In June 2003, Bill Moyers said that “Karl Rove has modeled the Bush presidency on that of William Mckinley (1897-1901) and modeled himself on Mark Hanna, the man who virtually manufactured McKinley. Mark Hanna saw to it that Washington was ruled by business, railroads, and public utility corporations.” President Bush's tax cuts have given over 93% of their benefits to large corporations and well-to-do households with over 250,000 dollars of annual income (about 10% of the U.S. households). Moreover, President Bush's tax cuts are abolishing taxes on such asset-based income as stock dividends and capital gains.
Via 0xDECAFBAD [1], “President George Bush and the Gilded Age [2]”
Seems like I'm not the only one to see parallels between McKinley and Bush [3]. And according to William Straus and Neil Howe [4] it was the Lost Generation of the Gilded Age that helped America pull out of its corporate death sprial (or something like that).
Just more proof to me that we don't really study history here in the US (United States) and we're worse off because of it.
[1] http://www.decafbad.com/blog/links/boodjocjoa.html
[2] http://www.glocom.org/opinions/essays/20040301_tsurumi_president/index.