Warning - The last time America elected a Socialist...

[warrprayer]

Bernin' for YOU!

[northernsouthern]

1. Boom! NT

[felix_numinous]

2. K&R

another

[KansDem]

3. The 22nd Amendment was a product of the Republicans

Franklin D. Roosevelt spent the months leading up to the 1940 Democratic National Convention refusing to state whether he would seek a third term. His Vice President, John Nance Garner, along with Postmaster General James Farley, announced their candidacies for the Democratic nomination. When the convention came, Roosevelt sent a message to the convention, saying he would run only if drafted, saying delegates were free to vote for whomever they pleased. The delegates issued 946 votes for Roosevelt, 72 for Farley, and 61 for Garner; they replaced Garner with Henry A. Wallace, and Farley resigned as postmaster general. In the 1940 general election, while Republican Wendell Willkie received six million more votes than the previous Republican candidate (Alfred Landon) had in 1936, Roosevelt still won decisively, taking 38 of 48 states. His supporters cited impending war as a reason for breaking with precedent, while Willkie had run against the principle of a third term. Roosevelt was the first president elected to a third term, and the only one to exceed eight years in office.

In the 1944 election, held during World War II, Roosevelt won a fourth term, defeating New York governor Thomas E. Dewey. While quelling rumors of his poor health through his campaigning, Roosevelt's health was deteriorating, and he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, dying in office on April 12, 1945. While elected to twice as many terms as any other president, his death in 1945 came early in his fourth term, while delay in ratification of the Twentieth Amendment meant that Roosevelt's first inauguration took place on March 4, 1933. This limited his time in office to 12 years and 39 days, much less than the 16 years to which he was actually elected.

Near the end of the 1944 campaign, Thomas Dewey announced support of an amendment that would limit future presidents to two terms. According to Dewey, "four terms, or sixteen years, is the most dangerous threat to our freedom ever proposed."[4] The Republican-controlled 80th Congress approved a twenty-second Amendment in March 1947;[5] it was signed by Speaker of the House Joseph W. Martin and acting President pro tempore of the Senate William F. Knowland.[6] Nearly four years later, in February 1951, enough states ratified the amendment for its adoption. The new amendment, however, did not apply to the incumbent, allowing Harry S. Truman to seek re-election.

Wikipedia

GOP: "If you can't beat 'em, amend the Constitution"

[hobbit709]

8. And ever since when the Republicans had the Presidency they talked about repeal.

Nixon, Reagan, Shrub.

[jwirr]

14. I remember my dad saying the in order to really change

anything a president needs more than two terms. He was thinking of FDR.

[bigwillq]

33. I support that amendment

I wouldn't want a president to serve longer than 8 years.

[quantumjunkie]

4. Didnt know that. Wow 4 times

[Buzz cook]

5. FDR was a member of the 1%

From a family that had been in the 1% since precolonial times. Many of his programs were third way programs meant to steel the wing from socialists.

[bvar22]

7. When was the last time you heard a 1%er speak like THIS?

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[font size=3] established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.[/font]

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.

[font size=3]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 all our citizens.[/font]

Please note that the above are stipulated as Basic Human RIGHTS to be protected by our government,
and NOT as COMMODITIES to be SOLD to Americans by For Profit Corporations.

[Buzz cook]

10. John Kerry in 2004

And thank you for making my point. Relative wealth doesn't militate a persons political stance.

Remember that many if not most of the founders of this republic were members of the 1%

[bvar22]

11. You remember a very different Kerry Campaign than I do.

Please post a link where he at least touched on SOME these issues (or Basic Human Rights as FDR called them) in 2004.

[Buzz cook]

12. First you post a link showing that

FDR was not a member of the one percent and that he referred to himself as a socialist.

Changing the subject as you're trying to do is poor debate etiquette.

[bvar22]

15. I never made that claim.

FDR was certainly a member of the 1%, but he advocated for what he considered Basic Human Rights for ALL Americans "regardless of station, race, or creed."

These are what FDR considered Basic Human Rights to be protected by our government:

"*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."

I followed Kerry's campaign closely, and don't remember him advocating for the above as "Basic Human Rights"


YOU made the claim that he did,
so help me out with a few quotes or videos from the 2004 campaign.

[Buzz cook]

19. That is the jist of this thread

If you didn't make the claim then you agree with my posts to this thread. Trying to link FDR to Sanders via socialism is both dishonest and stupid.

[bvar22]

23. Maybe to YOU it is dishonest and stupid.

I've read some of your other posts.

