...A socialist and a statist.
From FDR’s Second BIll of Rights Speech
“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.”
O.K.. I’m going to venture a translation of FDR’s speech based on how these things unfolded in the following years:
“The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;”
Compulsory union membership.
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
See above.
“The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;”
Artificial government price supports.
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;
Over-regulation by the government: mountains of government forms to fill out and turn in, punishment for getting too successful (big).
The right of every family to a decent home;
Pouring billion$ into loans that would never be repaid, causing the start of our present financial trainwreck.
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
Oh boy; here we go: OBAMACARE!
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The Ponzi scheme of Social Security - addictive as cocaine (we can’t give it up).
The right to a good education.
The Socialist NEA’s homosexuality 101, touchy-feely diversity and cultural homogenization, resulting in the recent find that the longer an American stays in school, the farther behind students of other developed countries he falls.
That’s how FDR’s program worked out in reality. Was he a Socialist/Communist?