This quote is a real find:
“Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.”
And the answer is….President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 11/8/54
The man who warned of the growing power of the “military-industrial complex” was awfully smart for a Republican. But then, Republicans back then were different than they are today.
Via Kos.
Update: See the comments. This seems to be a hoax….
1
By Leo
oddly enough, I live 20 miles from where that guy lived.
May 12, 2005 @ 11:39 am | Comment
2
By Keir
Richard
I suggest you read this from http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_eisenhower_quote.htm:
“If he were alive today, Eisenhower — a committed, if comparatively moderate, Republican — would surely object to the way his words are being used. Those who quote the passage clearly mean to imply that it fits current Republican luminaries such as President G.W. Bush, whose proposals for Social Security reform have included reducing future benefits for some.
As it happens, Bush is also a Texas oil millionaire.
But he has never proposed abolishing Social Security, nor eliminating unemployment insurance, labor laws, or farm programs. Hence, the tacit suggestion that Bush and fellow-traveling Republicans ought to be counted among those characterized as “stupid” by Eisenhower is a transparent, if deft, example of partisan hyperbole.”
May 13, 2005 @ 5:02 am | Comment
3
By richard
Keir, thanks for that – I updated the post.
May 13, 2005 @ 4:28 pm | Comment
4
By Keir
It’s not a hoax- it was actually written in personalcorrespondence. The point is that the words were taken out of context from an entire letter, and misleadingly used post hoc, ergo proctum hoc to apply to Bush.
May 14, 2005 @ 2:29 am | Comment
5
By Admiral Waugh
And more to the point, it’s really not hard to find comments like that in the life of Eisenhower — not brilliant by anyone’s measure — or in the life of any mercilessly scrutinized public figure of so long. Ever wonder how long FDR thought social security would last without privatization or personal accounts?
want to know? 🙂
May 15, 2005 @ 8:42 pm | Comment
6
By Conrad
George Marshall, Douglas MacArthur and Franklin Roosevelt, among others, all concluded that Eisenhower was extremely smart, as did his biographer Stephen Ambrose.
May 16, 2005 @ 11:08 pm | Comment