Bernie Sanders specifically advocates for several of the issues that FDR also openly advocated for.
Anyone paying any attention at all can see and hear the comparisons:

*Sanders advocates for Universal Free Education through tuition free Colleges....same as FDR.

*Sanders advocates for access to health care as a basic human right...NOT as a commodity to be SOLD by For Profit Corporations which Americans are forced to BUY every year.

There are other valid comparative points too, but it is a waste of time to point them out to you.
Everyone else seems to understand easily enough.
What was that you said about "stupid and dishonest"?

[Buzz cook]

29. Eisenhower actively advocated for positions

Adolf Hitler advocated. But we don't say they are synonymous because of the national highway/autobahn link.

Digging up a dead president and making facile comparisons is ludicrous.

[bvar22]

31. I don't know what history YOU have been reading or inventing,

but Eisenhower was far the The Left of Hillary or Obama.
Given the choice between Eisenhower, Obama or Hillary, I would take Dwight.

[font color=red]You said:
"Digging up a dead president and making facile comparisons is ludicrous."
--Buzz cook, post 29[/font]

Obviously, you have practiced this approach to History, and it shows.
The only way to really learn about who we are and where we come from is a comprehensive study of History, which can be called "digging up" old people,
if that appeals to you. I'm certainly glad I've "dug up" a bunch of old people, and studied their thoughts, desires, plans, actions, failures, and successes, including past presidents. It is ALL connected...every bit of it.

"An unexamined life is not worth living."--attributed to Plato
The "examination of one's life" necessarily includes the relationship with those that have come before, or "digging them up" as you so eloquently described this examination,...or "History" as most of us who are in the continual process of doing so describe this examination.

“Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.”
― Edmund Burke

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
--George Santayana

[demwing]

34. ludicrous?

oh my god, it was ludicrous?

[phleshdef]

22. FDR taxed the SHIT out of the wealthy.

[ScreamingMeemie]

6. It took 5 replies this time!

[SoLeftIAmRight]

9. k and r

...

those goldwater girls supporters - should THINK

[arely staircase]

13. His enemies called him one, like Obama's.

He never identified as such.

[bvar22]

16. The Republicans have called EVERY Democratic nominee since FDR a "Socialist".

They called JFK a "Catholic Socialist".
Like those are bad things.

[Art_from_Ark]

20. I met a lot of Catholic Socialists on a bicycle trip through Iowa one year

Ft. Madison, Davenport...

They were a great bunch of people.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

17. No, America has never elected a self-proclaimed socialist.

And while I won't say it never will, it is very unlikely to happen any time soon.

[oberliner]

18. FDR was not a Socialist

Norman Thomas was the Socialist who ran for President against FDR repeatedly.

And he actually spoke out against FDR's internment of the Japanese.

[Recursion]

21. FDR was viciously attacked by the socialists of the day for saving capitalism

Just as he was viciously attacked by the populists of the day for giving any public benefits to nonwhites, as meager as those were.

Here's Pete Seeger calling him a fascist war-mongering JP Morgan humper:

(On a musical perspective, note that Seeger is playing bluegrass style rather than clawhammer, which was the style he became known for later.)

[aikoaiko]

25. That's really an anti-war song isn't it?

I wonder if Pete felt differently after the Nazi crimes against humanity became more widely known.

Great song, though.

C for Conscription is the other song on that side of the album...

Ouch...this one is even worse. October 16

[Recursion]

27. The Almanacs weren't full on CPUSA, though, either, just fellow travelers

But that song was during Molotov-Ribbentrop, so they were anti-war at the time; they recorded "Dancing Round Hitler's Grave" a year later. I mostly picked it because I like the song.

It's just really odd to see FDR held up here as an icon of both socialism and populism, when neither the socialists nor the populists liked him, the former because he was too far right and the latter because he was too far left.

[aikoaiko]

30. Thank you for posting on DU. You more than most bring new & helpful information to our discussions.

I mean that sincerely.

We don't always disagree, but I often learn much from your posts.

[warrprayer]

36. ...

[pdsimdars]

24. Saw this before and LOVED it. Great reminder for what is to come.

[silvershadow]

26. That should be our first clue. However some of the "progressives" are clueless. nt

[wyldwolf]

28. FDR wasn't a socialist ('progressive' mythology."

[brooklynite]

32. Good thing he was smart enough not to call homself one.

[senz]

35. Highlights from Bernie's Democratic Socialism speech at Georgetown University 11-19-15

Gets to the pith of the longer speech. 14.33 minutes.