FDR 1932: "Unless I mistake its temper-the country demands bold-persistent experimentation"

[kpete]

And now, a few words

Let us not confuse objectives with methods. Too many so-called leaders of the Nation fail to see the forest because of the trees. Too many of them fail to recognize the vital necessity of planning for definite objectives. True leadership calls for the setting forth of the objectives and the rallying of public opinion in support of these objectives.

Do not confuse objectives with methods. When the Nation becomes substantially united in favor of planning the broad objectives of civilization, then true leadership must unite thought behind definite methods.

The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. The millions who are in want will not stand by silently forever while the things to satisfy their needs are within easy reach.

We need enthusiasm, imagination and the ability to face facts, even unpleasant ones, bravely. We need to correct, by drastic means if necessary, the faults in our economic system from which we now suffer. We need the courage of the young. Yours is not the task of making your way in the world, but the task of remaking the world which you will find before you. May every one of us be granted the courage, the faith and the vision to give the best that is in us to that remaking! -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 22 May 1932

http://sideshow.me.uk/saug08.htm#08260120

[guitar man]

1. K&R

How true those words ring today. We've been stuck in the same rut ever since Reagan took office, with a little bit of a breather of sorts during the Clinton years, but not much. These asshats keep doing the same things over and over even thought they fail every time.

Well, it's a fail for us, but a win-win for them and their rich buddies. :(

[Hidden Stillness]

2. God Help Us, We Need the Roosevelt Admin, "Throwing the Money-Changers out of the Temple"

"In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.
"More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.
"Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.
"True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.
"The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit."

"Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now."

FDR's First Inaugural, March, 1933; http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres49.html

Then, Roosevelt proceeded, famously, to throw the money-changers out of the temple, ("economic Royalists," "I welcome their hate"), instituted new banking, stock, employment, mortgage and loan, farm, etc., etc., reforms, helped people with direct cash payments and subsidies that went to the people (NOT TAX CUTS!), and invented a whole host of new programs to help with immediate need, jobs and employment, infrastructure, and ending the complete corruption and criminal profit-taking that capitalism had become. This is why they still are, to this day, afraid of Roosevelt (just TRY to Google "FDR money changers out of temple" or any variation--the results are ALL anti-Roosevelt archconservative, corporate Republican websites AGAINST it!), and hate Roosevelt, not Obama or Clinton or ANY of these tepid, corporate "D"LC types and their "personal stories."

The Democratic Party of Roosevelts and Kennedys is the real, only Democratic Party.