FDR- Greatest Modern President »
Posted By Radiofreeeuropa 1 year, 1 month ago in Political NewsFranklin D. Roosevelt had campaigned against Herbert Hoover in the 1932 presidential election saying little about what he might do if he were elected. It seems the president-elect’ s most intimate associates did not feel they knew him well, with the exception perhaps of his wife, Eleanor. His enemies absolutely detested him. Colorful stories about his detractors include radio manufacturer Atwater Kent who retired because he would not do business while "That Man" was there. J. P. Morgan's family was ordered to keep newspapers with pictures of Roosevelt out of his sight, and in one Connecticut country club...mention of his name was "forbidden as a health measure against apoplexy." In Kansas a man went down into his cyclone cellar and announced he would not emerge until Roosevelt was out of office. (While he was there, his wife ran off with a traveling salesman...really!)
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 1 month ago
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There are many similarities between the presidency of FDR, and the presidency of Barack Obama. Both walk into their offices with a cataclysmic financial disaster literally destroying the nation.
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Both are eloquent speakers capable of motivating people en mass.
Both men are visionary Americans who believe we are far more than numbers on someone's bottom line, that government should be transparent and open to scrutiny. That government has a role to play in protecting us not just from foreign attack, but from
Robber Barons and exploiters who don't hold up their end of the social contract. They are both intelligent and likable..in fact charming and affable in their approach to communicating.
FDR followed a disastrous unpopular president who was less than forthcoming with the press who believed a libertine "free market" could do no wrong and believed in no regulation of it as it crashed and burned. Obama follows a president with similar qualities.-
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tadair9191 year, 1 month ago
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chevydog1 year, 1 month ago
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rfe On some of your similarities: Don't think that FDR was a golden orator on the campaign trail; the real high-powered stuff came after his election. Sen. Obama's oratory was a major reason for his nomination and later election. In poker terms, he showed his hand earlier. I don't think it's unreasonable to wonder whether, in oratorical terms, he's "shot his wad" already. I guess we'll see.
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Also remember that FDR was well-known in New York, which then was a very significant portion of the electorate. He had a record before his nomination. Prez-elect Obama, to be charitable, has only a thin record. I live in eastern MO. The large city paper I get is the St. Louis Post Dispatch. The Post is unabashedly Dem and very atttuned to IL politics; Chicago is the nearest very large city. I remember hearing about Obama in 2004; then his name just sort of disappeared until it emerged in the Dem primary process.
Don't think that FDR was a fan of transparency. He was perfectly willing to do stuff in secret; until and if events brought the public to his final view. The most frequently given example is the run-up to WWII. He had us in secret naval warfare with Germany through much of 1940. Most historians accept that he would not have been granted permission to do this by Congresss had he asked. So he didn't.
I think that the parallels with FDR are forced. A better set of parallels is between John Kennedy and Obama. Both were young, inexperienced Senators who were renegades against the party establishment. Both had qualities (Kennedy's Catholicism, Obama's racial background) that attracted far more attention to them than they would have had had they been run-of-the-mill. The difference is, of course, the nominating process. -
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BB641 year, 1 month ago
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And both are rather wealthy socialists who enjoy taking money from others to cover the costs of those who won't or don't work. The entire welfare state mentality was created by FDR. If you really want to study FDR good luck. Most books only cover the wartime activities well. Many of his policies slowed the recovery. Tariffs, free trade and the like all hampered the recovery. That and the law suits brought by trade unions and other protectionist organizations. So you're correct BO and FDR have some things in common.
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Robber Barons? You mean the folks that make it possible for you to have a job? You won't need to worry about us much anymore we're leaving. Most are moving head quarters, plants and profits overseas. Many feel safer in Communist China then in the USA with a DNC controlled government. The devil you know. So now if you want socialized medicine, schools, and welfare for all, you will have to pay for it yourself.
What's scarier was FDR's bumbling into WW2. His actions from 1940 forward almost guaranteed Germany or Japan would attack the USA. So before you call GWB a warmonger, learn about your other Messiah. FDR desperately needed to pull America out of the great depression, war tends to create jobs and paychecks. Read about the "neutrality patrols". Especially the USS Reuben James. How about the group called "Magic". They knew we were going to be attacked yet no real war warnings were sent. In fact even British intel noted the entire Japanese merchant fleet was returning to home waters. Yet FDR never sent the war warnings. Very eye opening. Learn about your heroes before you compare them to the new team. -
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memestryker1 year, 1 month ago
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I really hope he is able to lead us through the difficult situations we face. I personally don't find him motivating at all. I really didn't understand all the excitement about him, because I honestly didn't think his speeches said much of anything substantive, and his website made it clear early on that he plans to undercut the second amendment, even with all the statistics showing he's misguided on that particular issue.
