Robert Watson, Ph.D.

May 8, 2011

Robert Watson, Ph.D.
American Studies
Lynn University
3601 N. Military Trail
Boca Raton, FL 33431

RE: Lies, damned lies, and statistics – Some comments on your Sun-Sentinel article about “court packing” and some other “truths” about the New Deal which, alas, aren’t true.

My dear Professor,

“There is broad support among scholars [never mind recent
attacks by historical revisionists and radio shock jocks on
the ideological right] that FDR played a vital role in
creating jobs, getting America back on its feet, and
helping to save American capitalism.
The Sun-Sentinel
Today
You
Italics mine

One of the many glories of Western Civilization is something called the scientific method. It says that every claim is subject to independent analysis and verification. [Einstein would submit his work to his universe as quickly as possible. He said that he only had to be proved wrong once and that better it be done quickly so he could get on to something else.]

Your one sentence paean to FDR is now going to be subjected to some independent analysis.

When he appointed Corsair Joe Kennedy to keep the other pirates in line he little dreamed that one of his creations would come back 85 years to bite his unsuspecting, somewhat naifish acolytes on their non-inquisitive, all believing asses.

The Investment Act of 1934 said fraud could be committed two ways. Either something you did or something you didn’t do was sufficient to bring down the wrath of the SEC. You say that Roosevelt did a lot of things that he didn’t do. You forget, perhaps as a way of bolstering your thesis, that while Happy Days are Here Again is still a catchy tune it simply does not reflect the times of which it sings.




#1 – Roosevelt ran in 1932 promising to balance the budget. He excoriated Hoover for, can you believe it, deficit financing.

#2 – If March 4, 1933 is the base line for all the recognizable economic data I search in vain for any indicator that was up until the middle of 1940. When Boeing went to 3 shifts at their B-17 Wichita plant the “summer of recovery” was, finally, upon us. Thus, 7 years of “shovel ready grandfather of QE and QE2 stimulus programs” were a failure.

An argument could be made that if had followed Keynesian theories, particularly the one about drastically cutting all taxes in an economic downturn, he may have been able to speed up the process.

An argument could be made that the Civilian Conservation Corps [CCC] had at its greatest success the temporary removal of unemployed urban youth from the streets of America. It’s tough to build a road with a pick and shovel but at least they weren’t going to rallies for Mussolini, the darling of modern American Liberals in the ‘30s. When it came time to build a road in wartime – the Al-Can Highway, for example – bulldozers replaced picks.

One of my favorite publicans, Mr. Hinnisey, a superb practioner of the poetry of proffering potables and one of the founders of the Chicago School of Politics, the school that teaches us the etiquette of gun fights and why you shouldn’t bring a knife to them, said “The Supreme Court follows the election returns”.

It is well to note that three of the members of the Court when FDR was sworn in had been appointed by a Democratic President. Notwithstanding the inconvenient truth of the fact the T. Woodrow Wilson was the most racist, most bigoted President in the 20th century he nominated Justice Brandeis, Justice Clarke, and Justice McReynolds.

Your offhanded remark that “after a decade of Republican Presidents the High Court had a conservative tilt and dashed several of FDR’s New Deal initiatives” glosses over 2 facts.

President Obama reminded us, when he invoked executive cloture by telling a Republican Congressman in February, 2009 “there was an election and I won”, that the best way to “pack” a Supreme Court is to win the Presidential election. Winning Presidents get to nominate Justices, subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, to the Supreme Court.

Another one of those inconvenient facts is that 5 – count’em - Republican Presidents nominated Chief Justice Warren, Justice Brennan, Justice Blackmun, Justice Stevens, Justice Kennedy, and Justice Souter to the Supreme Court. Was there a “conservative tilt” there?



I consider it one of the great judicially ironic moments that the high dudgeon of modern American Liberals that caused Judge Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court to be rejected came back to poleax them 13 years later. Everyone thinks that the vote was 5 – 4 in the Bush/Gore brouhaha in 2000. The vote to accept the case was 5 – 4. The vote that confirmed the Bush election was 7 – 2. If Bork had been sitting on the Supreme Court he would have voted against accepting the case. If you’re weak in math 5 - 4 for would have been 5 – 4 against.

Alpha Gump would have been President. 9/11 wouldn’t have happened. Thumper, his charming wife, would have used pillow talk to outlaw bad language in rap music. Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma would not have dared to make landfall here. Samuel Alito and John Roberts would still be Appellate Judges. Lord Barack the Beneficent would have discovered those 7, or was it 8, missing states on his search for the still missing Austrian/ English dictionary. And, trust me; we would be all farting through silk

Life’s a bitch, ain’t it?

The thing about the Supreme Court following the election returns is that if History is a guide the Governor will start to get some calls. Great coaches always jump on the refs in the first quarter. They get the calls at the end of the game.

After FDR’s Court packing plan failed he never lost another case in the Supreme Court.

The Founders, in their wisdom, made it deuced difficult to amend the Federal Constitution. It’s only been done 16 times since 1789. Florida will probably do likewise. The Constitution clearly enables us to overturn any Supreme Court decision

You say, as if you mean it, that “courts must remain independent and beyond the political manipulation of political parties”.

Have you been to any NARAL meetings lately?




Kevin Smith