Beyond The New Deal by Howard Zinn

[Better Believe It]

The Nation
April 7, 2008 issue
Beyond the New Deal
by Howard Zinn

We might wonder why no Democratic Party contender for the presidency has invoked the memory of the New Deal and its unprecedented series of laws aimed at helping people in need. The New Deal was tentative, cautious, bold enough to shake the pillars of the system but not to replace them. It created many jobs but left 9 million unemployed. It built public housing but not nearly enough. It helped large commercial farmers but not tenant farmers. Excluded from its programs were the poorest of the poor, especially blacks. As farm laborers, migrants or domestic workers, they didn't qualify for unemployment insurance, a minimum wage, Social Security or farm subsidies.

Still, in today's climate of endless war and uncontrolled greed, drawing upon the heritage of the 1930s would be a huge step forward. Perhaps the momentum of such a project could carry the nation past the limits of FDR's reforms, especially if there were a popular upsurge that demanded it. A candidate who points to the New Deal as a model for innovative legislation would be drawing on the huge reputation Franklin Roosevelt and his policies enjoy in this country, an admiration matched by no President since Lincoln.

How refreshing it would be if a presidential candidate reminded us of the experience of the New Deal and defied the corporate elite as Roosevelt did, on the eve of his 1936 re-election. Referring to the determination of the wealthy classes to defeat him, he told a huge crowd at Madison Square Garden: "They are unanimous in their hatred for me--and I welcome their hatred." I believe that a candidate who showed such boldness would win a smashing victory at the polls.

The innovations of the New Deal were fueled by the militant demands for change that swept the country as FDR began his presidency: the tenants' groups; the Unemployed Councils; the millions on strike on the West Coast, in the Midwest and the South; the disruptive actions of desperate people seeking food, housing, jobs--the turmoil threatening the foundations of American capitalism. We will need a similar mobilization of citizens today, to unmoor from corporate control whoever becomes President. To match the New Deal, to go beyond it, is an idea whose time has come.


Please read the entire article at:


http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080407/zinn

[ananda]

1. It makes me ask whether..

.. people here are that desperate.

And.. how bad does it have to get?

[Vincardog]

2. IT has gotten bad enough the people just have to stand up and Demand BETTER

[burrowowl]

3. K&R

And don't forget to read Zinn's "A Peoples History of the United States"!

[4_TN_TITANS]

4. This one issue of the Nation was worth the entire subscription cost

If you haven't picked it up, I HIGHLY recommend it. It was dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the New Deal at a time when the country badly needs someone with the vision of FDR.