Whacked by an Angel

by Jim Washburn

Saw the weirdest film on TCM this afternoon: Gabriel Over the White House, a 1933 Gregory LaCava effort starring Walter Huston as a corrupt, uncaring US president, who while in a coma gets hit with the good stick by an angel. He pops out of his coma, just in time to refuse to sic the army on a million poor people marching on Washington, unlike the real-life Republican President Herbert Hoover who in 1932 used the army—including tanks and cavalry--to attack its own veterans who were marching on Washington for jobs and back pay, killing many and injuring hundreds.

Back in movieland, however, the newly-enlightened president sided with the poor marchers, assumed near-dictatorial powers and went to Congress with a stimulus package to jump-start the economy; protected people’s money in the banks; passed a law to stop foreclosures so people could stay in their homes until things improved; battled racketeers and monied interests and saved the US and the world economy by convincing the world’s nations to demilitarize.

That was 75 years ago. Are there parallels? Our president today is in such a frenzy of 11^th-hour activity that one has to wonder if he’s also been whacked by an angel. Like Hoover, he hasn’t exactly been on the ball when it came to helping the po’ folk or coping with our financial crisis. Instead he’s been inspired to hand out billions to rich speculators, rack up a record military budget, and is using his final days to roll back whatever environmental protections he already hasn’t, including gutting recently issued regulations at controlling lead emissions despite recent evidence that it’s a far more potent neurotoxin than previously believed. Oh well.

It was also 75 years ago now that Herbert Hoover’s ass was welcomed out of the White House, and the incoming Franklin D. Roosevelt brought in some of the reforms envisioned by Gabriel Over the White House, including creating the Civilian Conservation Corps to give jobs to vets and other unemployed Americans. At this writing, George W. Bush has 55 days left in office, not that we’re counting.

Comments

No comments.

Comments closed.