Constitutional Threat Quotes
There was a well orchestrated Congressional effort to pass a Constitutional Amendment to prohibit flag burning. There had been no recent incident of flag burning and there had been little or no flag burning for decades since the Vietnam War. Yet a small group of Congressmen had managed to get the issue onto the American national political agenda by skillful manipulation of the media and excellent PR.
Even before the Russian Revolution there was a Red Scare in America based on the writings of Marks and Engels. Labor Unions were automatically viewed by ultra-conservatives as Communistic and revolutionary. Ironically, the greatest offence that the President committed in many eyes was to have labor leaders to the White House for lunch or dinner or, as he did with the coal strike crisis, have labor negotiators in the White House for mediation. The symbolism of accepting these “radicals” as worthy citizens, in some conservative views, elevated the labor movement to a much higher status than they deserved and to treat them with the same dignity and respect as corporate executives was very offensive. Roosevelt had been made an honorary member of the Locomotive Engineers Union, and this enabled the Sun and other critics to say that Roosevelt joined labor organizations.
