Chuck Campbell Show WPJL 1240-AM Radio Raleigh, NC & RTN-10 TV Host & Producer’s Blog

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Roosevelt could push through such government-growing legislation not only because of congressional dominance: Like Obama, he artfully used biblical allusions. In his first inaugural address, for example, FDR argued that America’s land was bountiful and should be productive, but the problem was that “unscrupulous money changers . . . have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.” Then came the good news: “The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths.”

The political application of these New Testament references soon became clear: Roosevelt wanted to increase federal power through “national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and communications and other utilities which have a definitely public character.” The era of big government had begun. Roosevelt threatened to become dictatorial if Congress balked. “I shall then ask the Congress for . . . the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.”

Barack Obama is following Rooseveltian rules by being mellifluous rather than strident when he calls for government expansion. FDR calmed some critics by saying, “It is wholly wrong to call the measures that we have taken Government control of farming, industry, and transportation. It is rather a partnership.” He complained of “a loss of spiritual values” in America and proposed to “add to the comfort and happiness of hundreds of thousands of people” so that they would feel more at ease and more able to spiritually soar.

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For example, Roosevelt gave Chicago Mayor Edward J. Kelly funds that enabled him to build a subway, airport, new roads and parks, public housing projects, and 30 new schools. Since the federal government paid 88 percent of Chicago’s relief and jobs costs, the state government 11 percent and the city itself only one penny of every dollar, Kelly did not have to raise property taxes to pay for these projects. He received new terms as mayor in 1935, 1939, and 1943, and delivered Illinois to Roosevelt four times.

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News pages, though, played up the human interest of 100,000 children assembled on the Boston Common to repeat this pledge: “I promise as a good American citizen to do my part for the NRA. I will buy only where the Blue Eagle flies. . . . I will help President Roosevelt bring back good times.”

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MIT economist John Gruber last year confirmed that Roosevelt succeeded in having New Deal governmental programs crowd out private giving. “Church relief made up 90 percent of the income of the poor before the New Deal,” he found out: “Government relief made up 90 percent of the income of the poor after the New Deal.” Gruber found that church and charitable giving held up well in 1929 after the stock market crash and did not drop until 1933 when the New Deal began. Then and only then did church spending for charitable purposes fall by one-third.

But, due to a conservative Supreme Court, the federal government did not grow as fast as Roosevelt wished. The justices in 1935 found the NRA to be an unconstitutional depriving of liberty, and FDR temporarily backtracked—only to come out swinging in his reelection campaign. Throughout 1936 Roosevelt alternated fiery speeches with pastorals, such as the one he gave in North Carolina based on the 23rd Psalm’s teaching: “He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters.”

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How can today’s Republicans, in their down year, preserve the checks and balances that often keep bad bills from becoming law? One way is for John McCain to win. Another way, if he seems headed for defeat, is for Republicans to stress the importance of a congressional check on presidential radicalism.

Columnist John Fund tells of what happened in 1996 when Bob Dole was clearly going to lose: “The Republican National Committee decided to take bold action by directly appealing to the public’s fondness for divided government and fear of one-party rule. . . . The announcer warned what could happen if Democrats swept the elections: ‘Remember the last time Democrats ran everything? The largest tax increase in history. Government-run health care. More wasteful spending. Who wants that again?’” Fund reports, “It worked. Republicans gained two seats in the Senate and lost only a handful in the House.”

It’s too early to resort to such a strategy now: McCain is running close to Obama in polls and leading in battleground states such as Ohio and Florida. But if Obama makes a slight bow to pro-life sentiment (and I would welcome such a move on his part), it’s not too early to think through Plan B.