THIS IS WHY I’M A DEMOCRAT
“But here is the challenge to our democracy: In this nation I see tens of millions of its citizens—a substantial part of its whole population—who at this very moment are denied the greater part of what the very lowest standards of today call the necessities of life.
I see millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them day by day.
I see millions whose daily lives in city and on farm continue under conditions labeled indecent by a so-called polite society half a century ago.
I see millions denied education, recreation, and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children.
I see millions lacking the means to buy the products of farm and factory and by their poverty denying work and productiveness to many other millions.
I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.
But it is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint it for you in hope—because the nation, seeing and understanding the injustice in it, proposes to paint it out. We are determined to make every American citizen the subject of his country’s interest and concern; and we will never regard any faithful law-abiding group within our borders as superfluous. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Second Inaugural Address — January 20, 1937
Via DKos
August 12th, 2012 at 8:22 am
Hi Scott,
Why oh why, can’t someone like FDR turn up today when we really need him. A President who pulled the country out of the worst depression in our history is what we desperately need now. Someone who can get this country going again on the road to economic prosperity, get work for everyone, food for the poor and proper medical care for all.
August 12th, 2012 at 9:40 am
I think like this Scott, I am thankful for people like you who take the time to remind us that , as the Kennedy’s said “To whom much is given much is expected.”
I am so proud of you reminding us we have all come from a kinder gentler place. We have a moral compass for a reason and it is simply not acceptable to turn a blind eye.
Boy that club seems to get cooler and cooler every day . Best Wishes , Dwight Williamson
August 12th, 2012 at 10:49 am
Thanks for sharing those words, Scott. Sometimes I wish that FDR were here and now to remind us of our shared humanity and turn us toward decency. He led us better than any president ever has and he did so from a wheelchair. Despite the Japanese internment, he is still my hero.
August 12th, 2012 at 12:03 pm
Once upon a time, Democrats were proud to quote FDR as the defining essence of why they were Democrats. Now it seems there are those who are ashamed (afraid?) to embrace the liberal wing. A great orator can change the world (FDR, Churchill). I thought Obama was supposedly a great orator, but he seems to have lost his voice.