Today is a day that 82 years ago changed the course of history in a way only matched in significance by the outbreak of the Civil War at Fort Sumter, South Carolina on April 12, 1861.
In many ways, the onset of the Great Depression, as a result of the crash of the stock market on Wall Street, had a greater effect, since the population was four times as much, and more people were directly affected by the ten year long Great Depression than by the Civil War.
America would never be the same again, as big government was here to stay with the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt and American involvement in World War II and the ensuing Cold War, along with the improvements on the New Deal best personified by the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson.
And yet, now in the midst of the Great Recession and its effect on America, the worst economic times since the Great Depression, we are hearing the same old arguments for less government and deregulation, when it was precisely those factors in the 1920s and the 2000s that led to the two greatest economic collapses of the past century.
Franklin D. Roosevelt faced the same vehement opposition as Barack Obama, although the internet, talk radio, cable news and social media have multiplied the effect as compared to the 1930s.
The same battles keep on being fought, as we do not learn from history, and rather repeat its mistakes.
But as Barack Obama starts conducting himself for reelection in a similar manner as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, the American people will realize that he, not his opposition, is truly interested in resolving the issues that the opposition took which caused the economic mess we are now in.