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FDR's Forgotten Freedoms
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When they see footage in Michael Moore’s new film of FDR announcing his Second Bill of Rights, many Americans will wonder whatever happened to it. Harvey J. Kaye explains why we should honor his vision.
Michael Moore’s new film, Capitalism: A Love Story, not only takes on corporate power and greed in America. By featuring rarely seen footage of FDR calling for a “Second Bill of Rights” in January 1944 and of the Flint, Michigan, sit-down strikers fighting for their rights in 1937, the film also challenges our political passivity with the democratic ideals and struggles that made the men and women of the 1930s and 1940s the most progressive generation in American history. Conservatives and libertarians have rightly tried to portray Roosevelt and his New Dealers as revolutionaries. In the best American sense of the term, they were.
“I do not look upon these United States as a finished product. We are still in the making,” Roosevelt would say.
Running for president in the midst of the Great Depression, FDR made very clear his determination to renew the radical-democratic vision of Thomas Jefferson and the Founders. Recognizing Americans’ pronounced need for “work and security,” citing the imperative of a “more equitable distribution of the national income,” and insisting that “economic laws are not made by nature [but] by human beings,” Roosevelt promised initiatives that would oversee financial transactions, develop public-works projects, rehabilitate the nation’s lands and forests, ease the burdens of debt-ridden farmers and homeowners, and establish a system of “old age insurance.” Decrying how economic and industrial developments—aided by government largesse to railroads and other corporations—had led to both the “concentration of business” in the hands of a class of “financial titans” and the decline of economic opportunity and freedom for the majority of citizens, he proposed the enactment of an “economic declaration of rights” to renew the nation’s original “social contract” as articulated in the 1776 Declaration’s guarantee of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
“I do not look upon these United States as a finished product. We are still in the making,” Roosevelt would say. Or as Solicitor General Robert H. Jackson told the National Lawyers Guild in 1938: “We too are founders… We too are makers of a nation… We too are called upon to write, to defend and to make live, new bills of right.”
FDR and the New Dealers saw as well that radical change required radical action not only by the administration, but also from the bottom up, for the president would need the backing—the propulsion—of organized working people. Responding to labor’s needs and demands, the administration in 1935 created the Works Progress Administration and secured passage of both the Social Security Act and the National Labor Relations Act (aka the “Wagner Act”). Aided by the new National Labor Relations Board, union-organizing drives took off anew and battles like those at Flint ensued, for industrial democracy like any other progressive advance had to be won—or as FDR himself said: “New laws, in themselves, do not bring a millennium.”
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Harvey J. Kaye is the Ben & Joyce Rosenberg Professor of Social change and Development at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and the author of Thomas Paine and the Promise of America. He is currently writing The Four Freedoms and the Promise of America.
So far Michael Moore's movies like Farenheit 911 and Sicko have been right on the mark; sadly most of the media, including some liberal darlings, have mocked his efforts of being too hyberbolic, and too "over -the-top." Yet, his facts have rarely been disputed.
It's time we take serious his "Capitalism" movie, since our raging capitalistic society is at the root of many of the ills that bother the US today, and dim the prospect of fulfilling FDR's call for the "Four Freedoms," which Professor Kaye properly cites.
President No. 44 should look more closely at following the example of the 32nd President of the U.S.
Only historians remembered this Economic Bill of Rights that FDR announced in 1944, and we had no way to communicate it to teh larger public as Michael Moore has done. They were lost and forgotten in the Cold War after 1945, especially in the Second Gilded Age of the last 30 years.
This is one of the big differences between progressives and conservatives: we believe people have social and economic rights, and they do not. These are incorporated in the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights as well, so most countries subscribe to the idea that people have social and economic rights, at least on paper.
Well said! Profits Before People (PBP) has been then bane of the working classes (which includes the middle class, although we don't seem to think so sometimes) since the first day the "Owners" stepped foot on this continent followed closely by the indentured servants and slaves. We can only hope that the President will continue to strike fear in the hearts of the PBP'ers so they will be more inclined to listen and do what is right.
