With worries that the current financial crisis could lead to a repeat
of the Great Depression, it should not be surprising that liberals
are yearning for a new FDR. Furthermore, if the New Deal
administration represented a break with the historical past through
its apparent embrace of sweeping social change, who better to adopt
the new mantle of FDR than Barack Obama, an African-American
candidate pledged to change. Seeing the connections, the liberal
FireDogLake blog put it this way:
>>In 1932 Hoover offered FDR a deal. FDR could take power early to
deal with the crisis, if only he agreed to take care of it as Hoover
wished. FDR said "no way". This is Obama's FDR moment. He can let
Bush and Paulson define what his presidency will be about, how the
crisis will be dealt with, or he can stand up and say "no way."<<
For his admirers, it might not even seem like a liability if Obama's
call for change has little substance beneath it. After all, FDR was
not elected as any kind of fire-breathing populist. His promises were
fairly centrist, as are Obama's. Could Obama promote economic and
racial change across the board once in office, just as FDR did?
Before answering this question, it might be useful to take a close
look at FDR's actual performance with respect to civil rights.
full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/fdr-and-african-americans/
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