This old liberal is finding his heart and spirit renewed by the actions of #Occupy Wall Street--so much so that New York City is the destination of choice for my next vacation, just so I can go down there and soak up the hope and fervor. But I think the movement could further inoculate itself further against the "dirty young hippies" meme trotted out by the right wing and its media lackeys, if it would visibly identify itself with the rich history of economic justice as an American cause. And I can think of no more powerful or pertinent figure with whom to ally itself than that guy on the dime: Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Imagine if the crowd at Zuccotti Park were to erect a large, visible shrine to FDR right in the middle of the plaza. No Che Quevara, no Arab Spring notable, no fringey sort of leftist figure, but the most beloved and popular POTUS in his own time the nation has known. A figure that is documented in miles of film footage, and still recalled by the living. The man who led us out of the Great Depression, who led us to victory in World War II, and oversaw our emergence as the world's dominant military and economic power. A man whose legacy is being deliberately attacked by the Right Wing lie machine even now, because they realize that the proven success of his social democratic vision is a dagger aimed at the heart of their world view.
If a visible monument to FDR were to be erected now, journalists would be forced to examine the fact of this man, rather than the lies. Film footage would be shown of FDR's many speeches attacking the very plutocracy that threatens us now, demonstrating that this is no historical anomaly, but the latest battle in a struggle that has dogged this nation since its inception. The best evidence I can give in support of this public relations move is a quote from Roosevelt's speech at the 1936 Democratic National Convention--which is the most eloquent and timely elaboration of #Occupy Wall Streets goal's that I have yet heard:
The royalists of the economic order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the Government, but they have maintained that economic slavery was nobody's business. They granted that the Government could protect the citizen in his right to vote, but they denied that the Government could do anything to protect the citizen in his right to work and his right to live.
Today we stand committed to the proposition that freedom is no half-and-half affair. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the market place.
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. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the Flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the Flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.