Mark Twain said that history doesn’t repeat itself, but that it often rhymes. I got that vibe during President Biden’s Inaugural speech. It got me thinking about the challenges that Franklin D. Roosevelt faced in 1933.
Maybe this is just grist for history nerds, but hear me out. FDR took the oath at a time of unprecedented economic pain, when Americans’ faith in democratic self-government was widely shaken. Felix Frankfurter, a future Supreme Court justice, warned in 1930, as the Great Depression was tightening its grip: “Epitaphs for democracy are the fashion of the day.”
Fascism was on the rise in Europe, right-wing demagogues were on the ascent here at home, and communists on the left were contending that only the destruction of capitalism would liberate the working man. But FDR campaigned in 1932 as the candidate who would save democracy by improving it, by steering a course between right and left, by using the federal government to offer a “new deal for the American people.”
FDR biographer Robert Dallek noted the eerie parallels between then and now during a recent NPR interview: “Remember, in the early ’30s…there was a lot of sentiment that maybe (authoritarianism) is what the United States needed to do, to move on from democracy. But Roosevelt would never go there. He was a believer in democracy and in preserving it in the United States and making it seem again like the best future for the country…He was determined to show that democracy works, and that it can outdo these other authoritarian systems.”
Indeed, Roosevelt declared in his first Inaugural address that he intended to take action “under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations…We do not distrust the future of essential democracy.”
I heard echoes of FDR during Biden’s address:
“Folks, this is a time of testing. We face an attack on our democracy and on truth…Are we going to step up? All of us? It’s time for boldness, for there is so much to do. And this is certain, I promise you: We will be judged, you and I, by how we resolve these cascading crises of our era.”
And this:
“I will defend the Constitution. I’ll defend our democracy…May this be the story that guides us. The story that inspires us and the story that tells ages yet to come that we answered the call of history. We met the moment. Democracy and hope, truth and justice did not die on our watch, but thrived.”
Democracy is fueled by facts and truth; tyranny thrives on lies. Biden said:
“Recent weeks and months have taught us a painful lesson. There is truth and there are lies, lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a duty and responsibility, as citizens, as Americans, and especially as leaders, leaders who have pledged to honor our Constitution and protect our nation, to defend the truth and defeat the lies.” And to nurture democracy anew, we must defeat “political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism.”
Biden’s mission to safeguard democracy is arguably more challenging than what FDR faced. Roosevelt was hammered on the right by radio demagogues like Father Coughlin (who assailed FDR as a dictatorial socialist), and on the left by populists like Huey Long (who, until his ’35 assassination, said that FDR wasn’t doing enough for the common man), but in a way he was bailed out by the unity forged during World War II.
But Biden, who visited FDR’s Warm Springs home late in the campaign, intuitively understands that if government can again be boldly harnessed to alleviate suffering – with federal billions earmarked for (among other things) vaccine distribution, job creation, expanded health care, expanded family leave protections, and racial equity – he and the ruling Democrats can demonstrate that self-rule is alive and well, and that a restoration of faith can perhaps lure some citizens away from the right-wing echo chamber.
None of this will be easy – for Biden or any of us. But the only choice is to channel our inner patriotism and fight to renew what was so recently imperiled, because the fight never ends. As Biden said in a podcast last fall, “There’s no such thing as guaranteed democracy. It has to be fought for every time…We have to earn it every single generation.”
That fight for renewal starts now.