Damn, how far we've fallen

[ProudDad]

"Democratic Party Platform of 1936"

We hold this truth to be self-evident—that the test of a representative government is its ability to promote the safety and happiness of the people.

We hold this truth to be self-evident—that 12 years of Republican leadership left our Nation sorely stricken in body, mind, and spirit; and that three years of Democratic leadership have put it back on the road to restored health and prosperity.

We hold this truth to be self-evident—that 12 years of Republican surrender to the dictatorship of a privileged few have been supplanted by a Democratic leadership which has returned the people themselves to the places of authority, and has revived in them new faith and restored the hope which they had almost lost.

We hold this truth to be self-evident—that this three-year recovery in all the basic values of life and the reestablishment of the American way of living has been brought about by humanizing the policies of the Federal Government as they affect the personal, financial, industrial, and agricultural well-being of the American people.

We hold this truth to be self-evident—that government in a modern civilization has certain inescapable obligations to its citizens, among which are:

(1) Protection of the family and the home.

(2) Establishment of a democracy of opportunity for all the people.

(3) Aid to those overtaken by disaster. These obligations, neglected through 12 years of the old leadership, have once more been recognized by American Government. Under the new leadership they will never be neglected."

<snip>

"Labor

We have given the army of America's industrial workers something more substantial than the Republicans' dinner pail full of promises. We have increased the worker's pay and shortened his hours; we have undertaken to put an end to the sweated labor of his wife and children; we have written into the law of the land his right to collective bargaining and self-organization free from the interference of employers; we have provided Federal machinery for the peaceful settlement of labor disputes.

We will continue to protect the worker and we will guard his rights, both as wage-earner and consumer, in the production and consumption of all commodities, including coal and water power and other natural resource products.

The worker has been returned to the road to freedom and prosperity. We will keep him on that road."

<<Eviscerated by Taft-Hartley over Truman's veto - Ed.>><clip>

"Monopoly and Concentration of Economic Power

Monopolies and the concentration of economic power, the creation of Republican rule and privilege, continue to be the master of the producer, the exploiter of the consumer, and the enemy of the independent operator. This is a problem challenging the unceasing effort of untrammeled public officials in every branch of the Government. We pledge vigorously and fearlessly to enforce the criminal and civil provisions of the existing anti-trust laws, and to the extent that their effectiveness has been weakened by new corporate devices or judicial construction, we propose by law to restore their efficacy in stamping out monopolistic practices and the concentration of economic power."

<clip>

"Unemployment

We believe that unemployment is a national problem, and that it is an inescapable obligation of our Government to meet it in a national way.

Due to our stimulation of private business, more than five million people have been reemployed; and we shall continue to maintain that the first objective of a program of economic security is maximum employment in private industry at adequate wages. Where business fails to supply such employment, we believe that work at prevailing wages should be provided in cooperation with State and local governments on useful public projects, to the end that the national wealth may be increased, the skill and energy of the worker may be utilized, his morale maintained, and the unemployed assured the opportunity to earn the necessities of life."

"The Constitution

The Republican platform proposes to meet many pressing national problems solely by action of the separate States. We know that drought, dust storms, floods, minimum wages, maximum hours, child labor, and working conditions in industry, monopolistic and unfair business practices cannot be adequately handled exclusively by 48 separate State legislatures, 48 separate State administrations, and 48 separate State courts. Transactions and activities which inevitably overflow State boundaries call for both State and Federal treatment.

We have sought and will continue to seek to meet these problems through legislation within the Constitution.

If these problems cannot be effectively solved by legislation within the Constitution, we shall seek such clarifying amendment as will assure to the legislatures of the several States and to the Congress of the United States, each within its proper jurisdiction, the power to enact those laws which the State and Federal legislatures, within their respective spheres, shall find necessary, in order adequately to regulate commerce, protect public health and safety and safeguard economic security. Thus we propose to maintain the letter and spirit of the Constitution."

<clip>

"Civil Liberties

We shall continue to guard the freedom of speech, press, radio, religion and assembly which our Constitution guarantees; with equal rights to all and special privileges to none.

Government Finance

The Administration has stopped deflation, restored values and enabled business to go ahead with confidence.

When national income shrinks, government income is imperilled. In reviving national income, we have fortified government finance. We have raised the public credit to a position of unsurpassed security. The interest rate on Government bonds has been reduced to the lowest point in twenty eight years. The same Government bonds which in 1932 sold under 83 are now selling over 104.

We approve the objective of a permanently sound currency so stabilized as to prevent the former wide fluctuations in value which injured in turn producers, debtors, and property owners on the one hand, and wage-earners and creditors on the other, a currency which will permit full utilization of the country's resources. We assert that today we have the soundest currency in the world.

