Thursday, October 15, 2009

A timely message from ... 1937?

In 1937, in response to FDR's New Deal, US Senator Josiah Bailey co-authored a document that came to be known as the "Conservative Manifesto".

The points of the document ring as true today as they did in 1937. But who among the current republican leadership could communicate a message like this to the American people?

The following are the ten points of the Conservative Manifesto (1937), as described by the New York Times:


  1. Immediate revision of taxes on capital gains and undistributed profits in order to free investment funds.
  2. Reduced expenditures to achieve a balanced budget, and thus, to still fears deterring business expansion.
  3. An end to coercion and violence in relations between capital and labor.
  4. Opposition to "unnecessary" government competition with private enterprise.
  5. Recognition that private investment and enterprise require a reasonable profit.
  6. Safeguarding the collateral upon which credit rests.
  7. Reduction of taxes, or if this proved impossible at the moment, firm assurance of no further increases.
  8. Maintenance of state rights, home rule, and local self-government, except where proved definitely inadequate.
  9. Economical and non-political relief to unemployed with maximum local responsibility.
  10. Reliance upon the American form of government and the American system of enterprise.

1 comment:

  1. well, it wasn't that long ago that gingrich had a vision of what the conservatives should stand for.

    the irony there is that his accomplishments are now claimed as the left's (reducing the deficit) since Clinton was in office when they occurred.

    ReplyDelete

 
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