this is a remarkable this franklin roosevelt and his State of the Union
address this
is added to the seventy seventh congress on this day back in nineteen whatever
for the year was in me harvey on stoltz all about this professor Harvey K as
well as Professor democracy and Justice Studies
at the university was cousin Green Bay's the other the fight for the Four
Freedoms what FDR
and the greatest generation truly great and
his Twitter feed is slashing Harvey JKK whyy
a hearty time is great Airways
and it is so cold here in Wisconsin this week adjusted know I was coming on I
warmed up
but suede a sweet it's it's frighteningly called here for for DC
arm so professor here the I i'm reading the the speech that
that FDR gave any says a free nation has the
right to expect full cooperation from all groups
a free nation has the right to look to the leaders a business have labored over
agriculture to take the lead in stimulating effort now among other
groups within their own group
the best we're dealing with a few slackers or troublemakers in our midst
is first to shame them by patriotic example if that fails
to use the sovereignty of government to save government
save government save government it was really worried about the possibility
that they work
you know corporations are still cooperating with Nazi Germany in 1841
and and he was seriously concerned that they might actually undermine the war
effort in favor their own profits
so when he gave that address on January 6 1941
basically he was speaking to the american people to mobilize them for
defense and he knew over the horizon
the war the war that was already waging in East Asia and Europe
and he was concerned there's a concern that he might not secure the cooperation
a big business that he knew was essential basically to mobilize the
you know arsenal of democracy and then to to win the war
right his is four freedoms at the Four Freedoms get all the attention you know
the freedom of speech freedom of
for to worship freedom from want fear and freedom from fear
arm but and I want to get into that but I think that
there earlier on
speeches at the basic things expected by our people
up their political and economic systems are simple
they are equality of opportunity for youth and for others
jobs for those who can work security for those who need it
the end have special privilege for the few
and the preservation of civil liberties for all
yet is that is dead I mean there's a great speech
you know it isn't just as for freedoms which are wonderful
and so inspiring it's also that when he was talking to the american people he
knew that many
were concerned that in fact the new deal might be in jeopardy
and conservative members of congress on both in the house and the Senate
overwhelmingly Republican in those terms they were saying
well okay where we're going to prepare for defensive going to prepare for war
so therefore we should end
all the New Deal initiatives basically we need to suspend what we've been doing
possibly even just you know
destroy them you know to bring them to an end and restaurant said wait a second
is said
you know if your gonna mobilize for defense and for war
it doesn't mean you suspend the victories in his last several years
you actually do more than that you don't just even sustain them
you advance them I mean he understood
what a democracy was about and he knew that if you're going to go to war you
gotta have
healthy confident educated people
people who feel their rights who feel that day
are descending not not a country owned by the one percent but a country which
is theirs in the most fundamental sense of freedom equality and democracy
and that's what that speech was about really it wasn't just
I mean it was fundamentally I'll you know call to war in some ways I think
more important than the pro Harbor speech
I'm but it was also this sort of declaration
that we're going to continue to sustain our values that he made
terrible mistakes in the in the weeks it came at that followed sheesh
the n-terminal the japanese-americans and other things
but the fact is that on the grander scale he did try to
encourage Americans to see that this war was gonna really be about those four
freedoms
and N
a correct me if I'm wrong but at at various points in his presidency did not
franklin roosevelt basically say that it is
the that that it is the responsibility of government to be the employer of last
resort essentially that there should not be unemployment in the United States of
America
ok not absolutely I mean over and over again
the idea of the New Deal was not simply that
to you don't get us out of an economic depression by way of a recovery
it was also the carry on major projects I love
for civil relief but then the on that reconstruction
and reform and you know if there hadn't been a depression
but for some reason rosa had been elected
the you know it's difficult to imagine the other things that alternative
but it's still likely that rosa would have pursued many of the projects he
pursued in the face of the depression and he believed in the Civilian
Conservation Corps
he believed in modernization he believed in
in engaging Americans in the labors and struggles
that were that were required for americans to advance themselves and
their nation at the same time
benso India I think they would let roosevelt's saw
in his eight years in the New Deal
is the degree to which gym not only he had these ideas as a progressive
liberal democratic politician but also that Americans themselves had these guys
have hopes and aspirations I want to apply wanted to apply the energy to them
which is also yen to go back to the speech why when he says
you know freedom of speech freedom of worship three terms from
want and freedom from fear he doesn't think he's talking to people about
something they don't know anything about
he truly believes is the fundamental ideals American lights
right so if if we had
a nation and had had a nation for the i mean basically this all got suspended
after the war
and and you know the hood the band and
and really in in larger part I suppose with the election i've
the eisenhower 52 nom it
if we had a nation where
you are guaranteed a job where the get the government was the employer flashers
are there is always zero unemployment
nobody ever had to fear unemployment
and they were and the wages were such that you know the
kinda teddy roosevelt Square Deal definition you know that you lose that
they had that you could
the great American standard of living right yeah he could raise your family
you can put your kids through school you had enough paper healthy
health insurance enough for a set aside a reasonable retirement for old age
a if you direct quote from teddy roosevelt nom
how different will america be today just with that one thing I mean he also
talked about
be a bit making sure that everybody had free education free health care and
housing
if they needed it yeah but less so you can shop somehow different with this
country be
if we all agreed that the government should be the employer last resort
every one of us who had just heard your question
is probably doing what I'm doing here on I'm nodding in agreement
and two and that kind of America would be a healthier America
a better said america this would be a this to be the america that americans
have always
have always wanted not to go on at length but you know a few years later in
January 1944 roosevelt followed up the Four Freedoms speech
with his economic to love rights region lays out all the very things that you're
talking about
as a project for postwar America right and and
a a deal for any country that has done that on that scale the europeans
themselves I think we're really inspired by Roosevelt Four Freedoms and much
second on the right and I think if you look at what happened in Europe after
the war your you'd see the development of many of those things
I'm I think probably the great shock is that it's
America you're leading the way intellectually and culturally and
politically
and then failing to actually pursue the very things a roosevelt and america's
themselves wanted
in 1943 and 1944 P survey show that
eighty-five percent of Americans wanted a fold
all-out social democratic America in the post-war years
while but of course the Republicans and conservatives
rallied against it and Rosa dozens of passed away on April 12 1945 by they
were coming up to the 70th anniversary that this strange
I'm so you know if he had lived that
you know that's a whole that's a whole other discussion we can have yeah
yeah or if just his idea had lived and indeed didn't know you know truman
truman when he came into office on Mills on Russell's death
he spoken doing just that but really he really wasn't
up to the task he didn't have the kind of kind of political skills and talents
that roosevelt did
right hand he he basically backed off because by the way no president can
pursue
any initiative without the backing old the American people
organized America I'm with you professor Harvey Kansas area
this is the Thom Hartmann program you can't we are beat harvey JK
kyes and he's the other the fight for the Four Freedoms 18ft on the greatest
generation truly great among other brilliant books thank ya rly
thank you to