Dan

Calabrese

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February 26, 2009

Obama’s FDR Hero Complex

Seventy-six years ago, with the nation mired in a deep depression and no hope in sight, an heroic president took the reins, instituted massive federal initiatives of every conceivable nature and brought America back to prosperity.

Oh, I know, this is a popular myth and it didn’t really happen that way. But I’m not so sure Barack Delano Obama knows that. President Obama gives every indication that he believes the FDR-as-savior narrative, and that he intends to repeat the exact same dramatic, if fictional, Washington-initiated rescue.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt initiated massive public works programs – everything from the Works Progress Administration to the Civilian Conservation Corps – as well as massive entitlement programs like Social Security. Yes, the federal government took bold action like never before. Yes, FDR assured the nation in his “fireside chats” that the only thing we had to fear was fear itself. Yes, the electorate put its trust in the new president and got behind his agenda.

All that is true. The only part that isn’t true is that all this heroic federal action brought us out of the Great Depression. While the economy had relative highs and lows – an uptick after the low point of 1933, then another deep downturn starting in 1938 – the fact remains that unemployment was still as high as 14 percent until the federal government began massive defense spending in support of the war effort beginning in 1940.

So, if you’re excited about the idea that the economy will start rolling again in 2016 – because of a war – then you’ll love the idea of Obama as the second coming of FDR.

Perhaps this is what happens when we elect a man to whom the electorate and the media ascribe super-human abilities, in spite of the fact that he has no track record of achievement whatsoever. We encourage our amateur chief executive, puffed up by his own adoring press, to believe he can do anything to save the day.

Obama’s approach gives every indication that he brought a hero complex with him to the Oval Office. The economy is in the doldrums, but we’ve seen worse, and much of what’s going wrong is actually a series of necessary corrections for an economy that relied too much on the imagined value of assets, instead of actual productivity and the ongoing creation of wealth and value. A lot of the failure you get with an economic downturn like this is cathartic. Without it, you only perpetuate the bad practices that got us here in the first place.

But Obama, who understands none of this – and indeed, who knows so little about economics that he said during the campaign that we need to “reward work instead of rewarding wealth” – only sees The Greatest Crisis Ever, and believes that the federal government, personified by himself, must save the day because he is the man.

Obama is already enjoying the kind of adulation one would expect for a Super President, including news stories the day after his address to Congress labeling it the “21^st Century Fireside Chat.” His rhetorical ability to make almost any initiative sound reasonable is superior. He is, as John McCain said last summer, the biggest celebrity in the world.

Perhaps that is why he can make statements that cannot possibly be defended – we’re going to balloon the deficit to three times the previous record, and then cut it in half? – and no one seems to notice the problem.

Obama is borrowing and spending such massive amounts of money, all to “stimulate” the private economy with largely public-sector largesse, that $5 billion here or $20 billion there hardly seems to matter anymore. Indeed, when private companies ask for $30 billion in bailout funds, the fact that we’re spending $700 billion elsewhere is actually used as an argument in favor.

“You did it for them! Do it for me!”

Oy.

One of the most illustrative moments of Obama’s speech on Tuesday night was actually one of the intended feel-good moments. Obama hailed a young girl from South Carolina whose school was having all kinds of problems. She took action. What action did she take? She wrote a letter to Congress asking for help.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet your new 21^st Century American hero – the citizen who takes the bold and decisive action of asking for government money.

But hey, why not? There’s virtually no limit to who can get it or how much. We’re having the biggest crisis ever, and only the greatest super president ever can save us, just like that other great super president who spent federal money like never before – and oh, by the way, didn’t actually fix anything . . . but don’t spoil the president’s hero complex.

It would be a messy shame if he realized from 1,000 feet up that he can’t really fly.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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