The path to victory: Remembering Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Second Bill of Rights
We can be the left edge of the rightist reaction and fail and fail and fail, or we can stand up to the right and we can stop promoting global trade pacts that immiserate workers everywhere and we can end the fascist war on terror and we can bring the banksters to justice and we can stop with the Grand Bargain to undermine Social Security and we can fight for Medicare for all instead of new clients for insurance companies and and we can forthrightly face the challenges of global warming and resource depletion and overpopulation and we can stop with the right-wing education crap and we can fight fight fight to end the scourge of inequality that has made America the increasingly sorry place it is today. It's an easy choice and a winning choice. But it's fail or fight. There's no middle path.
http://billmoyers.com/2014/03/07/remembering-franklin-delano-roosevelt-and-the-second-bill-of-rights/
Remembering Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Second Bill of Rights
March 7, 2014
by Harvey J. Kaye
Seventy years ago, on January 11, 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt delivered his 11th Annual Message on the State of the Union. The United States was at war. But the president spoke not only of the struggle and of what Americans had to do to hasten victory over the Axis Powers. He also spoke of what Americans needed to do to win the peace to come. Reaffirming his administration’s commitment to the vision he had articulated in his 1941 Annual Message – the vision of the Four Freedoms: Freedom of speech, Freedom of worship, Freedom from want, Freedom from fear – Roosevelt now called for an Economic Bill of Rights for all Americans.
As President Obama contemplates his second-term legacy, and with midterm elections on the near horizon, he would do well to attend to FDR’s 1944 message. Our own challenges are not those of 1944. But in the wake of the tragedies, crises, painful obstructions and compromises of the past 15 years and in the face of continuing right-wing and corporate class war against working people, they are no less daunting – and we are no less eager to start addressing them.
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“This Republic,” he said, “had its beginning and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights… 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.” But, he continued: “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.’” And evoking Jefferson, the Founders and Lincoln, he contended that “In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident” and “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.” This Second Bill of Rights included:
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.
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Tragically, FDR was right about the dangers of rightist reaction. Americans’ hopes and aspirations were stymied by aggressive and well-funded conservative and corporate campaigns. Still, compelled by popular pressure, Congress did enact a “GI Bill of Rights,” an historic initiative that enabled 12,000,000 veterans – nearly 1 in 10 Americans – to radically transform themselves and their country for the better. And in years to come their generation would not only make America richer and stronger, but would act anew to progressively realize the vision that Roosevelt had projected.
We need to redeem that vision. President Obama has rightly warned that inequality seriously threatens America’s promise. He may not be able to enact any new grand initiatives before he leaves office. But remembering Franklin Roosevelt’s 1944 Message and speaking with confidence in and to his fellow citizens, he may not only get Americans to vote Democratic in November and set the agenda for 2016. He may also encourage us to go “All Out!” in the fight to renew America’s grand experiment in democracy. That would be a great second-term legacy.
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Until we get money OUT of politics, we will have no real say in our "leaders" that are actually supposed to be our representatives.
I strongly believe that IF the Democratic party would return to it's populist heritage and unanimously endorse the populism and economic policies of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, they would be unbeatable (if voting even counts. George Carlin has been proven right on everything else...he said "if voting actually mattered, do you think THEY would let us do it?"
The big money inundated the "airwaves" with a huge last minute push against Democratic candidates here in the South. Every radio station was running the anti-Dem. commercials almost back to back.
It is obvious that both (we need more) parties are too busy enriching themselves rather than representing the people.
I voted and I am sick today.but then, until the Democrats stop being republican lite and start trying to implement FDR's second bill of rights money will reign supreme and the proletariat class will grow exponentially.
This country no longer resembles the place where I want to exist. Most first world countries look at the American empire as a very restrictive place where the people are expendable. I agree.