You, Michael Moore, and FDR are/were absolutely correct, Dr. Kaye. As James Madison prophesized: "We are free today substantially, but the day will come when our Republic will be an impossibility. It will be an impossibility because wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few. A Republic cannot stand upon bayonets, and when the day comes, when the wealth of the nation will be in the hands of a few, then we must rely upon the wisdom of the best elements in the country to readjust the laws of the nation to the changed conditions."
And I would add that by continually re-making America's economic power more equitably distributed, we are re-making America more economically stable. Most of the Gross Domestic Product is and always has been "personal consumption expenditures" -- spending by households, primarily poor, working class, and middle class families, who unlike the rich, spend rather than save most of their income. While personal saving is a virtue, and the debt-driven extravagance of recent times is a vice (and I'm not referring to the government's deficit spending to jump-start the economy), the lack of sufficient spending power by "average Americans" is what has been crippling our economic recovery.
In short, when the "common people" thrive, then the wealthy -- invested in the companies that sell the products and services consumed -- also thrive. The fairest economic policies are indeed the wisest overall.
This is an extroadinary dream of FDR's, I love his ideas for a post war new deal, so tragic he (like Lincoln) did not live to bring it to life, we are all the poorer for it. Thanks to Michael Moore for putting it in his new film, very inspirational and we surely need it today!
Some years ago there was thrown out an idea that Ronald Regan should somehow be chiseled into the face of Mt. Rushmore to preside in honor among the presidential greats. That such a thing would even be considered (except as a joke) speaks to the tragic degradation of American values.
No longer is America seen as a continuing "work in progress" as FDR and his generation correctly perceived it, but it is a society deformed by self-interest and blind hubris. So many of the humanitarian programs that have bettered the lives of its citizens are now reviled, and have been twisted to conform to a reactionary ideology which has been implanted into many minds as an irrational fear of government.
The Democrats used to be known as the party of "social justice." Indeed, in the 20th century every program instituted for the betterment of society as a whole came through the hands of a president of the Democratic Party. This legacy now lays in ruins with the party itself impotent, and whose lack of vision has abandoned the mission and discredited those very values once celebrated.
Bill Clinton, Democrat, implemented the draconian revision of public assistance to indigent single parents with "workfare," a political maneuver whose rulings only added another layer of hardship onto the backs of the American poor.
Bill Maher recently defined Obama as a "right-centrist." If Franklin Roosevelt is able to look down from his heavenly plane at what America has become...that great man is weeping.
I hope Obama sees this movie -- I have been curious why Obama has spoken positive of Ronald Reagan, pursued GW Bush policies and felt the need to make friends of the GOP rather than follow FDR's friend Winston Churchill's famous line, "judge me not by my friends, but my enemies."
Very thoughtful all the way around.
It is not that Conservatives believe differently than Progressives on issues such as 'The Second Bill of Rights', that may be better reserved for Republicans to dispute. The idea of Conservatives is to preserve Life, Liberty and Property...not to destroy it. Taking the latest crop of Conservative Politicians as an example would be a mistake, as clearly these same people are not revered in Conservative circles, but they always are in Republican ones.
Just reported, a sad addendum to what FDR saw as the governments' "social contract" with American: the public option for healthcare has been voted down.
The recalcitrant Max Baucus and four of his Democratic playmates joined the Republicans in thumbs down.
Another party participant Steny Hoyer, Democrat from Maryland, gave the royal seal of approval to the group's priority: "It's hard work, but we're determined to get it (the bill's cost) down."
The Senate Finance Committee did the work it was named to do: count the money, at the expense of the health of this country.
Polls show a majority of Americans favor universal care. Why are these people not up, about and loud? The danger to America is what you aptly described Mr. Kaye as "our political passivity."
