Obama the “elitist” has a role model in FDR
In The Washington Independent today, Boston University history professor Bruce J. Schulman offers some advice to Senator Barack Obama (“When Elite Get Tough” by Bruce J. Schulman, The Washington Independent, April 21, 2008).
In particular, Schulman writes about Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, and how they overcame the elitist slur. Of FDR, he writes:
But Roosevelt’s dedicated efforts to shield ordinary Americans from what he called the “hazards and vicissitudes of life,” his congenial temperament and his zest for the rough-and-tumble of partisan politics more than compensated for his aristocratic background. FDR also reveled in the opposition his presidency provoked among his fellow sons of privilege. Never before had the forces of selfishness, FDR told a massive rally at Madison Square Garden in 1936, “been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me. They hate Roosevelt — and I welcome their hatred.”
Read more here.
