Rep. Aaron Schock shocks Rachel Maddow

Darn those free thinking conservatives. They're always veering off the expected response and throwing a curve ball. Here, Rep. Aaron Schock, a 28-year-old powerhouse from Illinois (of all places), isn't intimidated even when outnumbered. He asks Maddow if she's ready to give back the Bush tax cuts she's demonizing. Nice one.



I'm sorry to say, I did some research to find an interesting tie-in concerning The New Deal with Rep. Schock's last statement concerning the stimulus funds going to his state. I have yet to find it. But I'm still looking.

In the meantime, my journey sent me to an article by Dr. Burton W. Folsom who writes about those free-spirited pioneers in Michigan who revolted against FDR's New Deal, men like Henry Ford, Rev. Charles Coughlin, and Sewell Avery, the president of Montgomery Ward and a man with a name that deserves remembrance.

Oh how much we shared with our ancestors of that day, like our irritation and anger over being treated as beggars, instead of the rugged workers that we truly are. We didn't accept defeat then and we're not accepting it now. The American spirit has this immortal renewal, a second wind that comes a third and fourth and fifth time, fresh and energetic each time it comes.

We are not failures. Or quitters. Or lazy. We know how to fight, how to roll up our sleeves, how to put in a hard day and go home with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. And no government has yet to beat that love of freedom out of us. It is our very breath.

So, I leave you with a few excellent paragraphs from Dr. Folsom's essay. Go here for the full article.

Many in Michigan supported the New Deal, especially Governor Frank Murphy, whom Roosevelt later appointed to the Supreme Court. Others were critical, such as the colorful but erratic Rev. Charles Coughlin, priest of the Royal Oak parish near Detroit. Father Coughlin had a nationwide radio program on CBS that reached over 40 million listeners. At first, the tart-tongued Coughlin supported Roosevelt, but later called him "the great betrayer and liar" and "Franklin Double-Crossing Roosevelt."

Darn that talk radio. Always thwarting those socialistic plans.

Henry Ford denounced Roosevelt’s National Recovery Act (NRA), which required businessmen to fix prices and wages, and carve up markets in their industries. Entrepreneurs would go to jail if they gave discounts to customers below the price set by industry codes. A tailor in New Jersey, for example, was jailed for pressing a pair of pants for 35 cents, instead of the NRA code-rate of 40 cents.

We're living in Ayn Rand's novel. Jailed for a discount. It seems ludicrous now, but so does a government jailing you for using the wrong light bulb.

While most American industrialists were willing, if not eager, to comply with the NRA, Ford resisted and refused to sign any code. "I do not think that this country is ready to be treated like Russia for a while," he wrote. "There is a lot of the pioneer spirit here yet." However, all other carmakers signed the code, which astounded Ford. His colleagues preferred Roosevelt’s promise of stability and government regulation to competition and free trade.

Ford is my kind of man. Bold, brave, relentless, a fighter, standing for what's right even when standing alone. Isn't it interesting that now, facing a second New Deal, Ford Co. refused government intervention and is the one not only left standing but surpassing all others with the number one vehicle in America, the Ford F-150.

That, my friends, is the immortal American pioneering spirit in action.

And lastly, we come to Sewell Avery, who actually made Montgomery Ward profitable during The Great Depression, thanks to his ingenuity and business sense.

Then came the NRA codes for retailing. Avery called the New Dealers "impractical and dreamlike idealists."

Sound familiar?

He stood alone among the nation’s retailers and courageously ignored the NRA codes. When the government clamped down, Avery refused to pay $30,000 for code administration. The government barred him from receiving any government contracts. The stalemate ended in May 1935, when the Supreme Court declared the NRA unconstitutional.

Avery would have loved the Tea Party.

Roosevelt supported mandatory collective bargaining and secured legislation imposing it. As a result, Ford Motor Company was forced to unionize in 1941. During World War II, Avery challenged government efforts to unionize warehouse and retail workers. Finally, after a long resistance, the Attorney General came to the Montgomery Ward headquarters in Chicago and forcibly evicted Avery. National Guardsmen carried him out of the building in full view of spectators and cameramen. "To hell with the government," Avery snapped at the Attorney General. "You . . . New Dealer!"

I LOVE IT! What passion. Unafraid of his image or his political correctness or if Katie Couric would pop out of the crowd and ask him, "Mr. Avery. Do you read?". The man said basically, "To h-e-double-hockey-sticks with your socialism. I. Won't. Conform."

Here's the end of the story.

Avery seemed to have lost the battle, but in a sense he won the war. A Gallup poll showed that 61 percent of Americans sided with Avery, not the government. Many newspapers compared Roosevelt with foreign dictators and, within three years, Avery was back at the helm at Montgomery Ward and the government had ended its price-fixing schemes.

Amazing. A man stands up, despite the government and the greedy politicians, and refuses to bend to lies, to allow government sanctioned theft. He doesn't cross the aisle, he doesn't compromise, he doesn't exercise tolerance. He simply stands on principle. And the American people listened.