Republicanism in The United States - New Deal Era To Present

New Deal Era To Present

The New Deal era broadened the scope of republicanism. Feldman says that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, "would not ignore poor or unemployed laborers. The ... concept of civic virtue no longer justified protecting old-stock Protestant values and interests while disregarding those of workers, indigents, and immigrants."

Republicanism, especially in the sense of civic duty and equality of sacrifice, was a major theme in World War II. Lee reports that, "Long after the war, the generations who had lived through it would wax nostalgic about their equality of sacrifice and of suffering, and about the resurgence of a sense of civic duty and community participation."

"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!" demanded President John F. Kennedy in 1961 in a dramatic call for the American people to honor the core republican value of civic duty.

Military service in Vietnam became a test of civic duty for political candidates. In the presidential election of 2004, one of the chief topics of discussion was whether the candidates John Kerry and George W. Bush had fulfilled their civic duty of fighting for their country, part of the republican duties. Opponents charged that Bush had shirked his National Guard duties. Kerry won public approval when he heavily emphasized his Vietnam service, while his opponents, most famously the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, alleged that Kerry did not truly earn the medals he was awarded in Vietnam.