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ErikJ

(6,335 posts)
22. That's why FDR called them "Economic Royalists"
Sun Jul 15, 2012, 05:31 PM
Jul 2012

From his 1936 speech-

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And so it was to win freedom from the tyranny of political autocracy that the American Revolution was fought. That victory gave the business of governing into the hands of the average man, who won the right with his neighbors to make and order his own destiny through his own government. Political tyranny was wiped out at Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.

Since that struggle, however, man's inventive genius released new forces in our land which reordered the lives of our people. The age of machinery, of railroads; of steam and electricity; the telegraph and the radio; mass production, mass distribution - all of these combined to bring forward a new civilization and with it a new problem for those who sought to remain free.

For out of this modern civilization economic royalists carved new dynasties. New kingdoms were built upon concentration of control over material things. Through new uses of corporations, banks and securities, new machinery of industry and agriculture, of labor and capital - all undreamed of by the Fathers - the whole structure of modern life was impressed into this royal service.

There was no place among this royalty for our many thousands of small-businessmen and merchants who sought to make a worthy use of the American system of initiative and profit. They were no more free than the worker or the farmer. Even honest and progressive-minded men of wealth, aware of their obligation to their generation, could never know just where they fitted into this dynastic scheme of things.

It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service new mercenaries sought to regiment the people, their labor, and their property. And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man.
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Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

CEOs and ProSense Jul 2012 #1
Exactly! You lowly commoners just don't understand. calimary Jul 2012 #2
Yup, the ProSense Jul 2012 #3
Oh Dear God, that was freakin' HIDEOUS! calimary Jul 2012 #11
"you can't handle the truth" ThomThom Jul 2012 #7
Yes! Keep pounding! My husband wants to know where the longform tax returns are! calimary Jul 2012 #12
I think the President will handle him ThomThom Jul 2012 #16
+1! uponit7771 Jul 2012 #23
He's offended by our demands lunatica Jul 2012 #4
he is also one of the chosen people, a part of the greater cult better than u and me nt msongs Jul 2012 #5
well said! FirstLight Jul 2012 #6
I wouldn't doubt that for a nanosecond!!! calimary Jul 2012 #14
So, how about CEOs in Long-term Care? Does happen, you know. nt patrice Jul 2012 #8
And the one thing that stands in their way, Shankapotomus Jul 2012 #9
"No Apologies." He summed it up in his book title. Baitball Blogger Jul 2012 #10
Beautifully summed, Calimary. Wilms Jul 2012 #13
It's time to end corporate welfare for good. Initech Jul 2012 #15
Mitt sees himself as one of the masters of the universe. A God in the making. JoePhilly Jul 2012 #17
"CEOs are accustomed to answering to basically nobody." ProfessionalLeftist Jul 2012 #18
They answer to the money god. 3feetofsnow Jul 2012 #19
You described it to a tee. Paka Jul 2012 #20
And that's something I just do not get: "he's taking away my freedoms." calimary Jul 2012 #21
Thank you. Paka Jul 2012 #24
That's why FDR called them "Economic Royalists" ErikJ Jul 2012 #22
GREAT quotes! calimary Jul 2012 #30
My Dad was a CFO for many years.. 4_TN_TITANS Jul 2012 #25
One only has to look to Leona Helmsley's philosophy Live and Learn Jul 2012 #26
As I said in a thread yesterday, he has been one of the "No One To Tell Him 'No'" people for a long, Hissyspit Jul 2012 #27
Yup - it's an entitlement mentality, alright - cilla4progress Jul 2012 #28
I think there is also an element of racism... Blue Meany Jul 2012 #29
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