YOUR BUSINESS IS OUR BUSINESS : From new, fair deals to economic bill of rights

Tomorrow, January 20, 2017, is a Big Day in US History, when Donald Trump, 70, is sworn into the Highest Office in the Land as the 45th President.

Trump is unpredictable – especially in the political stakes. For example: what’d you make of a future world leader who claims that theClimate Change Syndrome is a preposterous hoax, a fraud or fabrication by ‘Enemies of the West…?’

A future US President who differs with his country’s Intelligence Community’s conclusion that Russia engaged in cyber attacks during last year’s presidential election – and, a few weeks later, reportedly accepts the findings, pledging appropriate response thereto… [See ‘Trump acknowledges Russia role in US election hacking: Aide.’

Reuters/Fox News-Sunday: Jan. 8, 2017]. … Or one who denigrates ‘Blacks’ as lazy, no-good fornicating fraudsters whom History’s forgotten, left behind – and that ‘his’ America isn’t for them? During his election campaign to the November 8 polls, Candidate Trump called for making ‘America Great Again!’

Then – after losing the popular vote to Democrat rival Hillary Clinton, but nonetheless declared President-elect on the back of his narrowly ‘winning’ the Electoral College votes – Trump retracted or circumnavigated around some of his embarrassing utterances.

But, his ‘Make America Great Again’ dream remains alive – hopefully post-his inauguration tomorrow… Trump seemed overanxious to firmly entrench in the minds of American voters in particular that America had, indeed, regressed down the years… And that it needs to be hauled out of the morass in which it’s wallowing, put on the wash-lines to dry – and, presto: made Great Again! So, can gung-ho President Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ reasonably be linked to, and associated with, two equally-rarified dreams by his earlier predecessors?

I’ve in mind here the ‘New Deal’ hatched by the 32nd US President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR: 1933-45), and the ‘Fair Deal,’ by 33rd President Harry S. Truman (1945-53). Coming down to brass tacks, there’s very little difference between the two Deals! Both Presidents basically rejected totalitarianism; were suspicious of excessive concentration of power and privilege in Govt., and sought to achieve a Democratic Socialist Society (not autocratic rule) advocating wide-ranging ‘social legislation.’

The main difference was that, while the New Deal operated in most dire circumstances – during the Great Depression (1929-39) – by the time the Fair Deal programme descended upon the scene, the socio-economic paucity of the Depression has subsided considerably – and Truman’s ‘baby’ found itself wallowing in relative prosperity! As Economist Leon Keyserling put it: ‘the Fair Dealers thought in terms of abundance, rather than of Great Depression scarcity… The liberal task was to spread the benefits of abundance throughout Society by stimulating economic growth!’

US Agriculture Secretary Charles Brannan sought to ‘unleash the benefits of agricultural abundance, encouraging the development of an Urban/Rural Democratic coalition…’ However, that was a Tall Order, in the face of ‘strong conservative opposition in Congress, and by (Brannan’s) unrealistic confidence in the possibility of uniting urban labor and farm owners who distrusted rural insurgency!’ In any case, the Korean War (1950-53) made military spending America’s priority.

Indeed, Truman was determined to both continue the legacy of FDR’s New Deal – and, especially, to make his immediate predecessor’s proposed Economic Bill of Rights a reality… The ‘Economic Bill of Rights,’ you say? Weeeeeell…

This was a list of ‘Rights’ proposed by President Roosevelt in his Jan. 11, 1944 State of the Union Address. Noting that the nation should implement a second ‘Bill of Rights,’ Roosevelt stressed that the ‘political rights’ guaranteed by the US Constitution and the (first) Bill of Rights had ‘proved inadequate to assure us equality in the Pursuit of Happiness!’

His remedy was an ‘ECONOMIC Bill of Rights’ guaranteeing eight specific ‘Rights,’ ranging from the Right to Work and Fair Income to Housing, MediCare, Education and Social Security…Over to you, Tanzania President John Magufuli, for a New, Fair Deal and an Economic Bill of Rights for your country and people...