I'll quote again Roosevelt's prescient statement:
Unhappy events abroad have retaught us two simple truths about the liberty of a democratic people. The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group or by any other controlling private power.
The second truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if its business system does not provide employment and produce and distribute goods in such a way as to sustain an acceptable standard of living. Both lessons hit home. Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing.
FDR was the right person at the right time. America needed him, and he was there. Where is our FDR today?
ReplyDeleteI remember Schlesinger writing that in sociopolitical matters, FDR could not be intimidated by "mere millionaires." If only that were true of Obama!
"but I repeat myself."
ReplyDeleteYou and Mark Twain! :-)
[CAPTCHA text: "begod" ... NO, begod, I won't take it anymore!]
Twain's joke was much much better...
ReplyDeleteAnd since I'm signing in with this comment, my CAPTCHA is "tropo"... I'm making a trope with this joke? Or maybe an Italian trope?
... Ma non troppo... in English, "Not too much of Ma!"
ReplyDelete