Paleo

Seventy-three years ago today Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected President of the United States. A few words from the man to warm this Paleoliberal's heart, courtesy of DailyKos:

"A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward."
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"The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government."
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"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little."
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Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.
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Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.
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Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.
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Self-interest is the enemy of all true affection.
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The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.
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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.
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If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.

Here's to regaining our sovereign control over the government in the near future.