THE FIGHT FOR THE FOUR FREEDOMS – Harvey J. Kaye

Historian Harvey J. Kaye again makes it off my bookshelf! This time, he gives us an in-depth look at what President Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal accomplished. He explores the Greatest Generation’s lingering legacy and tries to draw lessons for the 21st century. The author sketches out a political movement based in Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms Address. In this, FDR suggested our central fight was one to defend free speech and religion, and banish want and fear.  Is this vision of Americans fighting for a more perfect union through progressive policies too simplistic? Yes. But to some degree, it’s true. It also may be useful to galvanize left-leaning people in America who feel they’ve gone forever without a real victory.

Harvey describes the climate of fear and desperation surrounding the Great Depression. He paints FDR as an inspiration and bold visionary who managed to marshal our government to save capitalism in its darkest hour.  The President instituted programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps, Tennessee Valley Authority, and Works Progress Administration. Eventually, his path led to the creation of Social Security itself.  He helped protect labor and regulate banking to avoid another Depression.  The effect of all this was to take the United States toward a social democracy. This is when capitalism exists, but the government funds social programs and regulates business to smooth the rough edges.

The Fight for the Four Freedoms is capably written, informative, easy-to-read. It has its blind spots, though.  Chief among them are the limits of what a social democracy will do to fight inequality and injustice.  For all the good FDR’s administration did for labor, it still broke strikes. This helped prevent a broader workers’ revolution from taking place at a time that was ripe for it.  For all the good New Deal programs did for Americans, they often excluded black Americans, Latinos and others from those benefits.  We could have used this opportunity to build a true public education, national pension or universal healthcare system. Instead, social democracy built a patchwork of confusing, means-tested and state-administered programs. Many exist alongside private alternatives. and do not provide anywhere near the security or effectiveness that they should.  Even worse, those institutions are well into their decline now in the 21st century.

Near the end of the book, Kaye outlines the Second Bill of Rights that FDR discussed in an address late in his presidency.  These rights would have included the right to a job, food and clothing, recreation, the right to a home, medical care, pensions, and an education.  It would have been a massive expansion of social democratic programs. Some would call it socialism. But unless workers are seizing control of their workplaces from capitalists, they’re exaggerating.

Social democracies spend, and experiment, and dare.  Then they falter, and their programs get hacked away by the wealthy when labor shows weakness. But this social democratic experiment reinforces one thing when compared to Trump and Biden’s legacies.  Our leaders aren’t pushing for too much to tackle our crises and secure a dignified life for all of us.  They’re asking for too little.