Even if Barack Obama manages to render an unforgettable speech for the 75,000 spectators at Invesco field in Denver, Colorado tonight, neither he nor any future presidential candidate will be able to surpass the watershed oration given by Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Democratic nominating convention on July 2, 1932 in Chicago, Illinois. .
The mode of transport used by the candidate and the contents of his speech marked a true watershed moment in American history by embracing a new era of technology and political thinking. In order to fully appreciate the significance of the event, it will be necessary place the most critical remarks of the nominee and still Governor of New York into context.
.
Bank defaults, the stock market crash of 1929, the Hawley-Smoot tariff of 1930 (which ignited global tariff war and severely damaged world trade) and currency devaluations sundered the international economy by 1932. Unemployment in the US, Europe and parts of Asia was rampant, and the number of indigent persons was rising to catastrophic levels. Herbert Hoover, the former Treasury Secretary under Calvin Coolidge, could reasonably claim some credit for the prosperity of the 1920s. When the speculative bubble burst during his term as president, however, Hoover was unable to comprehend the magnitude of the crisis or reverse the bust business cycle. As the election approached, Hoover became sullen and appeared personally defeated.
.
If Hoover rather than Roosevelt had contracted a paralyzing case of polio years beforehand, he might have settled for a quiet life of reading and writing. Why not? Hoover had already made a fortune as an engineer. For FDR, who had inherited a princely sum of money from his gentrified Dutch family in upstate New York, passivity was never seriously considered. The plight of his country had become a reflection of his own life. As he had personally conquered fear and learned to walk for a second time, Roosevelt was equally determined to help his nation stand tall once again.
.
The country, mired in failure and despair, begged for inspiration and a reason to have hope in the future. When Roosevelt decided to break 150 years of precedent by not only planning to accept the nomination in person but by also being the first candidate to arrive by airplane, Americans were awash with excitement. Roosevelt purposely broke tradition in order to signal an end to the old order and the beginning of a new era in American politics and life. Upon arrival at the airport in Chicago, Louis Howe, a political confidante, handed him a second copy the nomination speech with revisions. Unfortunately, Roosevelt was late had no time to compare the versions during his scramble to the stage.
.
After entering into a frenzied arena, Roosevelt, for whatever reason, began his remarks by reading the first page of Howe's revised copy and then switched to the original document for the remainder of the speech. In truth, Roosevelt could have given a mediocre address and still have been wildly successful, but his indictment of the Hoover Administration, prescription for overcoming the daunting hurdles toward recovery and intuitive understanding of the American psyche made the nominating event an epoch-making moment. To explicate the social and political relationship between FDR and his convention and radio audience, portions of his speech will be followed by historical analysis in the next few paragraphs.
.
'Let us feel that in everything we do there still lives with us, if not the body, the great indomitable, unquenchable, progressive-soul of our Commander-In-Chief Woodrow Wilson' - FDR
.
This line was as personal as political. Woodrow Wilson, who employed Roosevelt as his Secretary of the Navy, left office in 1921 with a diminished reputation due to being unable to win the peace in Europe after WWI. At home, unemployment spiked as veterans returned home and social unrest ensued across the country. As Wilson had been stricken by a debilitating stroke, his government was somewhat rudderless and failed to guide the country from a wartime to a peacetime economy. Nearly a dozen years later, Wilson's stature revived within the Democratic party and the country at large. In particular, Roosevelt was attempting to revive the forgotten 'progressive soul' of his mentor. Progressivism, a late 19th century movement that championed regulation through legislation for the benefit of the general public, ran through both political parties and the two major candidates of the 1912 presidential election - Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. In the years prior to the war, Wilson and the Congress passed a flurry of progressive bills to counter the power of big business and improve the lives of millions. In his first year of office, Wilson created the Federal Reserve to regulate the money supply, established a permanent federal income tax, lowered the tariff rate to bolster imports and exports (Underwood-Simmons bill) and oversaw the passage of the 17th amendment that allowed for the election of senators by popular vote rather than by appointment from state legislatures. Despite their prolific achievements in a little over a calendar year, neither Wilson nor the Congress had any intention of easing the pace of reform.
.
It was time to take on Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt and all the other titans of industry that rigged business for their own benefit at the expense of exploited workers. In 1914, the Federal Trade Commission was created to oversee and regulate business practices, and the Clayton Anti-Trust Act of the same year was passed to break up monopolies that eliminated competition and charged consumers inflated prices. Over the next two years, struggling farmers became eligible for loans from Washington (Farm Bill of 1916), and children were prohibited from being used as cheap labor and barred from working until a reasonable age (Child Labor Law). After the Workman's Compensation Act of 1915, the Adamson Act, which provided for an eight-hour day for railroad workers, was enacted and would serve as Roosevelt's model to establish a similar law for all employers.
.
After a decade when these progressive reforms had been either repealed or unenforced by the Republican party to the detriment of the nation, Roosevelt sought to carry the torch of Wilsonian progressivism to ameliorate the dire situation of his beloved country. Indeed, the spirit of Wilson was alive and well in Chicago that night.
.
