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| Maine's Mean Man |
Maine’s governor left the National Governor’s Association meeting in Washington early, missing the meeting at the White House. This gave him an opportunity to demonstrate solidarity with Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona, a reliable champion of partisanship over good manners.
While our gentleman was out of the state, the Democratic Party held its caucuses. Congresswoman Pingree gave an inspiring and genuinely progressive speech, maybe as an antidote to the boring inevitability of President Obama’s nomination.
Out of the limelight, the Maine Democratic Party Platform Committee unanimously recommended adoption of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1944 Economic Bill of Rights as the Party’s Vision Statement. It will go to a vote at the full Convention in Augusta, June 1-3.
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| FDR Signing the National Labor Relations Act, New Deal Architect Frances Perkins Watches |
The Economic Bill of Rights was part of Roosevelt’s last wartime State of the Union address, containing some sentiments as true today as then, like, “We cannot be content . . . if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.”
FDR’s Economic Bill of Rights is entirely contemporary; I hope Maine Democrats will encourage overwhelming approval at the Convention, while people in other states with suitable Democratic organizations like the DFL see about adoption elsewhere. Sometimes a key to the future is sitting in the past, waiting to be rediscovered.
Here’s FDR’s enumeration of economic rights; the very last sentence is sadly prophetic.
A link to more complete text is at the end. Please pass it on!
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.
