Franklin D. Roosevelt


FDR-Speech

Influential FDR Address to Congress in 1938 Provides a Guiding Light to Obama and Occupy Wall Street Almost a Century Later

The line that Roosevelt toed in 1938 is almost identical to the line President Barack Obama must toe to this day. In fact, the parallels are almost staggering. They both needed to convince Congress to take drastic short term steps to repair a damaged economy; but yet felt a responsibility to ensure it could not happen again. Despite the claims of some of their political opponents, neither of these Presidents sought to take advantage of a nation in despair in order to instill their own political doctrine on the country a la Joseph Stalin. These were presidents that were willing to stake their reputations on new changes based on the fruits of our country’s strong Academia presence. The solutions they offered did not come from their “gut”; they come from the minds of think tanks and scholars. They were tasked with being the middle man and needed to sell these programs to Congress and the public.