October 31, 1936
FDR's Madison Square Garden Address
October 31, 1936
FDR Addresses Supporters at Madison Square Garden
Our final excerpt from this badass speech.
All emphasis mine.
To go on — what of our objectives?
Of course we will continue our efforts for young men and women so that they may obtain an education and an opportunity to put it to use. Or course, we will continue our help for the crippled, for the blind, for the mothers -- our insurance for the unemployed -- our security for the aged. Of course we will continue to protect the consumer against unnecessary price spreads, against the costs that are added by monopoly and speculation. We will continue our successful efforts to increase his purchasing power and to keep it constant.
And for these things, too, and for a multitude of things like them we have only just begun to fight.
This a short excerpt, but I wanted to finish with it because he makes it very clear who and what he is fighting for.
And that he has just begun to fight.
In this amazing speech, FDR makes it clear that any progress will only be made by fighting these powerful and dark forces — and he names names, making it clear who he is against and why.
Working people must know that we are fighting for them.
It is up to the Democratic party to return to the workers first and take no prisoners message of FDR.
Here’s the audio:
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.
I’m taking the day off tomorrow — but on Sunday I’ll be back with FDR’s Address to the Democratic State Convention in 1936 — where he straight mocks the GOP.
We must rediscover that fighting spirit and couple it with biting humor. Nothing about what must be done to destroy the MAGA movement is polite.
I’m also going to add a new excerpt to this newsletter as it’s becoming my stand against the American fascists in our midst: a feature honoring artists who lived under oppression — particularly black artists from the Jim Crow South — and still found a way to fight the power and create beautiful art.
Starting with the great Sam Cooke, born in 1931 Mississippi:
More inspiration to gird us all for the long fight ahead.
FDR knew that nothing is won without a fight. So do we.
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