I notice many parallels between our current situation and the years before the Depression. Before the Depression the Democrats were crushed in several presidential campaigns and their future
looked hopeless. Many Americans thought that the stock market was the best place to invest money short and longterm because it would go up forever. One of my friends, who is a history major, says that the catastrophic impact of the Depression was completely unpredicted by Hoover, as he believed that private charity could take care of the needs of the poor.
As we all know, the Democrats reversed their decline in power and FDR led them to massive victories.
Bush's current privatization of Social Security plan is stating that the stock market historically provides better returns than Social Security. I think the best way to attack him on this is by talking about the time that the market crashed for a long time, which can certainly happen again, and we created Social Security so the elderly wouldn't starve. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Religious Republicans also seem to believe that private charity is a better way of dealing with poverty than a federal welfare state. I think most religious Republicans don't really want all the poor to starve, they just think the government wastes too much money. In the Depression the federal welfare state was created because private charity was unable to help everyone.
I don't expect a depression to occur soon. I'm just writing this because many people my age agree with Bush's plan even if they are liberal, I was even tempted at first before I read some history.
Let's frame Bush as a Hoover Republican.