Planned Economy or Planned Destruction?

I hope you don’t think conservative authors have just discovered in the last couple of decades that our government has gone crazy. Writers and cartoonists have been drawing the nation’s attention to the dangers of Socialism since long before most of us writing today were born. This cartoon is from 1934…
 
It was drawn by Casey Orr, who was very popular with Chicago Tribune readers. Because the cartoon is still true today, Democrats hate it, and some have challenged its authenticity. I think the fact that the Chicago Tribune recently republished the cartoon speaks for itself. It is also posted on the Tribune website (see LINK below). The caption says "This is a 1934 Chicago Tribune political cartoon that many say rings true in today's political and economic climate.”

The text is small in the cartoon posted on the website. I enlarged it so I could include its contents for you word for word in this piece. I didn’t want you to miss one word of the truth and wit it contains.

The title of the cartoon is the same as the title of this article. Socialists and Liberals like those in power today always equate oppressive central government to a “Planned Economy.” But central planning as practiced by Communist governments always results in economic destruction. So why do the Liberals think that government control of the economy today will end differently? Remember, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result this time.”

Starting from the left of the cartoon we see a man in a mortarboard and gown flogging the donkey that is pulling the wagon. His tag reads, “Tugwell – Head Brain Truster.”  Rex Tugwell, a very Liberal academician, was the head of FDR’s so-called “Brain Trust.” This group was full of college professors and politicians who had zero experience in business. They were supposed to come up with new ideas to kick-start the American economy following the Great Depression. The “Brain Trust” was a miserable failure.

Next we see two young men in graduation caps and gowns holding a liquor bottle labeled “Power” and shouting “Whoopee!” The sign tacked to the wagon immediately below them identifies them as “Young pinkies from Columbia & Harvard.” Many young men like this were recruited to staff New Deal Liberal programs.. Obviously all graduates of Ivy League universities are not “pinkies” (a word from that era that meant “Pinkos” or Communists). But most of them are very Liberal, and many of them who go into government get drunk on the power of their positions.

The tail gate of the wagon has this sign: “Depleting the resources of the soundest government in the world.” Three key Socialists are shown doing the depleting.

The three politicians shoveling money out of the back of the wagon are close advisors of arguably the worst president that has ever been inflicted on the United States – Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). Unfortunately our current president thinks FDR was some kind of deity, and follows closely in his Socialist footsteps.

The first shoveler is Harold L. Ickes, FDR’s Secretary of the Interior and the Director of the Public Works Administration (PWA). In this position he decided which public works projects would be initiated and where they would be built. He never met a Socialist program he didn’t like. The biggest of the PWA projects was the Tennessee Valley Authority. Ickes used his power to pay off political donors to FDR by giving them lucrative contracts. Interestingly, Harold L. Ickes was the father of Harold M. Ickes, a key advisor to Bill Clinton. Ickes the younger graduated from Columbia!

The man with the biggest shovel is Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace, who was well-known for his associations with avowed Socialists. My readers are well aware of the treason that FDR committed when he took 539 Metric Tons of Gold from private citizens during his Gold confiscation that began on April 5, 1933. But few are aware that Wallace’s Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 greatly increased the powers of the Federal Reserve to both control the economy and to massively increase the National Debt. It also set the stage for FDR’s Executive Order 6102 which stole 40% of the wealth of Americans, and provided for 10 year prison sentences for those who refused to turn their Gold into the government.

The third man who can be seen throwing bags of money off the back of the wagon is Donald Richberg. Richberg had tremendous power in the Roosevelt administration. He was known as the “Assistant President,” who had more power than the elected Vice-President. Both Richberg and Ickes were products of the sewer of American politics, Chicago. (Yes, even back then Chicago was training and producing corrupt politicians, as it does today.)

Richberg and Ickes were leaders of the Progressive movement, another name for Liberalism. They were also important figures in the National Industrial Recovery Act, which imposed fascist codes of conduct on American industry. This Progressive act dictated how important US industries would to be run. Fortunately the National Recovery Administration was ultimately struck down by the US Supreme Court in 1935. This humiliated FDR and led to his campaign to pack the Supreme Court with more Liberal Justices.

You might miss the figure of Stalin off to the right were it not pointed out to you. He is depicted saying, “How red the sunrise is getting,” an obvious allusion to the fact that under FDR America is getting more and more “red,” the color of Communism. FDR was actually very close to Stalin.

