'The Paranoid Style of American Politics'

Lou Cannon, the political journalist and biographer of Ronald Reagan, has been trawling through the Hoover Institution Library and Archives at Stanford University. He's found some interesting parallels between the fierce political attacks on Barack Obama and those on Franklin Roosevelt. Well worth a look. Lou's conclusions:

"What I was reminded of in the archives is that what Richard Hofstadter called 'the paranoid style of American politics' has always existed side by side with legitimate opposition - and that neither has changed as much as we might think. Hofstadter himself held that temperament rather than a change in philosophy was at the 'heart of the New Deal.' Roosevelt changed many things, more often than not for the better, but with the exception of public power developments almost always did so within the framework of American capitalism.

"Obama also operates within that framework. He is no more a radical or a socialist, let alone a despot, than was FDR. Nor has he challenged private ownership of anything. Based on his performance to date, Obama also shares with FDR a dubious achievement - 'conspicuous failure to produce economic recovery,' to quote David Kennedy's book on the New Deal. Kennedy sees Roosevelt's achievements as nuanced and short-handed by the word 'security.' Social Security, to be sure, but also "security for capitalists and consumers, for workers and employers, for corporations and farms and homeowners and bankers and builders as well.

"Look closely at the Obama advocacies for stimulus and health care and education reform and one sees the same animating impulse as the New Deal: security and a better life for all Americans. Whether or not Obama succeeds is at this point an open question, but I suspect that his opposition sees what he is about more clearly than Obama's more impatient supporters. That's why the opponents sound so much like the critics of the New Deal, which fell short of its bolder promises but nonetheless changed the lives of Americans for the better."