Simply put, we need another Roosevelt

[MrScorpio]

83. I'm not disregarding his ailment and how it affected him...

I'm quite sure that his polio allowed him to reassess his own role in this world and perhaps even his own mortality. Perhaps it even knocked him down a notch from his well known penchant for being an entitled prick as a younger man. We all grow as we age and our experiences impress changes upon us… Some for better or even worse.

I've never said that FDR was a bad guy. And whether or not his empathy for the downtrodden was genuine or contrived for politics sake, or even both (due to his pedigree and lack of economic adversity), I really don't think it's an important point if it true or not. It's what we tell ourselves about him, it's what we loved about the guy. That's very much our narrative and we own it as Democrats.

And about Teddy, I have to tell you that I've always admired the guy, that blustery blowhard of a warmonger. He was a real man's man. A self made man in every since of the word. A true outdoorsman, for whom we appreciate his efforts to preserve the American west. We loved how he stood up to the trusts and how he spoke in plain, forthright language to the American citizen.

Do I hold it against him that he was the VP to a President who started a war with imperial intentions, that was responsible for leading to an insurrection against our occupation which slaughtered a quarter million Filipinos?

Nah… I share a birthday with Ol' Teddy, I can't hold that against him.

My point in the beginning was that, in their time, they were quite the right men to step forward to help preserve America. But let's not disregard that they were also aristocrats whose main object was to prevent the existing system, a system which extended their own families vast wealth and power, not to fundamentally change it and make it fairer for all. Out all all the good that they've done, we were still left with a country that had poverty and inequality, especially for minorities. The rich were still getting richer. The owners of America only gave up part of their power and have snatched it back ten-fold.

If anything, the Roosevelts merely postponed the negative trends of American oligarchy, even if they came from that ilk. They didn't smash it and rebuild from it. Asking an oligarch to do such a thing, not matter how well intentioned and empathetic they are, it would be like asking someone to voluntarily cut off a limb.

Do we really want to elect aristocrats today, those who would do nothing more than to prevent a socioeconomic system from collapsing in on itself? Is that that what we want from some modern day "Roosevelt," or do we want more?

Perhaps we've evolved from needing a "Roosevelt" today, even as we honor their efforts of the past and the legacy that they've extended to us. Those men saved America, when they could have easily stood by those in their own class who were abusing and destroying it.

We appreciate that. I appreciate that.

I'm just saying that, in this day, merely preserving an unjust system isn't good enough. We need something better.