FDR's Legacy for Randolph County and Our World

Lat night I had the pleasure of meeting and then talking with Bob Fincher, Randolph County's GOP Chairman. We were at Vickie Cummings' Probate Judge campaign kickoff at Chris Mitchum's amazing warehouse. From an initial impression, Mr. Fincher comes across as a good and smart man. Bob was railing about irresponsibility and the positives of small government with Roosevelt's New Deal blamed for starting the whole slide into the ruin of our nation.

If I recall Bob's history correctly wasn't he with the USDA or Soil Conservation Service or ... ? Maybe he helped hand out this? Total USDA Subsidies from farms in Randolph County, Alabama totaled $3,061,000 in from 1995-2004. Welfare is bad right Bob? Anyhow, Bob is seemingly a true believer in the old ReThuglican saw about limited government. Is Bob like Grover Norquist wanting to get government "small enough to drown in a bathtub", always ready in helping out his Buddy Black Jack . Or is he, and especially his GOP, following William F. Buckley whom Bob claims as his inspiration?

I can at least understand Mr. Buckley's logic, even if I don't agree with all of it, and most surely wish the intellectuals of Bob's beloved GOP were in charge of the White House and the Capitol. But they aren't and can't be ... if they are honest with what they want to see happen to our society. Most American still believe FDR was correct. Here's why perhaps?

I grew up hearing stories of REA running power to the rural ridge here above Roanoke. An aunt still talks about Hoover Days. I recall visiting Warm Springs as a wee lad and having my father speak of Roosevelt is the most reverent way when I returned and told him what I'd seen. I have read David Kennedy's Freedom From Fear in the process of writing a graduate level piece on FDR that seemed solid to me and most importantly to my Professor down on the Plains. And then I read it again! My paper built off the idea that Roosevelt knocked some of the rough edges off capitalism to save our society. Progressive and pragmatic and willing to surround himself with (and then listen to!) smart people, FDR was hardly perfect yet his ideas still hold much truth. With a hat tip to Greg at FireDogLake for this link, I am providing a portion of what FDR left us with in his last State of the Union.

... It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth- is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill housed, and insecure.

This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.

As our Nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness. We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. "Necessitous men are not free men." People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:
*The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;
*The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
*The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
*The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
*The right of every family to a decent home;
*The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
*The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
*The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being. America's own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens. For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.

One of the great American industrialists of our day—a man who has rendered yeoman service to his country in this crisis-recently emphasized the grave dangers of "rightist reaction" in this Nation. All clear-thinking businessmen share his concern. Indeed, if such reaction should develop—if history were to repeat itself and we were to return to the so-called "normalcy" of the 1920's—then it is certain that even though we shall have conquered our enemies on the battlefields abroad, we shall have yielded to the spirit of Fascism here at home.

I ask the Congress to explore the means for implementing this economic bill of rights- for it is definitely the responsibility of the Congress so to do. Many of these problems are already before committees of the Congress in the form of proposed legislation. I shall from time to time communicate with the Congress with respect to these and further proposals. In the event that no adequate program of progress is evolved, I am certain that the Nation will be conscious of the fact.

Our fighting men abroad- and their families at home- expect such a program and have the right to insist upon it. It is to their demands that this Government should pay heed rather than to the whining demands of selfish pressure groups who seek to feather their nests while young Americans are dying. ...

I have often said that there are no two fronts for America in this war. There is only one front. There is one line of unity which extends from the hearts of the people at home to the men of our attacking forces in our farthest outposts. When we speak of our total effort, we speak of the factory and the field, and the mine as well as of the battleground- we speak of the soldier and the civilian, the citizen and his Government.

Each and every one of us has a solemn obligation under God to serve this Nation in its most critical hour—to keep this Nation great— to make this Nation greater in a better world.

Democrats can indeed run on and win on the issues and Progressive solutions as we are right and Republicans are wrong. Thrown off by ReThuglican tactics and their serious party discipline plus The Mighty Wurlitzer and ... average Americans have been sold an illusion. Might want to get ready Bob! Soon the pendulum may swing our way? FDR might be the start of this movement back. Your crew used The Cold War for a long, long time to scare the hell out of America. Then y'all started the false Culture War which still gets some Red State Evangelicals riled up. Now they'll work with The Global War on Terror. However, America still respects the ideals of Roosevelt and the remnants of his vision for our world. On our increasingly small planet we all should embrace the legacy of FDR. Progressives may have to lead the way in reminding Americans yet we'll win on the ideas if we can be given a chance to be heard. Peace ... or War!