One of the things about being fanatically committed to an ideology is that it allows you to conveniently dismiss Lessons From History. Consider those slimy curs (can a cur be slimy? moving on) who pounced on the auto bailout as a heaven-sent opportunity to finally demolish organized labor in this country. Their barely disguised glee made me want to dig up my pitchfork and torch and go a-marchin'.
Here's the thing, though: Republicans have forgotten (if they ever knew) why the New Deal was enacted in the first place. Was FDR a socialist, or anything close to it? Not at all. He was a member of a privileged, old-money family. If anything, he might have had a sense of noblesse oblige--but he was not a radical reformer. The reason he--and, let's note, business interests as well--put forward the New Deal was as a sop to the working and middle class. They instituted the New Deal because they feared a socialist revolution, not because they were proponents of socialism. That is why the New Deal is so minimal, compared to the welfare states of social democratic countries in Europe. The United States always had weaker unions and less class-consciousness than Europeans. The New Deal was just enough to keep the wheels on and the train moving.
Republicans in the Senate and House certainly have no intention of forgoing their health care or working for $25 an hour, as they believe auto workers should. (And actually, if Senators were paid by the hour we would certainly save a lot of money.) Their ideology is much more of the "Fine for thee, but not for me" variety, which is also known in Educated Land as hypocrisy. You want health care worth tens of thousands of dollars a year? You want to be paid $169,300 a year while working 3 days a week and taking two hour lunches? Well, son, you should have been a United States Senator.
The rest of you, get back to work. And quitcher bitchin. Children in China would be happy to make that automobile for $5 an hour.
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