General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 9 Ways FDR's 'New Deal' Purposely Excluded Blacks [View all]BzaDem
(11,142 posts)Let's take Obama's big three achievements in domestic policy: the stimulus, the ACA, and Dodd-Frank.
I'm not sure of your opinion on these, so I will just say that many people with similar views would call those "conservative fiscal policy"/"corporate leaning"/etc. Of course, that is utterly false when compared with the status quo ante. The problem is that people aren't comparing Obama's policies with the status quo ante. They are comparing it to a mythical new deal that didn't actually pass, didn't come close to passing, and never had any hope of passing during FDR's time.
The new deal that actually passed only passed due to the exclusion of minorities. While of course FDR made mistakes, it wasn't something that FDR could have fixed if he just "fought harder." Instead, it was the only way the votes would add up, despite a much larger Congressional majority than we have seen in decades.
So instead of blaming today's Democrats for "conservative"/"corporate leaning" fiscal policy, by citing as precedent FDR's new deal, people should be asking: what about our political system makes it so incredibly difficult to move the ball forward at all? So difficult that FDR himself could not pass progressive policy without excluding minorities from said policy? Instead of asking why today's democrats aren't doing better than the new deal, people should be asking why FDR couldn't even pass the new deal itself (at least in the form that many pretend it was passed, that this thread does a great job of exposing as false).
None of this is providing a rationale for "conservative"/"corporate leaning" policies. None of this purports to attack an ideal of new-deal-style economic policy that is actually inclusive (unlike the new deal). But it should make people question their assumptions about what types of policy is actually achievable, even if that makes them feel uncomfortable with the results of such questioning.