Posted on 11/14/2004 9:28:08 PM PST by paudio
Democrats need not--and should not--adopt the agenda of social conservatives, but we need to do a better job of speaking to the moral and spiritual yearnings that have always characterized the American experience. Since Election Day, many Democrats have griped about the fact that, in supporting Bush, so many middle-class voters failed to vote in their economic self-interest. That is entirely true--and completely beside the point. Americans do not enter the voting booth in the manner of accountants calculating take-home income. They have historically voted on hopes and resentments--slavery and civil rights, freemasonry and free love--that have nothing to do with the bottom line. The values inculcated by family and community--such as hard work, personal responsibility, patriotism, faith, and integrity--are not only religious in origin. Yet they are part of the nation's civic creed, and Republicans can no longer be allowed to have a near-monopoly in running on them.
Once, Democrats did talk about their vision in explicitly moral terms. In accepting the Democratic nomination in 1932, during the massive unemployment of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt pledged to "put men to work," not just because it would bring them "security for themselves and for their wives and children," but because of the "moral and spiritual values that go with" work. The following year, in his inaugural address, Roosevelt told the nation it must "face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike." He appealed not only to the values of Americans' pocketbooks, but also to those in their prayer books.
(Excerpt) Read more at tnr.com ...
Better put some ice on that
He ordered the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of animals used for food, and the plowing under of massive amounts of farm acreage.
He did this to raise food prices, by lessening the availability of food, DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION.
and now people think of him as a friend of the 'little guy'.
MY FOOT
How in the world are the Democrats going to run on these issues?
didnt FDR run for president 4 times??
talk about power abuse. war or not, it shouldnt have happened.
When will the Dems realize that the Dark Ages are over?
We are still living the Raw deal.
the secular humanists took over the party in the 1960's.
No, he wouldn't and the Democrats know that.
Say what you will, but FDR was a megalomaniacal traitor!
The American people wanted him and needed him. He was a great war-time President. It'll be a long time before the Democrats nominate some one with the stature of FDR. Today they're hopelessly out of touch with the mood of the country.
Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies,.....Or... Joe McCarthy was more right than he ever knew
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/622675/posts
FDR the man that put reds in the White House
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