'To fail to offer (my countrymen) a new chance is not only to betray their hopes but to misunderstand their patience' - FDR
.
Senator Obama often cites 'the fierce urgency of now' as first uttered by Martin Luther King Jr. nearly a half a century ago. According to the 2008 Democratic nominee, time is running out on reversing global warming through the use of alternative energy and re-framing the current US trade policy responsible for the loss of hundreds of thousands of American jobs. Despite having wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and facing the prospects of a looming recession, it is no exaggeration to say that the next president will have far fewer immediate and substantive crises compared to Roosevelt in 1933.
.
Why? Four years after the crash of the stock market in 1929, American institutions were ruined or in the process of collapsing, and the average citizen was simply without any recourse. As unemployment insurance and Social Security would not exist until 1935, Americans without a generous relative or neighbor wound up homeless on the streets selling apples for a nickel - a common scene in New York and other large cities. Farmers revolted in Iowa, Minnesota and other Midwestern states over depressed crop prices and being thrust into abject poverty. A few Wall Street financial mavens, once wealthy from speculative investments, plunged dozens of stories to their death after being wiped out in the market, and people openly called for revolution in the streets and proclaimed the American experiment finished. Meanwhile, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were poised to come to power (30 January 1933), and the Japanese had already overrun Manchuria and were threatening the British base in Singapore. While the United States unquestionably faces daunting challenges today, the word 'crisis' - as the very survival of America was indeed questionable in 1932 - should remain reserved for the Civil War, the Great Depression and World War II.
.
'There are 2 ways of viewing the governments duty in matters affecting economic and social life. The first sees to it that a favored few are helped and hopes that some of the prosperity will leak through, sift through to labor, to the farmer, to the small businessman' - FDR
.
Re-termed as 'supply-side economics' in the late 20th century, the top-down approach to prosperity, whereby government allows large corporations to operate largely unfettered, generated years of economic expansion for the upper and middle classes in the 1980s. Economically speaking, the Reagan-Bush years mirrored the Coolidge-Hoover era of the 1920s. The price of top-down economics, however, turned out to be a widening gap between the rich and the poor, a loss of worker rights and a severe economic downturn resulting from corporate suppression of wages in both cases.
.
In response to the Republican policy of making big business and wealthy individuals the stewards of the economy, Will Rodgers, the famous political comedian of the 1930s, made a comment to the effect of 'I say give the money to the poor and let it 'trickle-up'.' Neither Roosevelt or the Democratic party as a whole was hostile to business, but FDR and a preponderant number of voters believed that the ministers of high finance and the captains of industry had put profit before the welfare of people. Therefore, Roosevelt campaigned on a platform calling for new round of Wilsonian progressive reform to curb the abuses of power and privilege and to protect the average citizen.
.
'I say to you now that from this date on the 18th Amendment is doomed' - FDR
.
Today, Americans take having a couple of drinks with or without dinner for granted. In 1932, it was still illegal to consume alcohol under Prohibition. Ironically, Prohibition was a progressive reform, largely supported by women, a decade earlier. According to its sponsors, alcoholism had poisoned the fabric of society as increasing numbers of men were shirking their familial responsibilities for the bottle. Rather than pass laws to restrict consumption, many churches and religious leaders actively fought for an outright ban and ultimately succeeded with the passage of a constitutional amendment. Yet, the victory proved short-lived. Speakeasies (illegal bars) mushroomed overnight and gangsters, including Al Capone, made fortunes on running cheap liquor. Because drinking had been declared immoral and illegal, it became all the rage for a new generation of Americans ready to defy convention. As an economic issue, the government was deprived of a considerable sum of tax dollars. By time of the 1932 Democratic convention, an overwhelming number of Americans had judged the 18th Amendment to have been counterproductive and desired its repeal. Roosevelt wholeheartedly agreed.
.
'What do the people of America want more than anything else? To my mind, they want 2 things: work with all the moral and spiritual values that go with it, and with work, a reasonable measure of security - security for themselves and for their wives and children.' - FDR
.
For more than a hundred years, the Democratic party clung to the principle of its founder, Thomas Jefferson and his maxim ' That government is best which governs least.' At a time of national catastrophe, however, Roosevelt announced a paradigmatic shift in political philosophy and policy. Because big business had become predatory and had failed to act as a responsible caretaker of both the economy and its workers, Roosevelt would empower the government to act as a broker between private interests and the public welfare through programs designed to provide a safety net for the most vulnerable members of society. Through loans to farmers, public works projects, wage and price controls, unemployment benefits and Social Security among other progressive reforms, Roosevelt provided enough 'security' to Americans to rescue millions from poverty and distraught lives. His unprecedented measures, which swept through a Democratic Congress, were a direct response to unprecedented times.
.
'I pledge you, I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people'
.
FDR has consistently ranked as the first or second best president (behind Lincoln) in historical surveys for decades, and his speech on July, 2 1932 at the Democratic Nominating Convention contained glimpses of his greatness. The 'New Deal' was nothing short of a revolution in American politics and has lived on in the words of Truman, JFK, LBJ, Carter, Clinton and now - Barack Obama.
.
J Roquen