FDR on liberalism
I have been thinking lately about this quote from FDR, which I found under the entry for “liberal” in William Safire’s New Political Dictionary: (p. 407)
"…say that civilization is a tree which, as it grows, continually produces rot and dead wood. The radical says: 'Cut it down.' The conservative says: 'Don't touch it.' The liberal compromises: 'Let's prune, so that we lose neither the old trunk nor the new branches.' "
FDR’s three-point scale (conservatives, liberals, and radicals) should perhaps become a five-point model, adding reactionaries on the far right end, moderates in the middle, and moving liberals toward the left. In trying to source this quote, I came upon these words from FDR’s Radio Address to the New York Herald Tribune Forum (26 October 1939), courtesy of the American Presidency Project:
I am reminded of four definitions:A Radical is a man with both feet firmly planted— in the air.
A Conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward.
A Reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards.
A Liberal is a man who uses his legs and his hands at the behest—at the command—of his head.
Conservatives have pretended that all liberals are radicals, with the aid of outdated sixties-era metaphors, to exaggerate their placement on the political spectrum. Liberals likewise rhetorically proclaim conservatives to be reactionary theocrats, as in the Religious Right. Political opponents may never agree on categorization, but they should at least consider a common conceptual framework.