With the midterm elections looming, it is a good time to remember Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
He and Abraham Lincoln were our greatest presidents.
Remember FDR’s speech at Madison Square Garden, Oct. 31, 1936, two days before he was reelected in a landslide?
FDR told the crowd he knew exactly who he was up against in pushing passage of the New Deal.
It is the “old enemies of peace: business and the financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.”
These profiteers, he said, “are unanimous in their hatred of me and I welcome their hatred.”
Remember his Jan. 1941 “Four Freedoms” speech—-freedom of speech and worship, freedom from want and fear?”
FDR’s words ring true today.
We face attacks on Muslims, the bombing of synagogues.
Want is soaring, housing, health care, higher education beyond reach.
Psychopathic gunmen spread a climate of fear.
Wall Street greed is insatiable, including war profiteers.
Sectional opportunists like Donald Trump instigate armed terrorists to storm the U.S. Capitol shouting “Hang Mike Pence,” waving the slave owner banner.
Republicans have stripped millions of voting rights, women’s right to decide whether to end a pregnancy.
If they win Nov. 8, democratic rights and benefits we fought centuries to win like race and gender equality, voting rights, Social Security, Medicare are all in peril.
Our ballots will arrive in the mail soon.
Fill them out, mail them in.
If we win, we can secure FDR’s four freedoms.
Tim Wheeler
Sequim