Reremembering the Forgotten Man
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
“These unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest upon the forgotten, the unorganized but the indispensable units of economic power … that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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When Franklin Roosevelt referenced “The Forgotten Man” in a radio address on April 7, 1932, he was talking about building the economy from the bottom up instead of the top down.
The soon-to-be-elected president’s advocacy for the working man came as our nation was reeling through the Great Depression, making those at the lowest point of our economic spectrum the obvious flashing red light to target with whatever help the government would be able to muster.
More than nine decades later, Roosevelt’s belief – at least in principle – remains intact. A great economy is built from the bottom up, but you’d never know it if you looked at our government today with its priorities aligned to favor the richest among us while leaving the poor and middle class to go to seed.
Who are these people our leaders care so little about – with exceptions, of course, that line up mostly on the left of the political landscape? Where are the answers to the problems they face? The reward for the price they’ve paid? The acknowledgment of the sacrifice they’ve given?
Shouldn’t our system reflect their importance? The absolute necessity of their existence. Their willingness to day after day, year after year perform the vital functions of society with no fanfare and little appreciation.
They’re the lifeblood that flows through the veins of our nation. They’re the foundation -- unappreciated and unnoticed until it forms cracks that endanger our country’s whole structure as it has today.
As George Bailey told Mr. Potter in “It’s a Wonderful Life” after the latter had referred to working-class folks as “rabble” – “This rabble you’re talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath?”
If we see a man laid low, shouldn’t we offer a hand up? Wouldn’t we want to build a road sturdy enough that he can walk without stumbling? A system that gives him hope of better days, at least for his children if not so much for him?
But those in power and the ones who place and keep them there don’t want that. They offer no universal health care. They balk at providing adequate funding for education. They empower the giant conglomerate at the expense of the mom-and-pop store and the workers and consumers at the mercy of their control.
They ensure that a huge imbalance of wealth ends up in the pockets of a few at the expense of the many and then watch as that imbalance of wealth bankrolls a campaign finance system that ensures it will not only continue but will only get worse.
We see our social safety net under attack by Republicans, the latest example being their Big Beautiful Bill, which includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts skewed to the rich and $1.3 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and food assistance for the poorest among us.
And maybe the most maddening: We watch the people we elect to represent us, along with their friends and allies, pursing one corrupt, self-dealing effort after another. We’re told all our lives to play by the rules, then are forced to sit back and watch them enrich themselves at our expense with no concern about the consequences of their actions.
The lie of trickle-down economics has been long proven, but whenever Republicans can acquire enough power in the halls of Congress and the White House, they reflexively seek to invoke it. And always, it never works for anyone but the rich and corporations.
But it’s the poor and middle class that built this country. The rich supplied the money, but they provided the sweat. They’re the ones who built the schools and taught the students. Made the steel and erected the skyscrapers. Forged the weapons and fought the wars.
Yet we see them treated as an afterthought. As nothing more than suckers and boobs. A bunch of rubes who Republicans expect will buy their endless cultural and hateful bullshit spewed to try to convince people who don’t benefit from their policies to vote for them anyway.
And from the left? Too often their problems and concerns are diminished or just plain ignored. Out sight, out of mind until another election rolls around and their votes become vital.
Here’s the thing that’s ironic – or maybe fitting -- while our country has ignored the forgotten man – and woman – they’re the very people we need to save it. This fight needs them. In fact, it can’t be won without them.
The strongest foe of the movement to destroy our democracy and rule of law, to make us a white nationalist/Christian nationalist country, to steer the power and money to a relative few, are the very people the system glosses over. The ones it’s designed to leave behind,
The power of the vote – the ultimate power – remains in the hands of the everyday folks who so often are just trying to get by, to survive. While those who hold and are in the proximity of power get rich through one corrupt enterprise after another, the honest men and women toil away, navigating their lot in life.
It’s tough. Life can be tough. There are enough things to deal with without worrying about what’s occurring in Washington, or with our state or local governments. But no democracy can survive if enough people don’t make the effort to be informed of what’s going on in the halls of their government and then take action.
Plato said, “If you do not take an interest in your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.” The United States is exhibit one of that right now.
There are no heroes coming. Our politicians have proved to be woefully inadequate. The huge protests are nice but accomplish little. God isn’t going to send down a lightning bolt to vanquish the enemies of our republic. He’s leaving that job to us.
Admittedly, many of the members of the citizenry being called on here are at the root of the problem. For whatever reasons, they’ve chosen to be on the wrong side of history. To support – or ignore – an historically corrupt and unfit president, his administration, and a complicit Republican Party.
Still, we must be willing to welcome back into the fold any lost countrymen who now see the light. The stakes are too high to even consider doing otherwise.
So, we have to pick our sides and move forward. Have we forgotten how to fight? Have we lost the taste for a fight? Does speaking truth to power and holding it accountable -- an indispensable tenent of democracy – mean anything anymore?
I guess we’ll find out. Then we’ll learn whether our current generations of forgotten men and women saved us or sat back and watched a former great country slide into a self-made oblivion.
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