The Predictable History of the Unpredictable Past of the Ever Predictable Democratic Party

Churchill once said, "Russia is a country with an unpredictable past."   I can't help but think that he would say today, “The Democratic Party is a party with an unpredictable past and a predictable history.”

The virtue of patience sits heavily upon the mantle of those cursed with the task of writing about actual historical events for, paraphrasing Churchill again, history is kind to Liberals because they write it.

To understand the enormity and complexity of this exercise, one must first realise that to study an event of yesterday and a Liberal’s role in it, one must almost solely look forward and then bide her time until the future is the past and the unforeseen known.  Only when the future becomes the past will the actions or inertia, thoughts or emotions, positions or theories, analyses or suppositions taken by Liberals today or yesterday or a decade ago be “known” regardless of how many press conferences you have watched with your very own eyes.   

Liberals will write…and rewrite…and edit, if necessary…history in a manner that dictates that the past must be changed to protect the guilty, praise the incompetent, transfer blame to the mostly inculpable and smear the innocent all while proclaiming dissent is the highest form of patriotism except when dissent is expressed by anyone, who isn’t a Liberal.

According to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, Conservatives killed JFK:  "...Neither Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, Savage nor the hate merchants at Fox News and talk radio can claim to have invented their genre. Toxic right-wing vitriol so dominated the public airwaves from the McCarthy era until 1963 that President Kennedy, that year, launched a citizen’s campaign to enforce the Fairness Doctrine, which required accuracy and balance in the broadcast media. Students, civic and religious groups filed more than 500 complaints against right-wing extremists and hate-mongering commentators before the FCC.  The Dallas, Texas, airwaves were particularly radioactive; preachers and political leaders and local businessmen spewed extremist vitriol on the city’s radio and TV stations, inflaming the passions of the city’s legions of unhinged fanatics. There was something about the city — a rage or craziness, that, whether sensible or not, seemed to have set the stage for Jack’s murder…The Voice of America, half an hour after the assassination, described Dallas as "the center of extreme right wing"...The mercantile elite [sic] that ruled the city carefully cultivated the seeds of hate. Radical-right broadsides were distributed in public schools; the Kennedy name was booed in classrooms; junior executives who refused to attend radical seminars were blackballed and fired…Uncle Jack’s speech in Dallas was to have been an explosive broadside against the right wing...When public school P.A. systems announced Jack’s assassination, Dallas school children as young as the fourth grade applauded … Gabrielle Giffords lies in a hospital room fighting for her life, and a precious nine-year-old girl is dead along with five others. Let’s pray for them and for our country and hope this tragedy prompts another round of examination of conscience."  No, No, No!  That's not a Commie over there!  That's Darth Vader Cheney standing behind the fence behind the grassy knoll.

Not only did Conservatives assassinate JFK, they tried to assassinate General Edwin Walker in Dallas in April 1963, who was a right-winger, espoused views that were frequently diametrically opposed to Kennedy's, and Richard Nixon, who started the Environmental Protection Agency, which is giving us all of this cap-n-trade crap by stealth.

Republicans love Wall Street—oh look, Wall Street just made historic campaign contributions to Obama; he must be really cool.…

As Jane Fonda said, "We understand that Nixon's aggression against Vietnam is a racist aggression, that the American war in Vietnam is a racist war, a white man's war... We deplore that you are being used as cannon fodder for U.S. imperialism."  Just ignore the fact that JFK started the war.   LBJ sent in hundreds of thousands of grounds troops.  Nixon ended the war.  Ford removed the last soldiers and personnel.  Meanwhile, back at the Potomac Swamp, the Democrats were defunding the war while hundreds of thousands of Americans were in the jungles of Southeast Asia fighting for their lives.  But, get your eye on the left shell and remember that Vietnam was a Republican War.

Republicans hate the poor because they’re trying to block government policies promoting easy mortgages.… Oops, I wonder why the economy just tanked. 

It’s because Bush drove it into a ditch!   It was certainly not because Carter pushed the Community Reinvestment Act nor because Clinton pushed public-private partnerships and his Homeownership Strategy nor because Andrew Cuomo, while Secretary of HUD, announced that he had transformed the agency into an affirmative action programme, nor because Janet Reno and Eric Holder threatened to sue banks for redlining nor because the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston put out a bogus study that tried to prove that banks were engaging in discrimination nor because James Johnson and Franklin Raines fought off oversight of Fannie Mae while committing fraud and raking in hundreds of millions of dollars.  Look over there!  It's a bird!  It's a plane!  It's Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank on a broom made for two!

Enron collapsed and Paul Krugman says it’s Bush’s fault. Krugman was paid by Enron and Bush wasn’t?   Didn't Gore bring Kenny Boy to the White House to discuss, develop and plan the implementation of cap-n-trade long before Bush enter the White House?  By the way, have you noticed how toned the First Lady's biceps are lately?

Rachel Carson and environmentalists lied about DDT and tens of millions of black Africans died.  Bush lied, kids died! … Obama lied about "days, not weeks", men, women, and children died and terrorists received arms.  Obama lied about the stimulus and the economy died.

