Throwback Truths: We Have Met the Enemy, and He is Us - FDR's 2nd Bill of Rights

At the Institute on the Constitution, we believe that safeguarding our future begins with understanding and reinforcing our foundations. That’s why we’ve created Throwback Truths — a series that revisits classic video presentations from Michael Anthony Peroutka, founder of IOTC. These timeless messages encourage us to reflect on who we are as a nation and the principles that define true liberty.

In 1948, cartoonist Walt Kelly gave voice to a swamp-dwelling possum named Pogo, who famously said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” That phrase captured the human tendency toward self-destruction—especially when we ignore the timeless truths that govern both individuals and nations. It was more than just a clever punchline. It was a prophetic indictment of a society increasingly at odds with itself.

Just four years before Pogo’s debut, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered a speech to Congress that marked a turning point in America’s philosophical direction. In January 1944, Roosevelt praised the political freedoms enshrined in the Bill of Rights—free speech, a free press, religious liberty, trial by jury, and protection from government overreach. These rights, he said, were foundational to the Republic’s strength.

But then he pivoted.

Roosevelt declared that these political rights were “inadequate” for ensuring true happiness. He proposed a “Second Bill of Rights,” a sweeping list of economic entitlements: the right to a job, to food, to a home, to medical care, to education, and protection from economic hardship.

What’s the problem? Unlike the original Bill of Rights—which recognizes freedoms granted by God and protects them from government interference—Roosevelt’s new vision demands government intervention. His list of rights wasn’t grounded in personal liberty, but in state guarantees—guarantees that require the forceful redistribution of wealth and resources.

The result? The government would need to violate the real Bill of Rights in order to fulfill the promises of the fake one. To provide jobs, food, housing, and education, the state must take from some to give to others. These entitlements are not rights in the traditional American sense—they are obligations imposed by government power.

This so-called “Second Bill of Rights” reflects more of Karl Marx than Thomas Jefferson. Its legacy is seen today in programs like Obamacare and Common Core—federal overreach justified by a false sense of entitlement.

As a people, we’ve moved away from the "laws of nature and of nature’s God," as cited in our Declaration of Independence. And by doing so, we have, in fact, become our own worst enemy.

It’s time to rediscover the truth: Rights come from God, not government. And the role of government is to protect those rights—not replace them. If America is to survive as a free nation, it must abandon the false promises of the Second Bill of Rights and return to the foundational principles that made her free in the first place.