NY Daily News Claims FDR Unfit to Be President: "No Concrete Plans, Only
Platitudes"
Published on
Friday, April 08, 2016
by
Common Dreams
NY Daily News Claims FDR Unfit to Be President: "No Concrete Plans, Only
Platitudes"
by
Les Leopold
Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House in 1934 as he delivered a national
radio address. (Photo: National Archives)
[The following is an imagined 1932 New York Daily News editorial board
interview with Franklin Roosevelt during his presidential campaign. The
Daily News comments below derive from the editorial board's interview with
Bernie Sanders on April 1, 2016. The Roosevelt statements are taken
primarily from his 1933 inaugural address and his 1936 campaign speech at
Madison Square Garden.]
Daily News: Speaking broadly, you said that you expect to break up the big
banks within the first year of your administration. What authority do you
have to do that? And how would that work? How would you break up JPMorgan
Chase?
FDR: We must get the money changers to flee from their high seats in the
temple of our civilization. We must 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.
Daily News: I get that point. I'm just looking at the method because,
actions have reactions, right? There are pluses and minuses. So, if you push
here, you may get an unintended consequence that you don't understand. So,
what I'm asking is, how can we understand? If you look at JPMorgan just as
an example, or you can do Citibank, or Bank of America. What would it be?
What would that institution be? Would there be a consumer bank? Where would
the investing go?
FDR: I'm not running those banks.
Daily News: No. But you'd be breaking them up.
FDR: Primarily this is because rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods
[the biggest banks] have failed through their own stubbornness and their own
incompetence. They should admit their failure, and abdicate. Practices of
the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public
opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.
Daily News: Yes, we've heard all your campaign generalizations. I'm only
pressing because you've made it such a central part of your campaign. And I
wanted to know what the mechanism would be to accomplish it.
FDR: There must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too
often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish
wrongdoing. There must be an end to speculation with other people's money;
Daily News: But how? What are your concrete policies? How do you get it
done? What authority do you have? Can you break them up? Can the Federal
Reserve do it? How is it going to happen?
FDR: Senator Glass and Congressman Steagall are formulating legislation.
They'll provide all the details. That's their function in our democracy.
My task is very different. I have to set the broad vision for our nation -
to help us understand that happiness lies not in the mere possession of
money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad
chase of evanescent profits.
Daily News: So if you look forward, a year, maybe two years, right now you
have...JPMorgan has 241,000 employees. About 20,000 of them in New York.
$192 billion in net assets. What happens? What do you foresee? What is
JPMorgan in year two?
Aren't you stirring up hatred of one group of Americans against the other
with all your campaign rhetoric? Wouldn't it be much better to share with
the public concrete plans instead of pie-in-the-sky platitudes?
FDR: Here is an amazing paradox! The very employers and politicians and
publishers who talk most loudly of class antagonism and the destruction of
the American system now undermine that system by this attempt to coerce the
votes of the wage earners of this country. It is the old threat to close
down the factory or the office if a particular candidate does not win. It is
an old strategy of tyrants to delude their victims into fighting their
battles for them.
Daily News: But all you provide are generalities, no specifics. You have no
plans, only vague promises. And what you do say sounds much more like
dictatorial socialism than democratic capitalism. With all due respect,
unless you can answer specific questions with something other that
generalities and platitudes, you are unfit to be the President of the United
States.
FDR: The disagreements with you are not about policy specifics or
legislative details. We disagree about the fundamental direction of our
great nation should take, and my vision for getting there.
You have not committed yourselves to struggle with the old enemies of
peace-business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class
antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
The billionaire class considers the Government of the United States as a
mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by
organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one
candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me-and I
welcome their hatred.
Author's Editorial:
The Daily News/Team Hillary attacks on Bernie Sanders purposely confuse bold
vision with policy minutia. Rather than discuss and debate the fundamental
premises of the Sanders assault on the billionaire class, Wall Street,
runaway inequality and our corrupt campaign finance system, they want to
switch the conversation to the details of implementation. It's as if to say,
well, we might agree with your visionary proposals if only you could show us
the fine print.
This tactical maneuver has one and only one aim - to undermine the Sanders
campaign regardless of how he responds to their demands for more detail.
Why the subterfuge?
The Daily News and Team Hillary have no interest in taking on the
established order, because they are part and parcel of it. However, they
also are fearful that the American people are rejecting the Team Hillary
vision (or lack thereof), and are flocking to Bernie's. So they pick at
details they care nothing about.
That's the old establishment politics, the cynical politics, the kind of
politics that tries to undermine the deep felt hopes and dreams of the
American people. Bernie, like FDR, expands our sense of the possible. He
asks us to join together to recapture our country from the billionaire class
and build a better life for our families and communities.
That idealistic message is why 80% of all young people are voting for him.
You don't get 80% of the vote because of your detailed legislative
proposals. Instead, enthusiasm springs from the basic human need for vision
and hope.
