14 April 2026

America needs another New Deal

An excerpt from Heather Cox Richardson's April 13 "Letters from an American" -
Just as there is a blueprint for destroying democracy, there is also one for rebuilding it. “Let us now and here highly resolve to resume the country’s interrupted march along the path of real progress, of real justice, of real equality for all of our citizens, great and small,” New York governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt said to the delegates at the Democratic National Convention in 1932 as American democracy struggled to resist fascism.

“Out of every crisis, every tribulation, every disaster, mankind rises with some share of greater knowledge, of higher decency, of purer purpose,” FDR said. “Today we shall have come through a period of loose thinking, descending morals, an era of selfishness, among individual men and women and among Nations…. Let us be frank in acknowledgment of the truth that many amongst us have made obeisance to Mammon, that the profits of speculation, the easy road without toil, have lured us from the old barricades. To return to higher standards we must abandon the false prophets and seek new leaders of our own choosing.”

“I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people,” FDR concluded. “Let us all here assembled constitute ourselves prophets of a new order of competence and of courage. This is more than a political campaign; it is a call to arms. Give me your help, not to win votes alone, but to win in this crusade to restore America to its own people.”
(boldface added), More at the link.

3 comments:

  1. It needs a third party because the other two are a razor blade apart once you get to the leadership.

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    1. That is sadly true. I already have my non-party-affiliated candidate:
      https://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2023/05/dolly-parton-for-president.html

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    2. and even if they weren’t, two parties are not a good thing to build functioning democracies on. if you’re always only choosing between this one or that one, their propositions will flatten very quickly into ‘not what the other guys are doing’, which is not how you get productive solutions to problems.

      and if either party only ever either gets to do things or gets to be in opposition, your entire political and governmental culture is lacking compromise, adjustment, negotiating, discussing… all the things that are required for needing to form a coalition to get a majority.

      raphael

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