Oil prices went up under Bush—it’s his fault—he’s an oilman! Oh but then oil prices went down under Bush.… Hey, look over there! A shiny object!

Bush is a deregulator.  Democrats believe in regulations.  Clinton deregulated Wall Street.  He began gunning for Glass-Steagall Act as far back as 14-15 December 1992 at the Clinton-Gore Economic Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, overruled the suggestions about regulating derivatives made by his own CFTC chair, Brooksley Born, and signed the Financial Services Modernisation Act of 1999 repealing Glass-Steagall.  Of course, George W. Bush added more than 70,000 new regulations to the CFR and signed Sarbox into law, which added more regulations on Wall Street.  Clinton deregulates Wall Street.  Bush regulates Wall Street.  But, Bush is the deregulator of Wall Street.  Go figure.

In other words, “We didn’t do it.  He did it and he went dataway!”

Welcome to the Predictable History of the Unpredictable Past of the Ever Predictable Democratic Party!

As a stickler for fact and evidence, I have to admit that, while Liberals generally frustrate me to no-end with their illogical arguments (Bush is a liar:  He lied about WMD.  Bush isn’t a liar:  He said Clinton left him a surplus.  Which is it?  Liar?  Truth-teller?  Pick-n-choose?), I admire their breathtaking chutzpah.   

 Only a Liberal will lie to you with a straight face and believe his lie as it leaves his lips when he says:  “Bush is responsible for the worst recession economy since the Great Depression.  He deregulated Wall Street.  He didn’t pay for Medicare Part D.  He didn’t pay for either illegal war.  His tax cuts caused the 'Great Recession.'” 

Let’s take these one at a time to see how incredible they really are:

1.  “Bush is responsible for the worst recession economy since the Great Depression.”

A couple of points:

First, Democrats always charge Republicans with causing the worst recession since the Great Depression.  

When running for president in 1991-92, Bill Clinton and other Democrats were decrying all of the new Hoovervilles popping up around the country and the cataclysmic 15,904% unemployment rate.

  

"The average American expressed more pessimism about the future than at any time since the Great Depression."

"There is no question but this is the worst economic time since the Great Depression."

"Sluggish economic growth this year will cap the worst three-year period centered on a recession since the Great Depression."

"Forecasts for a weak recovery...suggest the period...will be the worst for the economy since the Great Depression."

"....the worst plunge since the Great Depression."

"The banking industry has plunged to its lowest point since the Great Depression."

"This is the most severe economic dislocation we've had since the 1930s. Few are immune."

"It's not a recession, it's a depression."

"….with the US economy locked in a recession and more people out of work since the Great Depression."

"....the worst (retail) sales period on record since the Great Depression."

"This recession is hitting white-collar workers more heavily than any since the Great Depression of the 1930s."  FN1   

Since I was still living in Britain in 1991, I would appreciate it if any of you could send me photographs or videotape of the soup lines and Bushvilles from the early 1990s.  Thanks.  Oh, and an extra-special, double-expresso thanks to Liberals, who can find the one that allegedly had more than 100,000 people living in it….ON THE MALL IN FRONT OF THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL.  BIG, SLOPPY KISS.

Secondly, people are correct when the say that the economy is the worst since the Great Depression….NOW, but it wasn’t in 2008.  The 1981-82 recession was worse in almost every economic category in terms of contraction, unemployment, etc.

2.  “He deregulated Wall Street.”

The next time that a Liberal tells you this, hit him over the head with a cricket bat.   

There are many, many things about which to be angry with George W. Bush.  The deregulation of Wall Street is not one of them.  

In fact, deregulation, Wall Street and the Democratic Party go together like Michelle Obama on a tamale (h/t Barack).   

In December 1992 at the Clinton-Gore Economic Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, Bill Clinton and Alan Greenspan, among others, discussed derivatives and the “dinosaur” Glass-Steagall.  It was Clinton, who refused the requests of his own CFTC chair – Brooksley Born – to regulate derivatives, at the behest of Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin, and Laurence Summers, which led to the creation of the $1.6 quadrillion behemoth CDO market.  It was Clinton, who signed the Financial Services Modernisation Act of 1999.  On the other hand, George W. Bush signed Sarbanes-Oxley Act into law, which added greatly to disclosure rules and personal liability for directors and management, among many others.

3.  Gotta run, but I’ll be back.

In other words, whether or not a Democrat had anything to do with, say, a particular piece of legislation like the CRA or administrative regulation (HUD) or mortgage credit qualification changes (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac) or failure to regulate derivatives (Brooksley Born) or repeal of Glass-Steagall (Clinton, Johnson, Gore, Summers, Rubin, Greenspan, Dec ’92) will depend on whether it causes an unmitigated disaster in the future.  

If it does, then Bush did it and he went dadaway!

FN1: http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=worst+economy+since+the+great+depression&num=10&as_ldate=1992/02&as_hdate=1992/02&as_user_ldate=1990&as_user_hdate=1992&scoring=t&hl=en&nav_num=10