FDR was raised in privilege, but was educated to believe that the duty of Christians was to help the less fortunate. In his inaugural address, he attacked unchecked greed by the leaders of capitalism, and exhorted the nation to put their faith in "social values more noble than mere monetary profit."
As an educated man, he had read the works of the leading philosophers of the Enlightenment (including and especially John Locke) definitely knew of the term, "liberal," and understood the development of that idea through the European Enlightenment and the American Revolution.
If asked, he would have identified himself as a liberal.
He and his wife Eleanor are considered the leaders of 20th Century American liberalism.
The Democratic Party of FDR and Kennedy is long gone, nothing but a distant memory.
It started to change in the late 1960s, slid a bit more in the 1980s, and by the late 1990s, it was a completely different party than it was 30 years earlier.
Even Teddy Kennedy is nothing like his Cold War Democrat brother John. Not even close. Maybe if JFK hadn't been assassinated the Democratic party wouldn't be what they are now.
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FDR was raised in privilege, but was educated to believe that the duty of Christians was to help the less fortunate. In his inaugural address, he attacked unchecked greed by the leaders of capitalism, and exhorted the nation to put their faith in "social values more noble than mere monetary profit."
As an educated man, he had read the works of the leading philosophers of the Enlightenment (including and especially John Locke) definitely knew of the term, "liberal," and understood the development of that idea through the European Enlightenment and the American Revolution.
If asked, he would have identified himself as a liberal.
He and his wife Eleanor are considered the leaders of 20th Century American liberalism.
The Democratic Party of FDR and Kennedy is long gone, nothing but a distant memory.
It started to change in the late 1960s, slid a bit more in the 1980s, and by the late 1990s, it was a completely different party than it was 30 years earlier.
Even Teddy Kennedy is nothing like his Cold War Democrat brother John. Not even close. Maybe if JFK hadn't been assassinated the Democratic party wouldn't be what they are now.
FDR was a socialist. BTW that wasn't a dirty word back then.
He was a Democrat who turned into a socialist