When Roosevelt and the Democrats took power in 1933, they had the "audacity" to embrace the spirit of the general welfare clause of the U.S. Constitution, and they helped non-wealthy Americans in a time of great need. Over the course of the New Deal there would be programs of direct job creation for the unemployed (the WPA), insurance against complete loss of one's bank savings (FDIC), protection against stock market fraud (the SEC), subsistence income guarantees for the elderly (Social Security), employment of young adults in the restoration & development of our forests & parks (the CCC), and much more.
Many (but not all) wealthy Americans despised this. They were accustomed to a federal government that did as they
paid wanted it to. To them, non-wealthy Americans were merely economic cannon fodder. Unfortunately, the same mentality can be seen today, in the form of various austerity measures imposed by federal and state politicians who often have wealthy backers, e.g., budget cuts that
reduce food assistance to low-income seniors,
cuts to unemployment benefits, and the
blocking of legislation to create a new CCC-type program for unemployed veterans.
With all this in mind, I submit that the greatest words ever spoken by an American president are in this 1-minute segment, spoken on October 31st, 1936, at Madison Square Garden:
Find the full text of the speech here:
http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/3307
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