Franklin Delano Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, shortly before the end of World War II and after serving 12 years as President.  The official website of the White House states, “Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves.  He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his [first] Inaugural Address, ‘the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.’ ”

What might have happened if Roosevelt had been allowed to serve out his fourth term as President?  Law professor Cass R. Sunstein reminds all of us of the vision FDR had for America in his book "The Second Bill of Rights: FDR's Unfinished Revolution and Why We Need It More Than Ever" (Perseus Books, 2006).

In his State of the Union Message on January 11, 1944, President Roosevelt outlined his “Second Bill of Rights:”

“This Nation in the past two years has become an active partner in the world's greatest war against human slavery.  But I do not think that any of us Americans can be content with mere survival.  Sacrifices that we and our allies are making impose upon us all a sacred obligation to see to it that out of this war we and our children will gain something better than mere survival.

“The overwhelming majority of our people have met the demands of this war with magnificent courage and understanding.  They have accepted inconveniences; they have accepted hardships; they have accepted tragic sacrifices.  And they are ready and eager to make whatever further contributions are needed to win the war as quickly as possible.

“However, while the majority goes on about its great work without complaint, a noisy minority maintains an uproar of demands for special favors for special groups.  There are pests who swarm through the lobbies of the Congress and the cocktail bars of Washington, representing these special groups as opposed to the basic interests of the Nation as a whole. They have come to look upon the war primarily as a chance to make profits for themselves at the expense of their neighbors – profits in money or in terms of political or social preferment.  If ever there was a time to subordinate individual or group selfishness to the national good, that time is now.

“It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known.  We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people, whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth, is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.

“This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights, among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.  They were our rights to life and liberty. As our nation has grown in size and stature, however,…these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.

“We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. …People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.  In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident.  We have accepted…a ‘Second Bill of Rights’ under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all, regardless of station, race, or creed.

“Among these [rights] are:

- The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

- The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

- The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

- The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

- The right of every family to a decent home;

- The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

- The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

- The right to a good education.

“All of these rights spell security.  And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.  America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.”

In his book, Sunstein makes the point that the New Deal vindicated these simple ideas – ideas that proclaim that we as a nation must be conscious of the suffering of the poor, the sick and the homeless among us.

Many critics call the New Deal “meddling” and government “interference” in the free market.  I must remind those critics of how much they depend upon government “interference” to control contracts, our banks, currency and stock markets.  I must remind them of the “meddling” we now take for granted – from federal highways, to clean water and sewer systems, to Social Security, to health care, to veteran’s benefits, to the postal service, and so on.  These benefits did not arrive on our doorstep by attempting to minimize government.

Roosevelt believed that the real question about government intervention was a pragmatic one.  What form of intervention best promotes the public good – makes human existence better for everyone?  In the face of the Great Depression, it seemed to Roosevelt to be a cruel joke to maintain that free markets were sufficient to ensure liberty and prosperity for everyone.  Roosevelt pointed out that people in desperate conditions often do not have freedom of choice. 

Some of us know or even remember what it was like in this country before FDR and wonder what America would be like today if Roosevelt had lived and had finished implementing the vision he set out for us in this Second Bill of Rights speech.  If, for example, would we now have universal health care and no longer have 44 million Americans without health coverage?  Would we now have free education through 16 grades for all who qualified?  Would there still be large numbers of illiterate, undereducated, and jobless people in our midst?  Would there still be homeless and hungry people in America?  Would our crime and divorce rates be lower if everyone could find good jobs that provided a decent, livable wage that allowed them to buy and own their own homes without both husbands and wives working multiple jobs?

The answers to these questions are far from clear, but what is clear is that we are moving backwards.  The Financial Times recently pointed out that the median household income in America “is lower now than it was in 2000,” that “the real income of the median U.S. worker has barely shifted since 1973.”  Other studies (Professor Kevin Murphy, USC) show that the average pay for corporate chief executive officers rose to 369 times that of the average worker last year compared to 131 times in 1993 and 36 times in 1976.  And, the recent U.S. Conference of Mayors reported that more Americans went homeless and hungry in 2006 than the year before and that children made up almost a quarter of those in emergency shelters.

It is clear to this writer that the goals Franklin D. Roosevelt defined in 1944 are still goals that America must aspire to, and what America should be actively trying to achieve today.