



Jimmy Dore made an interesting remark recently in his show about Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), one of the most successful presidents in the US history. As he pointed:





When the market crashed and Barack Obama came president, none of the Democrats mentioned FDR. Why? Because the Democrats were busy dismantling the New Deal for the prior two decades. Bill Clinton repealed the banking New Deal regulations, he crushed the poor people by gutting welfare at the same time exploding the prison population. [...] tried to privatize social security, passed NAFTA screwing over union workers. A lot of bad things that the Democrats did, and that's why they never and still don't mention FDR. Barack Obama mentions Reagan all the time, I never, ever heard him mention FDR. [...] Republicans still mention Lincoln, all the time, the party of Lincoln. We are the party of Roosevelt and they never mention it. And that's why they are not really Democrats, that's why they are just corporatist tools who are selling out their country, and the way they do it, is by defeating the agenda of the worker.









Dore's remark shows the degree that the Democrats have been occupied by the neoliberal doctrine which serves the banking and corporate interests at the expense of the ordinary people.





The US plutocracy would erase Franklin Roosevelt from the collective memory if it could really do it. That's because Roosevelt is one of the most successful presidents in the history of the US, since he managed to restart the economy against the corporate interests after the big crash of 1929. Roosevelt did it through public investments, something that is considered almost a sin by the fascist neoliberal priesthood, worldwide.





Back in 1933, when FDR got elected, he had to face the attack of the corporate establishment, which was trying to fight his initiatives to put the state in the front line for the restart of the US economy. FDR was aware of this type of propaganda by the corporate establishment and the associated political elite. A quote from a Roosevelt's speech is characteristic: “A few timid people, who fear progress, will try to give you new and strange names for what we are doing. Sometimes they will call it 'Fascism,' sometimes 'Communism,' sometimes 'Regimentation,' sometimes 'Socialism.' But, in so doing, they are trying to make very complex and theoretical something that is really very simple and very practical.”





Despite its imperfections, Roosevelt's "New Deal" created millions of new jobs and new infrastructure for the benefit of all American citizens, boosted some sectors such as agriculture, strengthened social security and boosted the economy in general. The response of Roosevelt, "of course we spend money", to his opponents, captures the perception of his government, giving importance to the prosperity and relief of people and not to the strict austerity for the sake of economic indexes. Indeed, while in 1933 the national debt was 20% of GDP, by 1936 this figure almost doubled, but what mattered for Roosevelt was to relieve American citizens and give them hope and perspective.



