FDR or MVB

As a former history teacher, I love it when media types make comparisons between today and some event or person from history. Like the Obama = FDR comparisons. Or I've even heard Obama = Lincoln. Pretty high praise for someone who has been in office for six months. The Civil War era or Great Depression era this is not, despite what the talking heads will have you believe.

History is an excellent learning tool. If that were not the case, there would be no reason to study history. History is not necessarily important just because things happened in the past and we need to know about them. History allows us to draw from periods of human history and see how people dealt with issues, problems, and crises in the past. That's why I think history is important, at least.

We've been told so many times, by the talking heads, the story of how the stock market collapsed while Herbert Hoover was in office in 1929, leading to the Great Depression, and then Franklin D. Roosevelt came riding in on his white horse to save the country (10 - 12 years later anyway.)

Roosevelt was a popular president, no doubt. He would not have been elected president four times if he weren't (breaking the long-standing precedent set by George Washington of only serving 2 terms). I won't argue the merits of the New Deal--entire books have been dedicated to the subject. But I will point out that FDR wasn't the first U.S. president to ever have to deal with economic crisis, even though the talking heads will have you believe that. He wasn't even the last president to have to deal with economic problems. Almost all presidents, if they serve long enough, have economic problems to face. One of the most difficult periods in history occurred soon after the presidency of Andrew Jackson ended. His former vice president and successor, Martin Van Buren, was left holding the bag when the Panic of 1837 hit. It basically ruined the Van Buren administration and legacy. Chalk it up to bad timing, chalk it up to a lack of presidential power, chalk it up to Van Buren's incompetence--whatever you want to blame it on. In any case, the moral of the story is that FDR is a national hero and MVB has been basically forgotten, despite the many achievements throughout his lifetime.

I hate comparisons anyway. How can you compare today with the Jacksonian, Civil War, Great Depression, or any other era? You can draw some lessons, but so many things have changed since then. That's why I hate these direct comparisons with the 1930s. In this era of overcomplicating everything on television, the 1930s v. 2009 comparison has the opposite problem: it actually oversimplifies it. How wonderful.