October 31, 1936

FDR's Madison Square Garden Address

October 31, 1936

FDR Addresses Supporters at Madison Square Garden

More from this badass speech — where he castigates those who demean and diminish their fellow Americans.

All emphasis mine.

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Of course we will provide useful work for the needy unemployed because we prefer useful work to the pauperism of a dole.

Here and now I want to make myself clear about those who disparage their fellow citizens on the relief rolls. They say that those on relief are not merely jobless — they say they are worthless. Their solution for the relief problem is to end relief -- to purge the rolls by starvation. To use the language of the stock broker, our needy unemployed would be cared for when, as, and if some fairy godmother should happen to come on the scene.

But you and I will continue to refuse to accept that estimate of our unemployed fellow Americans. Your Government is still on the same side of the street with the Good Samaritan and not with those who pass by on the other side.

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Another short — but important — excerpt.

Here he takes it to the assholes — the kinds of people who shit on the needy and want them to pull themselves up by non-existent bootstraps.

FDR also emphasizes the dignity of work rather than the dole — the primary objective behind the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps.

And then he closes by calling out the other side as the type of people who would pass by a wounded man on the road rather than offering help by using the parable of the Good Samaritan — a tale that our blasphemous snake of a Vice President crapped all over on his Sunday show appearances last week.

It is up to the Democratic party to return to the workers first and take no prisoners message of FDR.

Here’s the audio:

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Some historic context from Wikipedia: — Eight million workers remained unemployed in 1936, and though economic conditions had improved since 1932, they remained sluggish. By 1936, Roosevelt had lost the backing he once held in the business community because of his support for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Social Security Act.

The Republicans had few alternative candidates and nominated Kansas Governor Alf Landon. While Roosevelt campaigned on his New Deal programs and continued to attack Hoover, Landon sought to win voters who approved of the goals of the New Deal but disagreed with its implementation.

In the election against Landon and a third-party candidate, Roosevelt won 60.8% of the vote and carried every state except Maine and Vermont. Democrats expanded their majorities in Congress, controlling over three-quarters of the seats in each house.

The election also saw the consolidation of the New Deal coalition; while the Democrats lost some of their traditional allies in big business, they were replaced by groups such as organized labor and African Americans, the latter of whom voted Democratic for the first time since Emancipation. Roosevelt lost high-income voters, especially businessmen and professionals, but made major gains among the poor and minorities. He won 86 percent of the Jewish vote, 81 percent of Catholics, 80 percent of union members, 76 percent of Southerners, 76 percent of blacks in northern cities, and 75 percent of people on relief. Roosevelt carried 102 of the country's 106 cities with a population of 100,000 or more.

Remember — the GOP still wants to kill the New Deal. Even today they are trying to gut the National Labor Relations Board and Social Security.

Be fearless and make lasting changes, Dems. Follow the master.

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Our final excerpt from this badass speech tomorrow.

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