porphyrogenitusAlso, it’s a myth that FDR “focused on the forgotten middle class.” Woods’s lectures on the New Deal illustrate; FDR focused his programs on his own well-being, putting money where it would do him and Democrats political good, not on the abstract well-being of the “middle class” as a whole.
FDR came into office saying a third of the country was ill-fed, then destroyed foodstocks and implemented other policies aimed at keeping prices high.
What gets people to think that he “focused on the well-being of the middle class” is the fact that he did what he could to screw business. . .but it was often one set of businesses that were being screwed, on behalf of the business interests who were FDR’s friends & supporters, and who wrote the regulations by which their competitors were screwed.
Further, there are tons of books and articles that could be recommended that show that using government to “spread the wealth around” does not improve the lot of the worst off, but actually (especially over time), harms them – but, again, entrenches interests who do benefit from the programs (and no, those interests are not “the poor”). One starting point for that would be Tom Woods’s own book, “The Church and the Market,” which examines in some detail whether these programs, ostensibly aimed at helping the “disenfranchized” actually help them. I mean, other than making them feel better because they’re screwing over people who think are doing better than them.
To that end, remind your “facebook friend” of Obama’s great moral exhortation to his supporters, that “voting is the best revenge.” His call to revenge, that’s the “positive, optimistic vision” that Progressives offer. Perpetual revenge-based politics through a perpetual patron-client relationship between the Progressive leadership and their supporters.