"There is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy.
"The basic things expected by our people of 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 ending of special privilege for the few. The preservation of civil liberties for all. The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living. These are the simple, the basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world...
"Many subjects connected with our social economy call for immediate improvement. As examples : We should bring more citizens under the coverage of old-age pensions and unemployment insurance. We should widen the opportunities for adequate medical care. We should plan a better system by which persons deserving or needing gainful employment may obtain it. I have called for personal sacrifice, and I am assured of the willingness of almost all Americans to respond to that call.
"In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression --everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way-- everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants --everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor --anywhere in the wold. That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.
"Since the beginning of our American history we have been engaged in change, in a perpetual, peaceful revolution, a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly, adjusting itself to changing conditions without the concentration camp or the quicklime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society."
You can quibble about how closely these values are reflected in American history or the history of capitalism or the program of FDR and the Democrats, but they remain part of the national myth around which the US populist and socialist left used to successfully organize. This rhetoric was set aside by the left in the heady 60s as too "patriotic" and "reformist", and associated with the New Deal, the CP, and Norman Thomas' Socialist Party, all of which had fallen into disfavour. It seems to have lain dormant since, Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition possibly excepted. Bearing in mind that conditions are not the same as they were in the 30s. it still seems to me to be a more appropriate political vocabulary, suitably updated, for the present-day left to draw on than the Christian Bible or the Communist Manifesto to counter the right's reactionary morality which appeals to the same sort of economically deprived Americans who used to rally to the New Deal.
Thomas Frank and others appear to be saying the same thing, so perhaps this is where the battle lines will be drawn with the DLC which characteristically wants to move the Democrats further right to emulate the narrower religious, chauvinistic, and family values of the Republicans.
MG