The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    Rep. Paul Ryan: King Herbert Hoover II

    By Michael Wolraich on Wed, 01/26/2011 - 9:40am | Politics

    We need to reclaim our American system of limited government, low taxes, reasonable regulations, and sound money, which has blessed us with unprecedented prosperity. And it has done more to help the poor than any other economic system ever designed. That's the real secret to job creation -- not borrowing and spending more money in Washington. Limited government and free enterprise have helped make America the greatest nation on earth.

    -- Paul Ryan, 2011

    By adherence to the principles of decentralization, self-government, ordered liberty, and opportunity and freedom to the individual our American experiment has yielded a degree of well-being unparalleled in all the world. It has come nearer to the abolition of poverty, to the abolition of fear of want that humanity has ever reached before. Progress of the past seven years is the proof of it.

    -- Herbert Hoover, 1928

    Great minds think alike.

    The Hoover quote comes from his "Rugged Individualism" speech delivered during the 1928 presidential campaign. It's worth reading the entire speech, as there are many similarities between his ideology and that of today's fiscal conservatives.

    Topics: 
    Politics

    Comments

    At least THAT guy's not our president.


    by erica20 on Wed, 01/26/2011 - 10:15am

    In fact I've never seen anyone who looked less Presidential than that guy Ryan. He tried to double down on Obama's comments about Gabby Giffords and it sounded completely contrived. As for the Bachmann zombie, I could bring myself to watch for only about three seconds until I could get the sound turned down. But we have not heard the last time from Mommy Dearest.  


    by Oxy Mora on Wed, 01/26/2011 - 10:49am

    Genghis, what a great comparison!

    Sometimes I think that there are just great divides of genetic endowment that shake down into liberal versus conservative political views.  

    There are apparently some brain scans, though a small sample, showing differences in brain constructs, with conservatives being more attuned to "fear" than liberals.

    And then there are the other observable great divides. It seems to me that in every couple, one person wants to cut the bougainvillea back to the roots and the other one is concerned about trimming back too far. Me, I always came back from the circus with empty pockets. My sister wouldn't spend a nickle. My sister was one of those who waited for everyone else to finish their pie. Then she would eat hers slowly--well today she is living in one of those Florida, Republican enclaves.

    Jes spitballin'. Well, indeed, there are those for whom spitballin' is grotesque.


    by Oxy Mora on Wed, 01/26/2011 - 10:39am

    The comparison is a good one.  The problem, sadly, is how little difference there is between the philosophical posturing of Ryan/Hoover and Obama/Hoover.  There is little substantive difference between them.  Ryan/Hoover is a corporate Republican.  Obama/Hoover is a corporate Democrat.  Both offer remedies not to the central problem facing the nation (unemployment) but instead to deal with what right wingers view as the problem: social spending aka: New Deal programs that work.  The approach of both Ryan/Hoover and Obama/Hoover lead to the same result: a deepening of the economic depression we are in accompanied by years of outrageously high unemployment for workers in the US while the rich predator class grows even fatter and more greedy.  All of the basic premises set out by Ryan/Hoover have been fully accepted as the truth by Obama/Hoover and the approaches acceptable to Ryan/Hoover are essentially the same approaches acceptable to Obama/Hoover. 

    It's cold comfort to think that Obama is a marginal improvement over the idiot Ryan.  Both fail to address the needs of the nation and both pursue policies that only add to the annhiliation of the American middle class.


    by oleeb on Wed, 01/26/2011 - 11:33am

    WELL DONE!!

    Just...well done!!


    by Richard Day on Wed, 01/26/2011 - 1:29pm