Now is the time to channel FDR

Yesterday, January 20, 2017—a date which will live in infamy—Donald J. Trump was suddenly and deliberately sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of America.

It will be recorded that the distance between Trump Tower and the Kremlin makes it obvious that Mr. Trump was nothing more than a puppet. During the election season and beyond, the Russian government has deliberately sought to deceive the American people by false news and criminal acts of hacking.

The inauguration yesterday in Washington D.C. has caused severe damage to the morale of progressives around the world. I regret to tell you that many American hopes have been dashed. In addition, progressive programs have been torpedoed on the high seas of political discourse.

Yesterday, the President and his party attacked Obamacare.
Yesterday, the President and his party attacked immigrants and religious freedom.
Yesterday, the President and his party attacked women.
Yesterday, the President and his party attacked the working class, the poor and the unemployed.
Yesterday, the President and his party attacked the environment.
And this morning, the President and his party attacked education.

The GOP, therefore, has undertaken an expected offensive extending throughout the lives of the American people. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The progressives of the United States have already realized the facts and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation and the world.

As Democrats and progressives, we must take all measures for the defense of our rights and our Constitution, fully cognizant of the character of the foes who stand against us.

No matter how long it takes to overcome this premeditated reversion to Jim Crow, American progressives in our righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

We believe that we interpret the will of the majority of Americans who did not vote for Mr. Trump when we assert that we will not only defend our rights to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our rights, our people, our country and the world are in grave danger.

With confidence in our intelligence, with the unbounding determination of all of us, we will gain the inevitable triumph.

I ask that American progressives declare that since the dastardly tactics of the President and his party, and since his inauguration on Friday, January 20, 2017, a state of war has existed between the Democrats and the Republicans.


To read the text of Roosevelt's actual speech, please go here: http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/fdr-infamy.htm

And here's the video: