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Americas greatest presidents go simply by their initials: FDR and JFK.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt took over in 1933 at the height of the Depression. His task was made harder by the Dust Bowl and mindless Republican obstruction. He realized that economic stimulus measures were needed due to the collapse of private market demand. He instituted public works programs, and many of those roads, courthouses and dams are still in use today.

In Republican mythology, only the war cured unemployment. This is entirely false. Unemployment was at 25 percent when he took office. This staggering number was getting worse. But by Pearl Harbor (December 1941), hed reduced it to 10 percent. Given the hand he was dealt, thats astounding.

He had no guidebook. This was the worlds first mass depression. British economist John Keynes was puzzling over the same problem. His work showed that FDRs intuition was correct. My expenditures create your income; your expenditures create other incomes, etc., etc., as the money rolls around the economy creating jobs. This expands the economy through a multiplier effect, around 1.8 to 2.0, because an economy is not like a family. Its a huge open system. Why dont Republicans understand that? Why cant Democrats get that message out? If everyone is paid good wages (as Henry Fords workers did), the result is the prosperity we had for 30 years up to 1975.

Slashing Social Security and Medicare because we cant afford them is nonsense. The first thing to be slashed should be tax breaks for job creators who refuse to create jobs despite having $2 trillion stashed away. And they refuse to create jobs because of what? Because theres no demand for their products because the real job creators (thats YOU) in a consumer-driven economy dont have enough money to spend.

Another Republican myth is that FDR prolonged the Depression. It dishonestly ignores the employment from New Deal programs. Yes, unemployment rose in 1937. Why? Because FDR foolishly pursued Republican policies. But he quickly gave up, and then the economy continued to improve. John Fitzgerald Kennedy said, The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

Republican mythology is rampant. Democrats are socialists who dont believe in the free enterprise system. In reality, todays Democrats are roughly equivalent to the Republicans of the 50s and 60s. The GOP has taken a swing to the hard right, but Republican voters havent noticed. Democrats are incapable of pointing it out. To me, this is the greatest mystery of American politics. Hence, inertia sets in with the older crowd who vote Republican out of habit.

Another myth is that Republicans are rugged individualists who dont take a penny from the government. In reality, they see the public purse as a cash cow for themselves. They expect low rents for using federally owned lands. Another example is George Bush Juniors giveaway to drug companies on Medicare reform. The federal government was forbidden to use its buying power to drive down drug costs. In Republican theory, government isnt a club to benefit everyone; its a way for them to get rich at your expense.

A persistent myth is that if you vote Republican, youll get richer. You wont. For the last 30 years average Americans have become poorer in real terms, despite huge productivity gains and working their fingers to the bone. Todays average wage should be almost double what it actually is (see The Graph in Sharper Focus, Short of Money?).

The simple fact that were back in the Gilded Age or The Great Gatsby is no real news. Books have piled up in bookstores about this. Check out The Betrayal of the American Dream by Donald L. Bartleet and James B. Steele, one day. And catch Robert Reichs movie Inequality for All.

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Republican mythology