Political Lesson For American Ideologues Especially Democrats

by Rory Cripps | September 9, 2010 at 10:59 am

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Since 1945 and the reelection of FDR, for the third time, to the presidency, the Democrats have been in control of the U.S. House of Representatives almost 4 times longer (3.7 times to be exact) than have the Republicans. Since 1945, the Democrats have also been in control of the U.S. Senate twice as long (2.3 times longer) than have the Republicans. After President Obama finishes his term of office in 2012, the Republicans will have controlled the White House for only one term (4 years) longer than have the Democrats.

Since 1945, the Democratic Party has simultaneously controlled the White House, the House, and the Senate, for a total of 22 years, which is five and a half times longer than the Republicans have. Since 1945, there was only one Republican President (George W. Bush, 2003 to 2006) whose party was the majority party in the House and Senate.

Since 1945, three major wars erupted, or were already under way, when Democratic presidents were in office: WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Two major wars since 1945 erupted under Republican presidents: The Gulf War in 1991 and the Gulf War in 2003. In both of the Gulf Wars, there were no where near the amount of American casualties as there were as a result of the wars that began under Democratic administrations.

Prior to 1945, and beginning officially in August 1929, the Great Depression began under a Republican president, Herbert Hoover, and a Republican controlled House and Senate. The Great Depression lasted 11 years and 7 months. It ended, officially, in March 1942 during the height of WWII. For nine years during the Great Depression (1933-1942) FDR together with the Democrat controlled House and Senate presided over the worst economic downturn in American history. FDR and the Democrats tried everything that they could during the nine years that they were in control of the government to pull America from the depths of the Great depression to no avail. The only thing that pulled America out of the depression was WWII. Indeed, it can be said that WWII and FDR's consequent policies sowed the seeds and paved the way for the American Military Industrial Complex.

The United States has experienced 12 recessions since 1945. The current recession, which began under George W. Bush in December 2007 and under a Democrat controlled House and Senate, is termed by some as the Great Recession. Indeed, it has been going on for 2 years and 8 months. With the exception of the Great Depression, it is the longest economic downturn in U.S. history.

Forgetting about the Great Depression, which a Democratic President, House, and Senate presided over for nine years, nine of the 12 U.S. recessions since 1945 began under a Republican President. Those nine recessions, if added up, lasted 101 months. Under Democratic Presidents since 1945 (and this includes the 20 months of the current recession under Obama) the total recession duration is 45 months. In other words, it would be accurate to state that since 1945, recessions have lasted 2.24 times longer under Republican Presidents than under Democratic Presidents. It would also be accurate to state that, with the exception of the March-November 2001 recession, the Democrats were in control of the House for 93 out of the 101 months of recessions that Republican Presidents presided over. It would also be accurate to state that, out of the 101 months of recessions that a Republican President presided over, the Democrats controlled both the House and Senate for 67 of those months.

In simple and very general terms, the U.S. Government consists of three separate but equal branches: The executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. The legislative branch writes the laws and passes the laws. The judicial branch interprets the laws and determines whether they conform to the Constitution. The executive branch formulates policy, sees that the laws are enforced, and vetoes legislation that Congress has passed if not in agreement with the legislation.

There are many more political facts that can be stated here, but for the sake of brevity, I only touched upon a few that most Americans don't seem to be aware of in terms of their government. The point of this piece, for those of you that don't get it because your head is full of ideological and partisan crap and conditioning, is simply this: You need to take off your ideological blinders, take a long step back, take a deep breath, and take a good, long, thoughtful look, at the big political picture. Given all of the above historical facts in regard to what the Democrats and Republicans have been up to, both together and separately, since the end of WWII, it is completely irrational and self-destructive for any American to put their faith in one political party over the other.

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YankeeJim

at 13:56 on September 9th, 2010

" it is completely irrational and self-destructive for any American to put their faith in one political party over the other"

Hallelujah, amen brother Rory.

Rory Cripps

at 16:51 on September 9th, 2010

Thanks, Jim! LOL! I'm sure that someone that reads this story will attempt to come up with a way to prove by what I stated that I'm a intolerant/racist/homophobic/illegal immigrant hating/Islamophobic/right-wing/Nazi/Christian Fundamentalist/extremist! JEEZ! Imagine that! But before they start calling me names, I ask them to fact-check my story and then take their best shot.

“thirty-aught-six” (not verified)

at 14:37 on September 9th, 2010

Very commendable piece. The fact that every thing goes before both the House and Senate to be voted upon by the members, Democrat and Republican alike, doesn't stop the partisan and ideologues from blaming the President at the time. Or even past Presidents for that matter.

Rory Cripps

at 16:45 on September 9th, 2010

“thirty-aught-six”: LOL! Lock and load! You know that's my favorite all-purpose round!

The American voter is really starting to wise up. An indication of that is that many voters now consider themselves as "independents". And Independents are what get politicians elected. Another thing that gets politicians elected or reelected or thrown out of office is the economy. As James Carville said, "It's the economy, stupid!" The problem with that, however, is that a president or Congress has very little to do with how the economy turns out given the structure and mechanics of the American economy. Americans for the most part simply don't know that, and as a result, they're taken in by politicians that proclaim they know how to fix the economy and get Americans back to work.

“thirty-aught-six” (not verified)

at 12:53 on September 10th, 2010

Been in service since 1906 in one form or another. Reliable and accurate with serious stopping power. My BAR Safari will have to be pried from my cold, dead hands. On a more serious note. The root of the economic crisis stems from the steady dissipation of manufacturing jobs over the last 30 years. Western countries gave up their industry and off-shored those jobs to countries like Malaysia, Korea, India and China. That left us, most western countries, [with the exception of Canada, Germany and Japan which have savings surpluses,and typically run trade surpluses], with a negative trade balance. We had to import much more than we were capable of exporting and the affect on our collective trade deficit ground the hell out of our balance of goods to service. Service costs rose exponentially with our decrease in production. Manufacturing provides a solid source of taxation and that has been lost along with the jobs and that taxable income as well as it's purchasing power. While our manufacturing has gone the way of the Dodo our service industry is expanding and will even further with our ever increasing population. Service jobs are typically paid for with taxed income and not by the service actually supplied. Most service employment runs as part of the government deficit. For example: police, fire, ambulance, postal, all levels of government employees, public transport, and many others. In a healthy national economy these services are offset by a balance of export to import. Ideally a slightly higher export to import. Collapse of the auto industry, banking crisis and housing crash just added that much more to the tipping point. The U.S. must get back to manufacturing. Giving tax breaks might return some purchasing power to the people but, it really in't effective when they only have cheap Chinese imports to buy. Those dollars are not staying inside the country they are going to China for more cheap products and only support our huge trade deficit with them.

René

at 20:28 on September 25th, 2010

Might I add, that the Great Depression had something more than political or even financial misdeeds as its cause.

In 1927 there was a monster flood, as it kept raining heavily from summer 1926 and long into the summer of 1927, in the North. The floods ravaged the Midwest and Mideast and the Deep South. You can google for it, but for this a brief wiki article to start.

This disaster undoubtedly fueled the Stock Market Crash of 1929.

Then to dig the hole deeper, the Great Dust Bowl disaster hit the plains all through the 30's.

On second thought, politics played an important part on how all these things might have been prevented and how things turned out afterwards.

The one thing for sure we got from all that, was Big and Bigger Government, regardless of political party, involved more and more in people's lives and states' affairs and not necessarily all for the better.