I watched Warm Springs on HBO the other night. It’s a docudrama about FDR that I’d seen before, but it’s a pretty good movie, so I watched it again. At the end of the movie, they roll some text mentioning that FDR saw up through both the Great Depression and the Second World War, while they play his famous first inaugural speech, which includes the words:

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.

Such a stark contrast to what we have today. A nation with a ruler, but no leader, whose every action is an attempt, not to assuage fear, but to foment (and profit from) it. I just hope we can make it through the rest of this idiot’s term.