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Wednesday, February 06, 2008

FDR Quotes For A Super Wednesday

We all know Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a legless commie so-and-so and that he ruined the Great American Nation after the triumphs of the 1930's. But he said some really good stuff. I wonder how much of it he wrote himself. Certainly, they had many professional speechwriters back then. But these days speechwriters concoct every last word of speech spoken by public figures. Including the things they say at night in bed to their wives. It's true, look it up.

I believe that no one should write speeches for the President of the USA unless he is actually qualified to lead a superpower himself. I just don't think working at the NY Times and writing a few seasons of "The West Wing" are good enough qualifications to write the words that are feared around the globe.

Here are some quotes by FDR (who was President of the USA from 1933 - 1945, making him the only president to serve more than two terms and causing Congress to say, "Whoa, we're never going to let that happen again!"):

"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way."

"Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough."

"Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country."

"Governments can err, presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that Divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted on different scales. Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."

"These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike."


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