Herbert Hoover, you probably recall from history class, was the 31st President of the United States and president when the Great Depression began in 1929. Rather than respond with bold action and programs to bring the country out of the economic doldrums, Hoover kept insisting that the federal government had no role to play in relief efforts.
Considering that the unemployment is now close to what it was at the height of the Depression, it’s fair to ask: Could Donald Trump be the next Herbert Hoover, a failed one-term president seen as out of touch by the electorate?
That’s certainly the consensus of Democratic strategist/political forecaster Ed Kilgore, who told MSNBC’s Alex Witt that there are indeed a great many parallels between the economic times of Hoover’s presidency and what faces Trump. Kilgore began by noting that Trump is not nearly as accomplished as Hoover was:
“President Trump is a man of great inherited privilege and wealth, you know, who did become a national celebrity but through a career of real estate and resort development, and then reality television.
“Herbert Hoover was an orphan, very much a self-made multimillionaire, considered the world’s most brilliant engineer and manager, and he rose to national celebrity through several extraordinary acts of emergency management. He fed starving Europeans early in and after World War I. He was in charge of food supplies during World War I. Later as Secretary of Commerce, he led an enormous relief effort after a huge flood. He became known as the Great Humanitarian.”
As for the direct comparison between Hoover, who lost badly to Franklin Roosevelt in the 1932 election — Roosevelt won 472 electoral votes to Hoover’s 59 — Kilgore noted that Trump may indeed lose his bid for a second term and also cause Republicans to lose control of the Senate:
“Right now he’s in some serious trouble and so is his party, which is in danger of losing control of the Senate along with the White House.”
Imagine all of the good that could be done if Joe Biden is elected and has a Democratic House and Senate. The Supreme Court would be safe for a generation, and we could finally address important issues such as global warming, economic inequality, and other injustices.
Maybe it’s time we all started tweeting to Trump with the hashtag #DonaldHoover.
Will need a big enormous Hoover vacuum cleaner to mop up after this creepy clown. He could not have cared any less about the people or the needy or the innocents A great big mess left by this ignorant self seeking egotistical manic and his band of ill bred politicians who just want what was never theirs. What a great day to see the house of trump fall…… Into jail.