With Washington insiders yelping out reasons why your campaign can't win, and with pundits trotting out failed candidacies of the past in order to make facile comparisons, we thought it instructive to dust off the history books and look at a landslide election that might be particularly relevant this year. While a few commentators have dared to compare George W. Bush to Herbert Hoover - the only other modern president to preside over a net loss in jobs - the potential similarities between the 1932 and 2004 election are much deeper than that.
Elected in 1928, Herbert Hoover capped a three-decade reign in which the GOP won seven of nine presidential elections. Hoover inherited one of the biggest economic booms of American history. But the boom was misleading - despite a skyrocketing stock market, the gap between rich and poor was widening, and when the bubble burst in 1929, Hoover found himself presiding over the country's worst depression ever. After a decade in which the policies of Presidents Harding and Coolidge heavily favored their cronies in big business, there was no safety net to support a nation suddenly unable to make ends meet.
Hoover's undoing - and the undoing of the long era of Republican rule - was his inability to respond to the economic needs of millions who had lost jobs and wages. He took a hard ideological stand that the market would fix itself, and that government should not interfere. Though Hoover was widely considered to be a good and decent man, his rigid ideology prevented him from finding solutions to the problems of most Americans.
And thus the stage was set in 1932 when a brash and charming northern governor won the Democratic nomination for president. Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised to use government to unite Americans and to advance social and economic justice. His message resounded across the country, and Roosevelt swept into the White House in a landslide, winning 472 electoral votes to Hoover's 59, and bringing with him large pickups in the House and Senate.
FDR's 1932 victory was just the beginning. By energizing the Democratic Party, he launched an era of progress and common purpose. Between 1932 and 1968, Democrats won six of eight presidential elections and were strong in both houses of Congress. During this era, the United States achieved great social progress - the New Deal, Social Security, Medicare, labor legislation, and civil rights laws - and established itself as a powerful moral leader in the world by defeating fascism. After the war, we helped Japan and Europe to rebuild and founded an international order based on the rule of law. It was American resolve, rooted in the rule of law, that laid the groundwork for the implosion of communism and the triumph of freedom.
Since 1968, the Republican Party has won six of nine presidential elections. Now with their control of the House and Senate, they are intent on rolling back decades of progress to the era of Hoover. But history has proven that the American people can unite to reverse this country's direction. It happened in 1932, and you can make it happen in 2004.
FDR's 1932 inaugural address is one of the great documents of our democracy. Read it now, or better yet, listen to the actual recording:
http://www.hpol.org/fdr/inaug/And when you hear talk of the possibility of a landslide in 2004 - jump right in. Tell your friends that, yes, it's possible. First you have to look at history, and secondly, you gotta believe.
Forward this email to everyone in your address book, and ask them to join your campaign at:
http://www.deanforamerica.com/joinLet's see how many Americans will join the landslide. The pundits' role is to doubt - but we have the power to believe.
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