Nothing New Under The Sun

From Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg, a difficult but eye-opening and rewarding read:

"Jacob Maged, a forty-nine year old immigrant dry cleaner was jailed for three months for charging thirty-five cents to press a suit when the government insisted that all loyal Americans charged at least forty cents. Because one of the central goals of the early New Deal was to create artificial scarcity in order to drive prices up, the Agriculture Adjustment Administration ordered that six million pigs be slaughtered. Bountiful crops were left to rot. Many white farmers were paid not to work their land (which meant that many black tenant farmers went hungry). All of these policies were enforced by a militarized government.

"Meanwhile, under [General Hugh] Johnson's watchful eye, policement would break down doors with axes to make sure tailors weren't working at night and - literally - yank newsboys from the street because they didn't work for big corporations."

Sounds like eeeevil Republicans, right? Nope, it happened in the mid 1930's under FDR's New Deal, an administration that was much admired by Hitler.

A little bit later this same administration put over 100,000 Americans into concentration camps just because they were Japanese. Nice fellas.