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#fdr

Open Thread - Thurs 19 Mar 2026 - We Can Hope!

We Can Hope!

Some writers, for instance David Sirota at the Lever, are seeing a bit of good news in all the crap coming from United State’s current politics - like the Democratic Party's Moment of Reckoning. Some of the new candidates are ‘radical’ compared to the usual Democrat stock-in-trade, and more of these ‘radical’ candidates are appearing. And that is a good thing.

Sirota begins his article with:

A decade after Bernie Sanders almost tore the presidential nomination out of the decrepit hands of the Democratic establishment, the party’s old guard, ancient political formulas, and outdated corporate politics seem to finally be facing a moment of comeuppance. The long-overdue reckoning appears to be happening not just in a few predictably liberal locales, but across varied swaths of the country that seem ready to embrace populist politics.

Open Thread - Thurs 28 Mar 2024 - Social Security and Some Fun!

28 March 2024 - Social Security and Some Fun!

Back in August RJ Eskow wrote 'Social Security, FDR, and the Real Meaning of Liberty' on his substack: The Zero Hour Report: A Newsletter from Richard (RJ) Eskow.

The article is about the meaning of the 'social security' act at the time it was created and now. Eskow writes that the word 'security emphasizes its goal for individuals'. That is, it's about financial security for every man, woman and child in the country. The word social emphasizes the act's broader societal goals; everyone has to be secure, everyone has to be able to eat, to have housing, to live decently.

Signing Of The Social Security Act
FDR signs the Social Security Act. From Wikimedia Commons.

As Eskow writes, Roosevelt framed this as an extension of the liberty upon which the Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc, were founded. That is, liberty for everyone, not for the rich or those in control, but everyone.