Young people are shouting out to us the most critical fact of this election:
Bernie has a vision worth fighting for. No one else does - including
Hillary.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
Les Leopold
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NY Daily News Claims FDR Unfit to Be President: "No Concrete Plans, Only
Platitudes"
Published on
Friday, April 08, 2016
by
Common Dreams
NY Daily News Claims FDR Unfit to Be President: "No Concrete Plans, Only
Platitudes"
by
Les Leopold
. 2 Comments
.
. Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House in 1934 as he delivered a
national radio address. (Photo: National Archives)
. [The following is an imagined 1932 New York Daily News editorial
board interview with Franklin Roosevelt during his presidential campaign.
The Daily News comments below derive from the editorial board's interview
with Bernie Sanders on April 1, 2016. The Roosevelt statements are taken
primarily from his 1933 inaugural address and his 1936 campaign speech at
Madison Square Garden.]
. Daily News: Speaking broadly, you said that you expect to break up
the big banks within the first year of your administration. What authority
do you have to do that? And how would that work? How would you break up
JPMorgan Chase?
. FDR: We must get the money changers to flee from their high seats in
the temple of our civilization. We must 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.
. Daily News: I get that point. I'm just looking at the method
because, actions have reactions, right? There are pluses and minuses. So, if
you push here, you may get an unintended consequence that you don't
understand. So, what I'm asking is, how can we understand? If you look at
JPMorgan just as an example, or you can do Citibank, or Bank of America.
What would it be? What would that institution be? Would there be a consumer
bank? Where would the investing go?
FDR: I'm not running those banks.
Daily News: No. But you'd be breaking them up.
FDR: Primarily this is because rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods
[the biggest banks] have failed through their own stubbornness and their own
incompetence. They should admit their failure, and abdicate. Practices of
the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public
opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.
Daily News: Yes, we've heard all your campaign generalizations. I'm only
pressing because you've made it such a central part of your campaign. And I
wanted to know what the mechanism would be to accomplish it.
FDR: There must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too
often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish
wrongdoing. There must be an end to speculation with other people's money;
Daily News: But how? What are your concrete policies? How do you get it
done? What authority do you have? Can you break them up? Can the Federal
Reserve do it? How is it going to happen?
FDR: Senator Glass and Congressman Steagall are formulating legislation.
They'll provide all the details. That's their function in our democracy.
My task is very different. I have to set the broad vision for our nation -
to help us understand that happiness lies not in the mere possession of
money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad
chase of evanescent profits.
Daily News: So if you look forward, a year, maybe two years, right now you
have...JPMorgan has 241,000 employees. About 20,000 of them in New York.
$192 billion in net assets. What happens? What do you foresee? What is
JPMorgan in year two?
Aren't you stirring up hatred of one group of Americans against the other
with all your campaign rhetoric? Wouldn't it be much better to share with
the public concrete plans instead of pie-in-the-sky platitudes?
FDR: Here is an amazing paradox! The very employers and politicians and
publishers who talk most loudly of class antagonism and the destruction of
the American system now undermine that system by this attempt to coerce the
votes of the wage earners of this country. It is the old threat to close
down the factory or the office if a particular candidate does not win. It is
an old strategy of tyrants to delude their victims into fighting their
battles for them.
Daily News: But all you provide are generalities, no specifics. You have no
plans, only vague promises. And what you do say sounds much more like
dictatorial socialism than democratic capitalism. With all due respect,
unless you can answer specific questions with something other that
generalities and platitudes, you are unfit to be the President of the United
States.
FDR: The disagreements with you are not about policy specifics or
legislative details. We disagree about the fundamental direction of our
great nation should take, and my vision for getting there.
You have not committed yourselves to struggle with the old enemies of
peace-business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class
antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
The billionaire class considers the Government of the United States as a
mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by
organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one
candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me-and I
welcome their hatred.
Author's Editorial:
The Daily News/Team Hillary attacks on Bernie Sanders purposely confuse bold
vision with policy minutia. Rather than discuss and debate the fundamental
premises of the Sanders assault on the billionaire class, Wall Street,
runaway inequality and our corrupt campaign finance system, they want to
switch the conversation to the details of implementation. It's as if to say,
well, we might agree with your visionary proposals if only you could show us
the fine print.
This tactical maneuver has one and only one aim - to undermine the Sanders
campaign regardless of how he responds to their demands for more detail.
Why the subterfuge?
The Daily News and Team Hillary have no interest in taking on the
established order, because they are part and parcel of it. However, they
also are fearful that the American people are rejecting the Team Hillary
vision (or lack thereof), and are flocking to Bernie's. So they pick at
details they care nothing about.
That's the old establishment politics, the cynical politics, the kind of
politics that tries to undermine the deep felt hopes and dreams of the
American people. Bernie, like FDR, expands our sense of the possible. He
asks us to join together to recapture our country from the billionaire class
and build a better life for our families and communities.
That idealistic message is why 80% of all young people are voting for him.
You don't get 80% of the vote because of your detailed legislative
proposals. Instead, enthusiasm springs from the basic human need for vision
and hope.
Young people are shouting out to us the most critical fact of this election:
Bernie has a vision worth fighting for. No one else does - including
Hillary.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
