The Democrats Have Been Here Before

Seems like not much has changed in the Democrats playbook for at least 85 years (1937)...

From a Congressional Record report provided by the House Judiciary Committee a few days before the packing of SCOTUS was killed altogether during the FDR administration (Vol 81, Part 10, Page 1801)…

The alarm of the people crystallized into active antagonism.

The Democratic Party was faced with open rebellion.

Efforts were made to persuade the President to withdraw the measure.

Conciliation was met by increased constitutional contempt.

The President was adamant.

Finally the Senate Judiciary Committee, composed in most part of members of the President’s party, was compelled to issue a most stinging rebuke as it referred to the proposal as “an utterly dangerous abandonment of constitutional principle.”

The committee concluded its adverse reports with the recommendation that the measure “should be so emphatically rejected that its parallel will never again be presented to the free representatives of the free people of America.”

You should note particularly that the word “free” is used twice in this solemn declaration - free representatives, free people.

The above is from a deliver on the House floor given by Congressman J. William Ditter of Pennsylvania on Thursday, July 15, 1937 just days before the attempt to pack the Supreme Court by President Franklin D. Roosevelt was finally and soundly defeated.

The Senate in 1937 had 76 Democrats and only 16 Republicans yet it rejected Roosevelt's plan, shooting down the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill by a 70-20 vote on July 22.

FDR’s adamancy for this and several other items also lead to the passing of term limits for the Presidency.

The Senate and Congress had put up with 3 terms of FDR’s my way or the highway approach during his Presidency and wanted to save the country from such a dire situation again.

The depression of the 1930s is know only in the U.S. as the Great Depression as FDR’s answer to everything was a larger and more involved government into the lives of the people.

This was underlined by the fact that the depression continued in the U.S. while most of Europe had recovered and moved on - by limiting government and empowering their people.

What a unique concept.

Ahem.

And yet, here we are again, at the precipice of another recession that is, from all accounts, going to make the Jimmy Carter economy look like beginner’s luck.