Progressive at home, muscular abroad, Clinton tries to channel FDR

Progressive at home, muscular abroad, Clinton tries to channel FDR

by Jonathan Allen at Vox

http://www.vox.com/2015/6/9/8749733/Hillary-Clinton-Roosevelt-FDR

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When Hillary Rodham Clinton gathers her supporters at Four Freedoms Park on New York's Roosevelt Island for a campaign kickoff rally Saturday, the president she will identify herself with won't be her husband, Bill Clinton, or either of the presidents who appointed her to posts in their administrations, Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter. Instead, she will reach back through the generations to the Democrat who wins the highest marks from political scientists, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

It was in January 1941, with Axis powers spreading across the globe, that Roosevelt, clutching the sides of the lectern at the front of the House chamber, enunciated his vision for a "world founded on four essential freedoms" — freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. He also warned against using America's assistance for its allies as an excuse for sacrificing the very things "worth fighting for" at home.

His list of universal values, which included equality of opportunity, jobs, and a rising standard of living, read like a Democratic platform for the ages — and, for the most part, like the platform Hillary Clinton wants to project to fellow Democrats. On Saturday, Clinton will try to wrap the cloak of FDR’s legacy around her own shoulders.

"She has long been inspired by FDR's belief that America is stronger when we summon the work and talents of all Americans," Kristina Schake, Clinton's deputy communications director, said. "Her fight, like his, is to work to ensure that everyday Americans can achieve not just a sense of economic stability, but prosperity."


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