At the bottom left there is an artist, whom I believe is Leon Trotsky, drawing a “Plan of action for the United States.” He is seen saying, “It worked in Russia!” This fits, because Stalin expelled Trotsky from the Soviet Union because he was more interested in spreading Communism throughout the world than consolidating the ideology in the USSR. So it makes sense that Trotsky would want to spread the poison to the US.

Trotsky’s plan reads, “Spend! Spend! Spend! Under the guise of recovery – bust the government. Blame the capitalists for the failure – junk the Constitution and declare a dictatorship.”

While they haven’t totally junked the Constitution or declared a dictatorship yet, American Progressives have certainly moved us far along that road. A true dictatorship is not possible while Constitutional institutions are still in place. But Progressives have weakened the ability of the three branches of government to act as checks and balances on one another.

The Supreme Court, with support from the Democrats, has abandoned its Constitutional role of interpreting the Constitution. It is now in the business of writing laws, creating new "rights" and amending the Constitution. It takes three quarters of Congress (401 people) to pass a Constitutional Amendment, which must then be approved by two-thirds of the States (representing many millions of people). But on numerous occasions five Justices of the US Supreme Court have modified or amended the Constitution. And Congress has allowed this outrage to take place.

The US Congress has become a joke. It has an even lower approval rating than Obama. The only ones who take Senators and Congressmen seriously are themselves. They have abdicated their responsibilities to reign in the Supreme Court and the Executive Branch. With few exceptions, these buffoons are more interested in getting reelected than they are in serving the citizens who elected them. They have forgotten the Constitution – if they ever read it in the first place.

Totally against the intent of the Founders, the Presidency has taken on almost dictatorial powers. Our current president has unabashedly stated on numerous occasions that if Congress will not act as he wished, he will act alone. He has been as good as his word, issuing dozens of Executive Orders that under the Constitution would require Congressional approval. But he doesn’t care because he has the support of the powerful Fourth Estate – the media that elected him.

Orr was depicting the problems of 1934 in his cartoon, but he was also prophetic concerning the Progressive movement. For clarity, the terms Progressive, Liberal, Socialist and Communist are roughly equivalent. Communism is just a stronger flavor of the Socialism that is practiced by the Democrats today.

Lest you think that I overstate my case, consider this. All world Communist and Socialist Parties are members of an international umbrella organization known as the Socialist International. The US Congressional Progressive Caucus is associated with the Socialist International. (See LINK below.) That’s right – 45 Senators and Representatives (all of them Democrats) identify themselves as Progressives. Many other Democrats are Socialists but don’t openly identify themselves with the Caucus because their electorates are Conservative.

Go to the website of the Socialist International (LINK below). You will see the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a full Member Party representing the United States. The Congressional Progressive Caucus was founded by the Democratic Socialists of America. Until November of 2002, the Caucus’ website was actually hosted by the DSA.

In December of 2002, following media coverage of the close relationship between the Socialist Party and Congressional Democrats, the website information was moved to the website of Bernie Sanders, an open Socialist and a strong supporter of homosexual activism. Later the Progressives got their own website. Although they have tried to distance themselves from the Democratic Socialists of America, they can’t hide their history.

In addition to the commentary above, this cartoon is significant for another reason. It depicts the manipulation of America by financial elites (bankers as well as elected officials who benefit financially). This was true in 1934. And it is true to a much greater degree today.

When this cartoon was drawn the National Debt was measured in Billions of dollars. Today it is measured in Trillions. Was Casey Orr a cartoonist or a prophet?

 

INTERNET RESOURCES:

1934 Political Cartoon Posted on Chicago Tribune Website
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/sns-pod-1934-cartoon-pic,0,7114709.photo

Members of the US Congressional Progressive Caucus
http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/caucus-members/

Member Parties of the Socialist International
http://www.socialistinternational.org/viewArticle.cfm?ArticlePageID=931

Website of the Democratic Socialists of America
http://www.dsausa.org/

History Lesson: Democrat Progressive Caucus Organized by Socialists
http://kleinonline.wnd.com/2012/04/11/history-lesson-congressional-progressive-caucus-was-founded-by-socialist-group-official-website-initially-hosted-by-democratic-socialists-of-america/#_edn1