I don’t think anybody reads this blog, but it looks like they do. It looks like there were at least two reactions to my last blog on Andrew Jackson. In addition President Trump decided to visit Andrew Jackson’s home and tomb in Nashville.
Today on his MSNBC MTP Daily show, Chuck Todd talked about the changing perceptions of Andrew Jackson. He said that Jackson was one of the founders of the modern Democratic Party, but the Democrats have largely rejected him because he owned slaves. Meanwhile the Republicans have adopted him because of his representation of the common man against wealthy elitists, a model Donald Trump likes.
It’s interesting that we find today’s Democrats rejecting a man of the people, while the Republicans adopt him. Are the parties changing the bases they appeal to? Only to a certain extent. The Democrats in 2016 appealed to blacks, Hispanics and Jews, but rejected the lower and middle class white voters, whom they donated to the Republicans as a “basket of deplorables.” The Republicans accepted the gift and ran with it.
Also, today the New York Times published an article entitled, “The Fed vs. the Angry Masses,” although later editions changed the headline. The article pointed out the popular mistrust of the Fed and other central banks. It raised the question of whether Trump would attack the Fed as Jackson attacked the Second Bank of the US.
It already looks strange that the Fed has begun what looks like a prolonged period of raising interest rates after years of leaving them at zero only now that a Republican has been elected President. At least superficially, it looks like Janet Yellen ran the Fed in a partisan way to benefit Obama and the Democrats. There are legitimate arguments for raising rates now, but it looks suspicious.
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