P.S. Pertinent statistic (and FYI to the Senate Finance Committee) CEO salary currently is 550% higher than what the average American worker sees on their paycheck. Guess which group needs to conserve every penny to put food on the table? You answered correctly if you didn't pick those who need to keep their private jets polished and travel ready.
I have yet to see Moore's movie but I look forward to seeing it.
FDR was President when I was born. Unfortunately, I have no memory of him but he is a President I studied. My opinion of him is, he was the 2nd best President this country ever had, with Lincoln being the 1st.
Roosevelt, a man born of wealth, did more to improve the lot of the every day working man & woman in this country. He was a true Democrat. Some of the so-called Democrats now in Congress have capitulated to the Republican Right, in fear of losing their seats in Congress. They have placed themselves ahead of the people they were elected to serve. These so-called Democrats are the ones who today voted against a public option for health care. These bums should be thrown out of the Democratic Party.
When I voted for Obama, I voted for change. I do not believe his continuing to keep Gitmo open represents change. I do not believe his continuing Bush's policy of rendition represents change. I think he allowed the health care plan to get away from him when he placed the plan in the hands of Congress & continued pushing for bi-partisanship. He was naive then & he continues to be naive in thinking the Republicans will ever go along with a health care plan. Their plan is to defeat him at every turn.
I'm sick of seeing the bums who brought this country to the brink of another great depression being rewarded with bonuses. I'm sick of Republicans standing up for Corporate America at the expense of the every day man & woman in this country. I'm sick of Democrats who accept money from the Health Insurance giants & thumb their noses at the every day working men & women who can't afford health insurance.
The call to arms in the lead up to the revolution was "no taxation without representation". 95% of the population in this country pay more taxes than the wealthiest 1% in this country.
The Right has it's tea baggers marching. It's time we, the people who want & voted for change in this country, put our feet to pavement & march on DC to demand our right to affordable health care & the right to be heard.
Please explain how people are guaranteed a job ?
Where do they work, and would certain people who
start their own small businesses be FORCED by the
Government to hire someone, and who would decide
if that person was qualified, the actual business
owner or some government bureaucrat that would
oversee said business ?
It isn't hard to envision. There are millions of things that need doing, just look around your city at all the pot holes, broken sidewalks, empty run down buildings and trash. There is a lot of work to be done, and a lot of people who need work to do. The WPA was a good example, the government had a lot of work to do (national parks, roads ect) and there were a lot of people who needed work. The government then paid the people who needed work to do the work that needed doing, really simple actually.
This could work easily in tandem with private enterprise since this kind of work would be public service work by nature. Additional jobs would come from other areas of government such as law enforcement, teaching, fire prevention ect. If you don't think there's enough work to do for 15 million or so Americans you haven't been looking around. There just isn't enough capital to pay them to work, because our government has spent the WPA money on fat cat bankers currently.
This would also work with temporary agencies run by the government to help people find work in private companies, but not forced employment. Millions find permanent jobs every year from temporary agencies, there would not need to be a mandate.
This would, hopefully, be combined with a strict link between welfare type benefits and work. There would be no unemployment insurance or welfare since anyone who could work would be able to find a job. This could be paid for easily through restoring higher rates of income tax on the super rich (pulling in multiple millions of dollars extracted by underpaying workers) and possibly a VAT that would be reduced for products made in the US.
When conservatives quote the founding fathers often out of context the need to take head in FDR's who said "I do not look upon these United States as a finished product. We are still in the making,"
(cont) and if they honored great documents like the constitution they would realize that it as a "living document," and that we are still living out the possibilities of what those great (but not infalible) men set out to start many, many years ago.
Where is the actual footage of FDR speaking that was shown in Michael Moore's movie, "Capitalism - A Love Story"?
I mean the actual video footage of him speaking on camera, right after the radio address. This footage was "lost" until Michael Moore uncovered it.
Geez - I've been searching all over the web and it's nowhere to be found! Not even on Michael Moore's website.
Googled it, Binged it, and Yahood it - what now?
Will you please post the video somewhere, Michael Moore?
Thank you.
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