Huffington Post: Kaye says FDR’s 1936 radicalism would be perfect for 2012

Harvey J. Kaye, UW-Green Bay professor of Democracy and Justice Studies, is the author of a piece at the Huffington Post political website. In it, he hearkens back to what he calls “the most radical speech ever given by an American president,” the June 1936 acceptance speech Franklin Roosevelt delivered at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. In it, FDR compared the corporate elite of the 1930s to the royalists of 1776: “These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power.” Kaye’s column argues that, post-1936, Roosevelt and his fellow citizens made good on a tremendous percent of his promises and a more equitable, democratic, stronger, freer and more resilient America was the result. Read more.

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For the record: In our most recent edition we reported that Prof. Kaye was briefly interviewed by National Public Radio’s “Marketplace” program for a Fourth of July week story on the nation’s founders and their views about democracy and economic equality. The segment featuring Kaye, a biographer of the Revolutionary War era activist Thomas Paine, was pre-empted and did not air.

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