Memo: FDR to Obama

Or, how to get your mojo back, Mr. President. From the New Yorker:

In 1936, Franklin Roosevelt was faced with a vicious reëlection campaign. He was vilified for the New Deal reforms. The word “boondoggle” was popularized in the U.S. the year before to describe alleged abuses of the New Deal. Opposition politicians and critics compared F.D.R. to Lenin. The Depression was still on, and unemployment, which had dropped significantly, was still high, over fourteen per cent. (It would rise again in 1938.) What Roosevelt had going for himself was a real set of policies and the capacity to speak on their behalf—a willed capacity to state things plainly, forcefully, and effectively. Never more so than on September 29, 1936, at the New York Democratic State Convention, in Syracuse. Here is the most famous passage of the speech, which came in the thick of the national campaign:

Let me warn you and let me warn the nation against the smooth evasion which says, “Of course we believe all these things; we believe in social security; we believe in work for the unemployed; we believe in saving homes. Cross our hearts and hope to die, we believe in all these things; but we do not like the way the present Administration is doing them. Just turn them over to us. We will do all of them—we will do more of them, we will do them better; and, most important of all, the doing of them will not cost anybody anything.”

But, my friends, these evaders are banking too heavily on the shortness of our memories. No one will forget that they had their golden opportunity—twelve long years of it.

Remember, too, that the first essential of doing a job well is to want to see the job done. Make no mistake about this: The Republican leadership today is not against the way we have done the job. The Republican leadership is against the job’s being done.

The full speech is here, and it's well worth a read. Which will prove to you that today's politics are nearabouts identical to what was happening in the 1930's - same song, different verse.

And one more thing - Guys, nothing at all is ever guaranteed in politics. You should be planning NOW not only to cast your own vote, but to do what it takes to get your friends and family to vote too, either on Election Day, by early voting, or by mail. Make it a point to find out the wheres and whens for all that in your precinct, today.

You should be aware that the Republicans all around the country have been doubling down on voter ID laws, hoping to substantially suppress the Democratic vote. Remember that Bush won the entire country in 2000 by virtue of just a few hundred votes in Florida.

History can and does repeat itself. So be fucking sure to get yourself and your nearest and dearest to the polls. Don't think Romney can't win - it takes only your smug complacency to hand him the keys to the White House.

Click to enlarge.  Fanatical FDR-haters didn't accuse him of being a Muslim Communist - they swore he was a Jewish Communist!  (Roosevelt being orginally a German Jewish name, i.e., Rosenfelt - so they said.)  Take a look at this sick anti-semitic shit, and you'll understand that today's ignorant, raving-loon Tea Party is nothing new at all in American life.