The Four Freedoms that FDR championed are now on the chopping block. There was a time when I would have thought an attack on the basics of Democracy itself would be unacceptable to both Democrats AND Republicans.
I grew up in a household where my parents HEARD that speech. They taught my brother and sister and I to honor the rights and well being of all Americans, as well as all people everywhere. They taught us to fight for a better life for all, and had gone to jail to protect that life themselves when younger. My father told us with pride of laying his body down in the streets of Detroit to protest scrap shipments to Japan, because he knew that the same metal would come back in his brothers bodies; he was one of five brothers and in fact one of his brothers died in the Battle of the Bulge.
If you are not familiar with the The “Four Freedoms” speech, see below:
1. Audio: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrthefourfreedoms.htm
2. As a written speech: http://www.wwnorton.com/college/history/ralph/workbook/ralprs36b.htm
3. In Norman Rockwell’s paintings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Freedoms_(Norman_Rockwell)
Balancing the budget by eviscerating the four freedoms is,in my opinion, unAmerican and unnecessary. It further serves to batten the Koch Brothers and others like them, and put my children and their children in debt.
There is no rational basis for capping the income to fund Social Security by a kind of flat percentage tax – the very name, “social security” says it all. Social Security has not added one penny to the national debt. See http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/1228/Cutting-Social-Security-will-not-fix-the-national-debt
Secure people believe in freedom, and in kindness. See Maslow, and the hierarchy of needs: http://www.businessballs.com/maslow.htm Maslow’s research substantiates the unsurprising reality that secure people are kind and enterprising, and insecure people are mean and fearful of making any efforts at all.
Rendering people insecure by ripping up the social compact and fundamental security in housing and jobs therefore leads directly to domestic violence, abandoned children, elders without supports, an uptick in criminality and detrioration of the fabric of society.
I had expected Barack Obama as president to be fully educated as to the four freedoms, and to take immediate action not to benefit banks and oligarchs, but to push through jobs, infrastructure, and education funding. It did not happen. Without protection and support for the four freedoms, as expanded on in the work of Abraham Maslow, there will not be a return to a fully productive society. The way to eliminate the underclass is to create enough security for folks to dare to progress, dare to work, and hope for their children.
The corporatist philosophy of meanness and wealth consolidation will not bring prosperity, nor a better life for today’s graduates, and tomorrows world.
Thank you Speaker Boehner, thank you Tea Party, or shall I just call you “The party of I got mine who cares about YOU”??
Thanks….
I am coming to the conclusion that, in fact, as former President Clinton suggested, rather than headlines that shout “Boehner to call Obama’s bluff” I would like to see headlines that shout “Obama to call Congresses bluff” that detail a true executive plan to move forward without default, bypassing congress at least temporarily, if needed.
Having reviewed the Memorandum of Law from the Congressional Research Service to congress on the emergency powers of the presidency, I am of the opinion that President Obama could do this, and Clinton would have done this.
If you are not familiar with the presidency’s emergency powers, I suggest you read at least this Memorandum http://usa-the-republic.com/emergency%20powers/crs.html
Using these emergency powers to extend the solvency of the USA until after the expiration of the so-called Bush Tax Cuts would call Boehner’s bluff, and exhibit an understanding of both the 14th Amendment and the powers of the Presidency.
Deborah Sirotkin Butler AKA AmberPaw
How else to initiate the office of the unitary executive?
“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.” –Franklin D. Roosevelt
Yes, the GOP would run around squawking like a chicken with its head cut off. That’s because that’s exactly what they are.
I wonder if you or David might do a contrast-and-compare between this approach and variations on the “14th-Amendment Solution”.
I think the bottom line is that President Obama must act presidential, and put a stop to this GOP brinkmanship. I think the voters will see it his way, and if not then we’re all hosed anyway.