I’ve written a number of posts about this important subject: FDR and the philosophy he believed in.  Without understanding FDR’s philosophy, one can’t understand how he accomplished what he did.

FDR made many brilliant observations during his four terms as President, but none so important to remember as those he made in his first two Inaugural addresses during the throes and misery of the Great Depression.

After fighting the Depression for four years, in his second Inaugural FDR said:

“Nearly all of us recognize that as intricacies of human relationships increase, so power to govern them also must increase–power to stop evil; power to do good.  The essential democracy of our Nation and the safety of our people depend not upon the absence of power, but upon lodging it with those whom the people can change or continue at stated intervals through an honest and free system of elections.  The Constitution of 1787 did not make our democracy impotent.

In fact, in these last four years, we have made the exercise of all power more democratic; for we have begun to bring private autocratic powers into their proper subordination to the public’s government.  The legend that they were invincible–above and beyond of the processes of a democracy–has been shattered.  They have been challenged and beaten.”

Beezer here.  Can you imagine President Obama making such a statement of philosophy today?  If you find it hard to do so, then you are at the beginning stages of realizing why we find ourselves today in such a mess, in a quagmire of indecision and partisanship.  We have forgotten what our government is supposed to be.  And this isn’t the first time it’s happened either.  FDR had to directly address this forgetfulness in his first Inaugural address.

In that address, FDR fingered the bad guys and made no mistaking of his resolve possible.

After noting the nation’s problems FDR said:

“Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated.  Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition.  Faced by the failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money.  Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence.  They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization.  We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths.  The measure of restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.”

Can you imagine one our our leaders saying this?  Probably not.  And therein lies the core of our nation’s problems.  But FDR wasn’t finished with this theme.  In the same address he followed with these sentiments.

“Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and 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.  Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.”

Mired in our cynicism and lack of trust, we cannot today imagine someone standing up and espousing such common sense.  It’s possible we wouldn’t know how to respond.  But as for action, FDR identified the number one priority of his first term.

“Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone.  This Nation asks for action, and action now.

Our greatest primary task is to put people to work.  This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously.  It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.”

I think Obama needs to start sounding a lot more like FDR.  In fact, I think he needs to start quoting him directly and often.  To try and “modernize” these sentiments would diminish their insight.  To quote one of the Nation’s most revered Presidents would capture some of what we’ve lost.

FDR encapsulated better than anyone the need for a Nation to demand ethical behaviour from both its Government and its businessmen.  The misogynist philsophy of the Republican Party, that corporations can be trusted above our government, is so misguided in light of history that it amazes. 

It’s time Obama publicly remind the Nation of FDR’s philosophy:  A philosophy that left absolutely no doubt that the public’s government comes before private corporations.  FDR did not apologize when he closed thousands of banks.  He did not apologize when he directly hired millions of unemployed men.  He didn’t have to because he had communicated a clear philosophy that demanded ethics from everyone and most decidedly favored the public’s corporation:  The United States government.