“Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said ‘I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.’ You’ve all made a few people upset over your political years. Which enemy are you most proud of?”
That was the final question of the first Democratic Presidential debate.
The question of who poses the greatest threat to America was already asked, so this question was basically saying, “Okay candidates, tee it up. Rile up the base. Tell the part of this deeply divided nation, who will vote Democrat no matter what, who they should be even more angry and resolute against and how you stuck it to them. Go ahead, power up that righteous indignation.”
It was divisive, sensationalist and irresponsible, and completely in line with CNN.
So who answered this poorly conceived question the best?
It depends.
On the one hand, Senator Jim Webb gave the right answer. The enemy he is most proud of is the enemy soldier who threw a grenade at him, but he isn’t around to talk to. Or in other words, the enemy Senator Webb is most proud of is the enemy of America. His enemy is the one who stands between him and freedom and democracy, and he killed that enemy… Or he just wanted to tell about how a soldier threw a grenade at him and he’s the one who is still around to tell the tale. And you have to think that would have earned him at least five to six percentage points in the Republican primary.
On the other hand, to understand the other top answer, we have to look at the context of the quote that inspired the question.
It was September 21, 1932 and Franklin D. Roosevelt was campaigning in Portland, Oregon, bringing his ideals of the New Deal to the Pacific Coast. Specifically, he was there to deride the electrical power utilities who were doing all they could to control the industry that was becoming increasingly necessary to the everyday American life and should therefore be regulated as a public utility. FDR accused the electric utilities of propaganda and buying commissions to ensure they held a monopoly so they could continue to overcharge for a shoddy product.
His point was that the power utility was putting their own needs above the needs of the rest of the nation. The cardinal sin of the New Deal.
The New Deal was built around the idea that the role of government should be to ensure the greater welfare of the people. Any individual’s pursuit of life, liberty and happiness should be unmolested so long as that pursuit does not interfere with the welfare of the many. Proper regulation should then still take into account the needs of all: the consumer, the investor and the corporation. He actually wanted to work with the power utilities to those ends. Cooperation and coalitions was what powered the New Deal. But if you were unwilling to work with America to make it great, then you were against America, and so he finished his speech with this:
“Judge me by the enemies I have made. Judge me by the selfish purposes of these utility leaders who have talked of radicalism while they were selling watered stock to the people and using our schools to deceive the coming generation.”
So in the context of FDR’s speech, former Rhode Island Sen. and Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s answer was actually best. His “enemy” was the coal lobby. He tried to bring them to the table to work on climate change and carbon dioxide emissions, but the coal lobby would not work with him. In Chafee’s view, the coal lobbies made him- and America, for that matter- their enemy in their selfish pursuits, not the other way around. Lincoln Chafee, therefore, speaks best to the ideals of the New Deal and what FDR stood for.
And the worst answer? That belongs to Hillary Clinton.
Along with Chafee, Governor Martin O’ Malley and Senator Bernie Sanders called out the special interests they have fought against, though they didn't mention any offers of cooperation. And when the question was posed to the former Senator, Secretary of State and First Lady, she also rattled off a bunch of special interest enemies she was proud of, such as the NRA, the health insurance companies, the drug companies- and she even threw in the Iranians for good measure- but then she settled on who she is most proud to consider her enemy: the Republicans.
It’s important to understand that in that speech by FDR, and with that quote, he was answering the question of whether or not utilities like power and electrical development was a local issue or a national issue. He happened to believe it was a national issue, but more importantly, he believed questions like these, ones that concerned the development of the nation and the welfare of its people, should ultimately be above mere politics. He said:
“When questions like these are under consideration, we are not Democrats, we are not Republicans; we are a people united in a common patriotism. This is the spirit of my entire campaign. If the spirit and the method that I am applying to public questions are in line with that of progressive citizens of parties other than my own, I invite them to join me now, as I have invited them many times before. In the face of present national emergencies we must distinguish between parties and their leaders.
When the great possessions that belong to all of us--that belong to the Nation--are at stake, we are not partisans, we are Americans”
In today’s political environment, that spirit is needed. Our nation is deeply divided and fractured, and over issues of much less significance than the ability to power a country and a home. The spirit of patriotism, of uniting for the greater good is what we need now more than anything in a leader. But Hillary Clinton saw an opportunity to take advantage of that divide. She gave the likely left-wing viewers of the Democratic debate what they wanted to hear, instead of what they needed to hear. She gave a list of enemies to build her cred with the angry liberal voters and then topped it off with the Republicans to send them into a frenzy and reinforce the belief that Republicans are the enemy, instead of partners in patriotism and the realization of the American dream. We don’t have to agree on everything, but we have to at least understand that.
Hillary decided to build herself up, and in so doing, she helped tear the Union apart. She put her needs of attaining the White House above the needs of the many who she seeks to lead.
So in the context of FDR and the New Deal, with that spirit in mind, the enemy by which we should judge Hillary... is herself.
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