Today, reading the news of obscene Wall St. profits and bonuses paid, I was reminded of the famous “economic royalists” speech that FDR gave before the Democratic convention in 1936. I listened to the whole thing again just now and it brought shivers down my spine, and in parts, tears to my eyes.
Just listen to it yourself, and remember that the country had just emerged from the Great Depression. Consider this excerpt occurring early-on in the speech and wonder at how different things were in those days, and yet how similar.
For the sympathy, help and confidence with which Americans have sustained me in my task I am grateful. For their loyalty I salute the members of our great party, in and out of political life in every part of the Union. I salute those of other parties, especially those in the Congress of the United States who on so many occasions have put partisanship aside. I thank the Governors of the several States, their Legislatures, their State and local officials who participated unselfishly and regardless of party in our efforts to achieve recovery and destroy abuses. Above all I thank the millions of Americans who have borne disaster bravely and have dared to smile through the storm.
But here is my absolutely favorite part of this speech. It’s wonderful in the reading, but you really should listen to FDR actually (and bravely) laying it down!
These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the Flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the Flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.
Turn your friends and others on to this speech, which I consider to be one of the greatest of all time.
~ tom
2 comments:
I believe FDR followed that speech with an increase in income taxes to punish the rich and an increase in tariffs to protect American industry. It only succeeded in plunging America into a double dip depression. Obama is on track to repeat FDR's performance.
Someone deleted a variety of links from quickfiles and shared ...
From now, we will use www.tinyurlalternative.com as our default [url=http://www.tinyurlalternative.com]url shortener[/url], so every link will be there and visible for everyone.
You can pick out from several great [url=http://kfc.ms]short url[/url] address like:
kfc.ms easysharelink.info jumpme.info megauploadlink.info megavideolink.info mygamelink.info myrapidsharelink.info mytorrentlink.info myurlshortener.com mywarezlink.info urlredirect.info urlshrinker.info weblinkshortener.com youtubelink.info and many others.
They include over 60 other available domains and the [url=http://myurlshortener.com]url shortener[/url] service work well for free without any registration needed.
So we think it is good idea and suggest you to use [url=http://urlredirect.info]url redirect[/url] service too!
Thank you.
Post a Comment