I’m aware that my definitions of security don’t always match my fellow Democrats’ definitions.
I’ve knocked around a bit, job-wise. I’ve seen a dozen Presidential elections I remember well enough to care about, although there’s one more that happened after I came along and before I noticed stuff that far outside the universe of basic human needs.
We have a country that is divided, but my money’s not on any of the so-called “obvious” divisions. I think we’re fundamentally parted by a line that isn’t based on money as much as it is race, and is even more based on simple human needs.
Back before my time a very well-thought-of President, FDR, proposed a policy to fix this. Well, it didn’t happen, but let’s consider where we’d be if it had:
It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.
This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. "Necessitous men are not free men."[6] People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
- The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation; (in other words, a living wage as minimum wage)
- The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation; (in other words, a minimum wage that sustains life)
- The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living; (this is NOT what we now have)
- The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad; (boy howdy is this a long way from what we’ve got now)
- The right of every family to a decent home; (this, we don’t yet have either)
- The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health; (pretty sure we’re not there yet — you need “supplemental lcoverage” even for Medicare, and there are lots of doctors who won’t take patients who need treatment but only have Medicare or Medicaid)
- The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment; (yeah, we’re not here yet by a long chalk either)
- The right to a good education. (we quit funding that in the 70s, didn’t we? Look where it’s gotten us now.)
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America's own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens. For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.
He gave that speech 11 January 1944, as part of his State of the Union address, which also got broadcast over the radio as a Fireside Chat.
He wasn’t a socialist. He wasn’t a radical. We got a portion of this through his policies, and another portion with every succeeding Dem president up to and through Jimmy Carter.
Reagan ruined it all by claiming that these benefits overwhelmingly helped black people who did not need or deserve the help in his 1980 campaign, and between him, Jim Baker, Karl Rove and a handful more deplorables … here we are.
How do we get from where we are to where FDR said we should go? Look at what he called for again. It stops “income inequality.” It makes work rewarded. It keeps people at work while maintaining and buidling out the country’s infrastructure. It puts health care in reach for every American, and it funds and values education. We ought to be fighting for this as we build back better with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, y’all.