Hear Kazin's Advice, Corbyn.

It was December, 2011, when Michael Kazin (a professor of history at Georgetown University and co-editor of quasi-mainstream/leftish Dissent magazine) wrote "Class Warfare Waged by FDR Holds Lesson for Obama", for Bloomberg.

Kazin was recommending Barack Obama to learn from Roosevelt's example, and quotes from Roosevelt's October 31, 1936 Madison Square Garden speech:

"We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace —- business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
"They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.
"Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me —- and I welcome their hatred."

As electrifying as those words are, in the voice of Roosevelt they sound hollow, and lacking in sincerity. Still, he did win the 1936 elections.

Obama's voice wouldn't have added any sincerity, had he even considered Kazin's advice.

But the advice is good. Perhaps Jeremy Corbyn could appropriate those words and, hopefully, in his voice they will have more substance.