this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2024
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There isn't a single leader in history who would pass your smell test. The reality is every human is complex and no one is all good or all bad. Except Andrew Jackson. Fuck that guy
But really, take a look, for example, at Lyndon Johnson. He was a renowned racist who ushered through the Civil Rights Act among many other progressive policies. He also escalated the Vietnam War. Dude did a lot of great things and a lot of bad things, and there's no single policy or act in his life that defines the entirety of his administration.
Actually just to wrench your caveat, Andrew Jackson was a major figure in the voting rights battle of the day, the right of non property owners to vote.
If it weren't for the Jackson admin, we wouldn't have the language we used to expand voting rights even further when those fights came to their crescendoes, and this country would still be entirely governed as a landowner oligarchy instead of just significantly like it is now.
That sounds sarcastic and cynical but there is a big difference.
I appreciate the info. You're totally right, and this further proves my point. People deride "the founding fathers" for the racist, capitalist state they created, but the reality is that what they created was absolutely radical for their time. The idea that white people of common birth could have power was incredibly radical in the late 18th century.
Since the US was founded, it's been a steady march to increase rights, first to white landowning men, then to poor white mean, then to white women, and then to black, brown, and indigenous people. Many will say "well we haven't gone far enough," and that's true, but that doesn't discount the progress that's been made since we were literally beholden to the whims of a king
Yeah, we can absolutely recognize that the FFs were quite radical for their day. I don't question their merits as their day's progressive wing, my beef with their document is in how poorly it's aged with the nation, to the point that serious overhaul if not a complete rewrite is needed to address the problems we face today because of problems in the document.
Oh I'm not denying that at all. I'm just saying that FDR is a flawed human and we shouldn't lionize him as a symbol of social Democrats.
He is a symbol of social Democrats, though, but he's also a realistic product of his time. I heard an interview with a historian awhile back I wish I could find again. They basically described how if you try to judge a historical figure through today's moral lens, you'll always be disappointed, because history is rife with racism, dehumanization, slavery, and genocide. The most ardent leftists will point to the handful of white people who were actively fighting racism in the 1930s and say "See? Roosevelt didn't have to implement racist policies!!" But the reality is that the majority culture was racist. The concept of not being racist just didn't exist to 95%+ of white people at the time. Abraham Lincoln didn't believe in racial equality, but I don't use that to discount his positive contributions
Yeah it's difficult to judge. Don't Ask Don't Tell for gay rights was once considered leftwing politics for instance. I guess it is unfair to blame FDR though. He was no worse than most of the American left at his time. I still think we can aspire to much better though.
We can absolutely aspire to be better than we were in the past