We are determined to reduce the expenses of government. We are being aided therein by the recession in unemployment. As the requirements of relief decline and national income advances, an increasing percentage of Federal expenditures can and will be met from current revenues, secured from taxes levied in accordance with ability to pay. Our retrenchment, tax and recovery programs thus reflect our firm determination to achieve a balanced budget and the reduction of the national debt at the earliest possible moment.

Foreign Policy

In our relationship with other nations, this Government will continue to extend the policy of the Good Neighbor. We reaffirm our opposition to war as an instrument of national policy, and declare that disputes between nations should be settled by peaceful means. We shall continue to observe a true neutrality in the disputes of others; to be prepared, resolutely to resist aggression against ourselves; to work for peace and to take the profits out of war; to guard against being drawn, by political commitments, international banking or private trading, into any war which may develop anywhere.

We shall continue to foster the increase in our foreign trade which has been achieved by this administration; to seek by mutual agreement the lowering of those tariff barriers, quotas and embargoes which have been raised against our exports of agricultural and industrial products; but continue as in the past to give adequate protection to our farmers and manufacturers against unfair competition or the dumping on our shores of commodities and goods produced abroad by cheap labor or subsidized by foreign governments."



Where are those Democrats?

Oh, that's right, we're now called the "loony left" by all the "new democrats"...



Now for contrast, read this piece of wimpy shit:

http://www.ontheissues.org/Dem_Platform_2004.htm

[jgraz]

1. See? It's that kind of anti-American left-wing-nuttery that lost the Dems the White House in 1936

Oh, wait...

[LWolf]

2. K & R n/t

[Whit]

3. Send this to all the Democratic candidates ! NT

[corkhead]

4. K, R, and I am bookmarking this one.

[Perry Logan]

5. Wow. The game has been severely rigged since those days.

[broadcaster]

6. Business's attempted coup on FDR, 1933...here is a program

that was aired on Monday by BBC Radio 4 on a program series called "Document."

The link to the program and audio is here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document.shtml

From the program's web site:

"Document uncovers details of a planned coup in the USA in 1933 by a group of right-wing American businessmen
View a picture gallery of images related to this edition.

The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.

Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy." --- BBC Radio 4 Document Web site (see link above)

[ProudDad]

7. I remember that -- well not exactly, I'm too young but I remembered:

"...a military coup. It was to be secretly financed and organized by leading officers of the Morgan and Du Pont empires. This included some of America's richest and most famous names of the time:

* Irenee Du Pont - Right-wing chemical industrialist and founder of the American Liberty League, the organization assigned to execute the plot.
* Grayson Murphy - Director of Goodyear, Bethlehem Steel and a group of J.P. Morgan banks.
* William Doyle - Former state commander of the American Legion and a central plotter of the coup.
* John Davis - Former Democratic presidential candidate and a senior attorney for J.P. Morgan.
* Al Smith - Roosevelt's bitter political foe from New York. Smith was a former governor of New York and a codirector of the American Liberty League.
* John J. Raskob - A high-ranking Du Pont officer and a former chairman of the Democratic Party. In later decades, Raskob would become a "Knight of Malta," a Roman Catholic Religious Order with a high percentage of CIA spies, including CIA Directors William Casey, William Colby and John McCone.
* Robert Clark - One of Wall Street's richest bankers and stockbrokers.
* Gerald MacGuire - Bond salesman for Clark, and a former commander of the Connecticut American Legion. MacGuire was the key recruiter to General Butler.

The plotters attempted to recruit General Smedley Butler to lead the coup. They selected him because he was a war hero who was popular with the troops. The plotters felt his good reputation was important to make the troops feel confident that they were doing the right thing by overthrowing a democratically elected president. However, this was a mistake: Butler was popular with the troops because he identified with them. That is, he was a man of the people, not the elite. When the plotters approached General Butler with their proposal to lead the coup, he pretended to go along with the plan at first, secretly deciding to betray it to Congress at the right moment"

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Coup.htm

They sure picked the wrong guy --

Smedley Butler wrote: "War is a Racket", You can read it in its entirety here:

http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

[OHdem10]

8. DlC has brough NonCommitment Commitment

This type of program just might require BIG Government.
It was Liberals, Honey who gave America stuff like this.

Today's Dems have bigger fish to fry. Appeasing Big Business
and Corporate Interests.

Do not mean this personally. I am still doing a slow burn
over Hilary's going into a pretzel last night--when all
she had to do was state What is a Liberal.

Think like a GOPer and Answer like a GOPer.

[rasputin1952]

9. Most people never realize that there was a severe "RW problem" back

then as well, right up until Ike won the WH.

