It's always nice when a person in prominence makes an historical illusion, but in doing so they run the risks of misstating and/or taking out of context.
Taking for example Stany Hoyers' latest statement:
Quote:
People are angry about it who believe it was beyond their control and they have been put in a position by people who have power, whether they're bankers, politicians, it is not unusual. Father Coughlin came about during the Depression. But Father Coughlin didn't have the e-mail. He didn't have blogs. He didn't have Twitter. He didn't have Fox News to promote the most confrontational, least-helpful dialogue and demagoguery that we are confronting the American people with, and I think that's not useful. I think we are losing the civility of our debate.
There's quite a bit wrong with this, and it contains both errors I made out from above. As a brief background, Father Coughlin was a Roman Catholic and the first major radio personality with a political and economic message with "social justice" being the central theme. During the height of his popularity one in three households tuned in to his program. His show lasted from 1926 to 1939, his career as a public figure effectively ended in 1942.
The errors are as follows:
1. The implication that Father Coughlin was unable to send a message is absurd given his listenership numbers.
2. Father Coughlin was a great supporter of the Roosevelt administration and the National Recovery Act, coining the phrase "Roosevelt or Ruin." Father Coughlin was alarmed when Roosevelt increasingly engaged in what Father Coughlin thought was crony capitalistic policy. The real estrangement between him and the administration would begin with the sharpening of Father Coughlin's criticism in 1935 (around the time of the assassination of Coughlin favorite, Huey Long) culminating in 1936 when Father Coughlin backed third party candidate William Lemke.
3. Father Coughlin's radio program began in 1926, Black Monday was in 1929.
4. Debate requires two sides. Father Coughlin was forced off the air by the federal government in 1939, the effort made in response to Father Coughlin's anti-war stance.
While I appreciate the effort, I'm of the opinion that it's better not to make a historical comparison than it is to make an incorrect or misleading one.
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