When I was young and first became politically aware, (1966 – “All The Way With LBJ” – and afterwards), the peace lovers seemed to be on The Left – JFK and RFK and Gough Whitlam were three examples. To show how times and my perceptions have changed, I now present quotes from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s (FDR) classic Four Freedoms State Of The Union address of January 6, 1941, contrasted with more modern quotes from Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ron Paul, Patrick J Buchanan, Professor Alan Dershowitz, former Democrats Ronald Reagan, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert Francis Kennedy Jr, all on various dates, and from President Donald John Trump (DJT) on January 6, 2021:

“I address you, the Members of this new Congress, at a moment unprecedented in the history of the Union. I use the word “unprecedented,” because at no previous time has American security been as seriously threatened from without as it is today.” – FDR in 1941.

cf DJT in 2021: “Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about ……. We’re gathered together in the heart of our nation’s capital for one very, very basic and simple reason: to save our democracy.“

“Armed defense of democratic existence is now being gallantly waged in four continents. If that defense fails, all the population and all the resources of Europe, and Asia, and Africa and Australasia will be dominated by conquerors. And let us remember that the total of those populations in those four continents, the total of those populations and their resources greatly exceeds the sum total of the population and the resources of the whole of the Western Hemisphere–yes, many times over. In times like these it is immature–and incidentally, untrue–for anybody to brag that an unprepared America, single-handed, and with one hand tied behind its back, can hold off the whole world.” – FDR

cf DJT: “Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back ……. And we want to be so nice. We want to be so respectful of everybody, including bad people ……. we’re going to have to fight much harder.” – DJT

” “Those, who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” ……. We know that enduring peace cannot be bought at the cost of other people’s freedom ……. We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American eagle in order to feather their own nests.” – FDR

cf DJT: “We are the greatest country on Earth and we are headed and were headed in the right direction ……. Together, we will drain the Washington swamp and we will clean up the corruption in our nation’s capital.”

“(The dictators’) only interest is in a new one-way international law, which lacks mutuality in its observance, and, therefore, becomes an instrument of oppression.” – FDR

cf DJT: “We don’t have a free and fair press. Our media is not free, it’s not fair. It suppresses thought, it suppresses speech and it’s become the enemy of the people. “

“The happiness of future generations of Americans may well depend upon how effective and how immediate we can make our aid felt. No one can tell the exact character of the emergency situations that we may be called upon to meet. The Nation’s hands must not be tied when the Nation’s life is in danger ……. The best way of dealing with the few slackers or trouble makers in our midst is, first, to shame them by patriotic example, and, if that fails, to use the sovereignty of government to save government.” – FDR

cf Professor Alan Dershowitz, November, 2024: “This lawfare has to come to an end. It’s destroying America. It’s destroying the rule of law. And I think Americans are fed up with it. And that’s why so many voted for Trump.”

“……. there is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy. The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are:

Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.

Jobs for those who can work.

Security for those who need it.

The ending of special privilege for the few.

The preservation of civil liberties for all.

……. the enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.” – FDR

cf then Democrat presidential candidate, Tulsi Gabbard, on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert : “From a young age I grew to understand how important service is, understanding that, as long as we try to live our lives in a way that has a positive impact on other people, then we can really be happy …….”

“I have called for personal sacrifice. And I am assured of the willingness of almost all Americans to respond to that call.

“No person should try, or be allowed, to get rich out of the (nation’s military) program …….” – FDR

cf both Tulsi Gabbard: “We have to put an end to the culture of selfishness and corruption that allows greedy Wall Street banks and executives to rip off working people without any consequences.”

and cf. President Dwight David Eisenhower in his farewell address to the nation on the 17th of January, 1961:

“Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.”

and also Robert F Kennedy Jr: ““Suddenly, those trusted institutions seemed to be acting in concert to generate fear, promote obedience, discourage critical thinking, and herd seven billion people to march to a single tune, culminating in mass public health experiments with a novel, shoddily tested and improperly licensed technology so risky that manufacturers refused to produce it unless every government on Earth shielded them from liability.”

“A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.” – FDR

cf Tulsi Gabbard on Twittter on 11th October, 2022, renouncing the Democratic Party: “”I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are hostile to people of faith & spirituality, demonize the police & protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponize the national security state to go after political opponents, and above all, dragging us ever closer to nuclear war ……”

and cf DJT in 2021: “We have overwhelming pride in this great country and we have it deep in our souls. Together, we are determined to defend and preserve government of the people, by the people and for the people.” – DJT

“Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in change – in a perpetual peaceful revolution – a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions–without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch.” – FDR

cf Ronald Reagan on October 27, 1964: “This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.”

and cf Ron Paul, in “The Revolution: A Manifesto“:“Peaceful civil disobedience to unjust laws, which I support with every fiber of my being, can sometimes be necessary at any level of government. It falls upon the people, in the last resort, to stand against injustice no matter where it occurs.”

and also cf DJT, January 6, 2021, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

and finally cf Patrick J Buchanan: “This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose.” – FDR cf “If America is about anything, she is about freedom. We have seen in the burgeoning Department of Homeland Security and at our airports and in the color-coded alerts the beginning of the erosion of that freedom.“

Freedom Works.

Geoff Fox, 6th January, 2025, Melbourne, Australia