The GOP was hysterically anti-FDR. Up to, and including WWII, many in the GOP remained ardent isolationists and truly believed that their "conservative" views would save the nation...actually it was the conservative views of Horace Harding and Calvin Coolidge that set the stage for the Great Depression that came about on Hoover's watch. The GOP was insane back then as well, right up to the point where Radical Republicans were subverting the war effort during D-Day, Iwo Jima, etc...:eyes:

In 1936, nothing was written in stone, but FDR's programs worked tot eh extent where the nation was basically past the worst of times. Things weren't 'great' by any means, but the US was moving up, and the rest of the world was moving steadily into a newer Industrial Age. War Fever was ramping up, in Spain, Japan, Italy and Germany. Arms production, energy production and a newer Army and Navy were great for economies.

1936, those that looked ahead saw a vision of prosperity in the distance, and those who looked just a bit further...saw that war would engulf the world. The GOP did not want anything of FDR or war...now, they want war because it makes them money, and gives them a justification for their view that there is "an enemy behind every tree".

[eridani]

10. If you liked 1936, you'll also like 1900

The approval of the Chinese Exclusion Act strikes a sour note, but otherwise our great-great grandparents seem to have known a thing or three that we of the 21st century have forgotten. Lose the xenophobia and the details specific to the era, and it would serve us very well in 2008.


http://janda.org/politxts/PartyPlatforms/Democratic/dem.900.html

We declare again that all governments instituted among men derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that any government not based upon the consent of the governed is a tyranny, and that to impose upon any people a government of force is to substitute the methods of imperialism for those of a republic. We hold that the Constitution follows the flag, and denounce the doctrine that an Executive or Congress deriving their existence and their powers from the Constitution can exercise lawful authority beyond it or in violation of it. We assert that no nation can long endure half republic and half empire, and we warn the American people that imperialism abroad will lead quickly and inevitably to despotism at home.

<snip>

We are in favor of extending the Republic's influence among the nations, but we believe that that influence should be extended not by force and violence, but through the persuasive power of a high and honorable example.

<snip>

We oppose militarism. It means conquest abroad and intimidation and oppression at home. It means the strong arm which has ever been fatal to free institutions. It is what millions of our citizens have fled from in Europe. It will impose upon our peace loving people a large standing army and unnecessary burden of taxation, and will be a constant menace to their liberties.

[ProudDad]

11. This one came in after the repuke McKinley

began the Empire building in 1898 with the conquest and brutal colonization of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Kingdom of Hawai'i and the Philippines...


"Uncle Joe" Cannon, later Speaker of the House, once said that McKinley kept his ear so close to the ground that it was full of grasshoppers. When McKinley was undecided what to do about Spanish possessions other than Cuba, he toured the country and detected an imperialist sentiment. Thus the United States annexed the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico <<And Hawai'i GOD DAMN IT, and Hawai'i -- stolen from its people>>.

In 1900, McKinley again campaigned against Bryan. While Bryan inveighed against imperialism, McKinley quietly stood for "the full dinner pail."

[The Magistrate]

12. Worth Noting, Sir

That was written by professional politicians in smoke-filled rooms, who received much of their funds from patronage kick-backs, and enforced discipline in the Party with control of the nomination process and funding of campaigns....

[ProudDad]

13. Very true

The major difference I am trying to convey is that the PEOPLE in 1936 believed this kind of "we" philosophy and voting in FDR on that basis.

Today, if one talks about "we" or the Rights of the People, one is called some kind of "commie" or "left-wing loonie".

When I was growing up, the "We" philosophy was still the mood of the people, most people were self-described "liberals". Of course, I know all about the horrors under the surface, I lived in the Jim Crow South in the 50s and 60s, but there was hope then.

The Democratic Party appears to have abandoned hope in favor of lucre...


On Edit:

"smoke-filled rooms, who received much of their funds from patronage kick-backs, and enforced discipline in the Party with control of the nomination process and funding of campaigns"

WAIT ONE, that sounds EXACTLY like today. The only difference is that now there's less smoking so fewer "smoke filled rooms"...

[The Magistrate]

16. Different Patronage, Sir

This came mostly from the people put into jobs in various government agencies by the political chieftains, who donated a portion of the salaries they received in token of the favor.

It is indeed an inspiring platform, and in my view would probably command majority support among the people today.

"We don't want nobody nobody sent."

[iverglas]

14. some more worth remembering from one of them

(fascinating info in this thread, both in the OP and about the coup plot, btw; I'm heading to BBC next)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Freedoms

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression--everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way--everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want--which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants--everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear--which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor--anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.

— Franklin Delano Roosevelt, excerpted from the Annual Message to the Congress, January 6, 1941

[Zodiak]

15. Excellent thread

The platform of a party voted the majority again and again and again.

What we have now is a joke, and the contrast the OP provides is very evident.

[bvar22]

17. Bookmarked and Copies sent.

:patriot:

The above is a roadmap whereby the Democratic Party can return to its roots.

font color=firebrick]"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans. I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans, family farmers, and people who haven't felt the benefits of the economic upturn."---Paul Wellstone

I agree with Paul.