A Few Reminders about FDR and Henry Wallace

by Scott Creighton

Sometimes looking back is the only way forward. Or at least a better way to understand where we are right now.

Why did Hillary Clinton lose this past election?

Franklin D. Roosevelt Letter to the Democratic Convention

July 18, 1940

Members of the Convention:

In the century in which we live, the Democratic Party has received the support of the electorate only when the party, with absolute clarity, has been the champion of progressive and liberal policies and principles of government.

The party has failed consistently when through political trading and chicanery it has fallen into the control of those interests, personal and financial, which think in terms of dollars instead of in terms of human values…

Until the Democratic Party through this convention makes overwhelmingly clear its stand in favor of social progress and liberalism, and shakes off all the shackles of control fastened upon it by the forces of conservatism, reaction, and appeasement, it will not continue its march of victory…

Let us not forget the principles that the old Democratic Party stood for. The ideals that got FDR elected to the office of the President of the United States four times in a row.

Wallace understood that German/Italian fascism was not only threatening our borders from without, but was already entrenched in the thinking of America’s business interest at home. He knew that was the greatest threat to our Grand Experiment and so did Franklin…

“Small government”. “Limited government”. “Statists”. A weakened democratic State made ready for vulture capitalists to swoop in and privatize it until nothing remains that can defend the people of America. “public/private partnerships”… “controlling private power”… do you understand?

On Jan. 11th, 1944, FDR committed the greatest sin against the establishment business class that once ruled America. He announced:

The right to healthcare, good paying jobs, a secure retirement, a decent home and a good education. This was the kind of thinking that corporate America could not have spreading to the population.

These days, FDR is reviled by the leadership of Republicans, Democrats and the Libertarians equally even though it is quite ironic that Bernie Sanders won the Democratic Primary running on FDR’s platform (he did win. Hillary and the fascist Dems stole it from him) and… well… you be the judge…

1932 EC results

1936 EC results

1940 EC results

1944 EC results