{"id":2922,"date":"2020-09-29T17:49:13","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T21:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=2922"},"modified":"2020-10-22T17:22:19","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T21:22:19","slug":"author-makes-the-case-for-finding-hope-in-fdr-politician","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2020\/09\/author-makes-the-case-for-finding-hope-in-fdr-politician\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Makes the Case for Finding Hope in FDR Politician"},"content":{"rendered":"

Henry A. Wallace would have been the perfect candidate for the 21st century. A loud anti-fascist, workers\u2019 rights, anti-segregation and open-minded leader, Wallace\u2019 legacy compares to today\u2019s political champions Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, says author, historian and journalist, John Nichols.<\/p>\n

The Washington correspondent for \u201cThe Nation,\u201d Nichols tends towards political and economic injustices. His past work focused on the theft of the presidency in 2000, the effects of war and capitalism in America and the distrust of the media. In his most recent book, \u201cThe Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party,” Nichols explains the complexity of Wallace\u2019s progressive political views in the 1940s, and how America is still fighting for those same rights today.<\/p>\n

As part of the fall webinar program at the Roosevelt House, Wallace\u2019s grandson interviewed Nichols on Zoom for the Hunter community. The environmental lawyer said his grandfather would be a proud radical today.\u201cTrump\u2019s value\u2019s are the antithesis to my grandfather\u2019s beliefs,\u201d David Wallace Douglas said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

During the interview, Nichols dived into the current state of the democratic party and the path forward through the teachings of Wallace\u2019s legacy. Wallace was FDR\u2019s right hand man when he served as Secretary of Agriculture and later his Vice President. Had Wallace not been pushed out in 1944 by conservative opposition for re-nomination as VP, his New Deal vigor and fight for structural change could have been transformative for post-war America.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would be a huge fan of the Black Lives Matter movement because of their focus on structural racism.\u201d He said, \u201cHe was never discouraged by changing times.\u201d A controversial leader during and after WWII, Wallace fought against the exploitation of workers and their land overseas while sourcing weapons for war. His anti-colonialism and anti-imperialist tendencies did not win him any popularity votes with his adversaries or the administration he worked for.<\/p>\n

A proud farmer and scientist, Wallace did not consider himself a natural politician. As a well-read, deeply thoughtful man, his curiosity and the compulsion to understand what he did not know or agree with put him at ends within his own party.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

During the webinar, Nichols and Douglas stressed that the Democratic party needs to get back that Nichols describes as\u201cNew Deal-style vigor.\u201d During the question and answer portion of the event, three viewers, identified as Dan, Irving and Susan, all voiced similar concerns: Does Joe Biden have the ability to lead openly as president with all of the challenges that America faces?<\/p>\n

Nichols answered that in order for Biden to be successful he will need to be open to structural shifts. \u201cThere needs to be a New Deal response,\u201d he said. Movements and moments have the ability to turn him into the president they want. \u201cPeople can be made by movements,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At this critical time in America the party needs to be transformative rather than managerial, Nichols said. The party \u201cpulls its punches when it should have thrown them\u201d in many scenarios and the next president needs to be open to structural shifts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hunter College\u2019s Roosevelt House welcomed author John Nichols to discuss the legacy of FDR\u2019s progressive right-hand man, Henry A. Wallace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":2925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[279,327,73,299,93,326],"class_list":["post-2922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-huntercollege-hunterstudents","tag-democracy","tag-events","tag-quarantine","tag-roosevelt-house","tag-webinar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2922"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2929,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2922\/revisions\/2929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}