Welcome to Douglas Murray’s column Things Worth Remembering, in which he presents great speeches from famous orators we should commit to heart. To listen to Franklin Delano Roosevelt read from his acceptance speech at the 1932 Democratic National Convention, scroll to the end of this piece.
Tomorrow is the opening day of the Democratic National Convention, which will be scripted, slickly produced, and lacking in any serious debate. We will be expected to forget, among other things, that the party’s nominee did not win a single delegate, that she was selected by a handful of insiders, and that we still have pretty much no idea what she believes in or would do as president. (Her recent announcement that she would like to impose price controls on groceries is so preposterous and politically unfeasible that it doesn’t actually merit discussion.)
So, now is a good moment to remember the Democratic nominee who knew exactly what he believed, and what he intended to do—and whose election to the White House marked a sea change in American politics.
In the summer of 1932, in Chicago, Democrats nominated New York governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt to be their presidential nominee.
It will not surprise you to learn that Roosevelt formally accepted the nomination with a speech—but, it should be noted, such a thing had never been done before. Roosevelt’s move, he admitted, was “unprecedented and unusual, but these are unprecedented and unusual times.”
