weirder turn last weekend when he told a radio station that he was discriminated against at Penn State for his conservatism.”

From Salon Magazine 

If Rick Santorum is a Conservative, then Ron Paul is a Socialist and Ron Reagan was a Communist. Oh by the way I’m Santa Clause, right now its 100 degrees in Boston and it’s snowing in Houston. And before you take any of that seriously, keep in mind right now its March. And you want to know why Rick Santorum is not a Conservative, I’ll tell you anyway.

Conservatism in a political sense, forget about religion right now, but in a political sense conservatism is about conserving individual liberty. Not subtracting individual liberty or conserving a way of life from the 1950s and never modernizing. And it’s about limited government, especially the Federal Government, spending no more than you take in and always try to spend less than that. And devolving power back to the states and to the people. And a foreign policy that’s very limited and based around only protecting national security interests. 

Political or constitutional or classical conservatism, is not about: “I and people who ally with me, know best how free adult Americans should live their lives. And if you don’t take our friendly advice on how you should live your own life, even though we have no idea who you are, we’ll get our friendly advice passed through law. And then if you don’t comply on how we believe you should live your individual lives, we’ll arrest you for your own good for living an immoral life. Even if your lifestyle is not hurting anyone else with how you are living.” Which is sort of Rick Santorum’s political philosophy. 

On all counts of what conservatism actually is from a political sense, fiscally and socially especially Rick Santorum doesn’t qualify as a Conservative. Not on social issues, fiscal policy or foreign policy. He has a record as a borrow and spender, porker, empowering the Federal Government in his sixteen years in Congress. (House and Senate) 

On social issues, Rick Santorum has a record of wanting to outlaw things that are currently legal. Limiting our personal freedom and has even added to that in his presidential campaign, coming out in favor of a constitutional amendment to empower the Federal Government to define marriage. Nothing Conservative about that and what happened to States Rights? The distinguished Senator is also in favor of outlawing pornography, gambling and birth control.

On foreign policy, Senator Santorum voted for preventive war, hard to see either Barry Goldwater or Ron Reagan voting for the 2nd War in Iraq.

So in a political sense, Rick Santorum doesn’t qualify as a Conservative and never has. He meets the qualifications of a religious theocrat. But those are different from conservatism and on the Far-Right, where Senator Santorum is in American politics. 

Rick Santorum or perhaps Ricky or Slick Rick (at least when it comes to trying to convince people who know better of his conservative credentials or the serious lack of them) is a Big Government Republican. A right-wing statist, the ultimate big brother or big government, or better yet Uncle Sam, no real Conservative’s favorite uncle. And he believes he knows best how free people should live their own lives.

I mean if Rick Santorum is a Conservative, the Queen of England eats Burger King whoppers for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. And when Burger King is unavailable, she gets her meals from McDonald’s. And it never rains in Seattle and a lot other nonsense that is simply not believable.