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Still, I'll wait and see how things go, and hope he makes a positive difference without making too much of a negative one. -
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 1 month ago
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BB641 year, 1 month ago
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Giant shadow? Only if you're 85 years old. No one uses the FDR template anymore. Heck the Reagan template is pretty much gone. Get real. You're digging up one of your more successful liberals. This is little more than a puff piece. Apparently the BO handlers just realized Lincoln was a Republican so they need to find a new "hero".
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 1 month ago
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From FDR's vision emerged the great American middle class that has been the engine of more than five decades of progress and prosperity. From his new ideas flowed the seemingly endless array of programs and agencies of the New Deal: bank reform, a massive public-works effort to get America working again, rural electrification, the G.I. Bill. And, of course, his most enduring domestic creation, Social Security, a bond between generations that every President since has honored.
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Roosevelt proved that for markets to flourish, government must be devoted to opportunity for all. He understood that the initiative of individuals and the responsibilities of community must be woven together.
The abandonment of the FDR principles- the return of the Hoover belief that an unregulated market is incapable of doing wrong has predictably recreated the same kind of monster the nation faced in 1929.-
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BB641 year, 1 month ago
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Then you simply don't understand the American economy. Why did the rest of the world recover faster than we did? The New Deal, National Recovery Administration and many other programs were all socialist scams and many were declared unconstitutional. The only reason this nation was able to finally recover under his leadership was World War II. Had the Japanese not attacked, we were heading for another drop in the market. A huge one. Even with the building going on and the Navy Acts of the late 1930's we were in serious trouble. Britten was out of money and were were heading down. The attack welded the American people into a united nation destine for victory.
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As to his protections, Social Security, FDIC, SEC and the rest, they've all failed us regularly. SSI won't be there when most of us retire. SEC kind of missed most of the bad loans being sold as solid investments and FDIC, any more banks close and they're in deep trouble. None of his programs were that great.
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 1 month ago
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In his inaugural address - "Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people’s money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency."
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As I read the address, so many lines resonated. How could this wisdom from not so long ago have been ignored?-
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DarkWizard1 year, 1 month ago
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RFE,
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"As I read the address, so many lines resonated. How could this wisdom from not so long ago have been ignored?"
I think the reason the FDR's Inaugural Address resonates so strongly is the distinct parallels of circumstances and characters involved. You, and so many others here, have said many of these same things both eloquently and harshly to those that have become the new purveyors of Hoover-ism.
One of the more powerful statements, for me, within FDR's speech was this:
"True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish."
"The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit."
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 1 month ago
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Not in this article, but equally noteworthy is his state of the Union address-
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"We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. "Necessitous men are not free men." People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all - regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate to food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large or small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education" -
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jordan111 year, 1 month ago
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FDR was a much loved President by the masses, and a much hated one by the very wealthy. It's fascinating that the plotted coup to remove him from power has been lost to the history books, but piecing it together is something to do on a boring day, anyway. The downfall of the coup appears to lead to one man, a General Smedley Butler, who testified before Congress about the plot to take over the US government by military force. Right wing forces have tried to overturn his 'new deal' for decades.
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I expect Obama will learn from history, and won't do as much to incite the forces of powerful people.
http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/53/dupont-by...-
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 1 month ago
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Sometimes it's called the "business coup" . The coup itself was fairly well known, often thought of as "old news" until BBC uncovered the Prescott Bush involvement .(Grandfather of our current President). The bbc story here- http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/docum...
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"The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression."
Butler, US Marine General Smedley Butler, author of the famous quote "war is a racket", was approached to lead a hired private army of former US military men, instead he went to FDR who suggested he pretend to be interested to learn more. The result was his testimony to congress which was a state secret until some documents came to light through the freedom of information act. The BBC investigated and broke the story. Another bit of info that came out was that Prescott continued doing business with the Nazis well after America was at war with them.
In 1936, William Dodd, the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, wrote a letter to President Roosevelt in which he stated,
"A clique of U.S. industrialists is hell-bent to bring a fascist state to supplant our democratic government and is working closely with the fascist regime in Germany and Italy. I have had plenty of opportunity in my post in Berlin to witness how close some of our American ruling families are to the Nazi regime.... A prominent executive of one of the largest corporations, told me point blank that he would be ready to take definite action to bring fascism into America if President Roosevelt continued his progressive policies. Certain American industrialists had a great deal to do with bringing fascist regimes into being in both Germany and Italy. They extended aid to help Fascism occupy the seat of power, and they are helping to keep it there. Propagandists for fascist groups try to dismiss the fascist scare. We should be aware of the symptoms. When industrialists ignore laws designed for social and economic progress they will seek recourse to a fascist state when the institutions of our government compel them to comply with the provisions."
The proven record of Prescott Bush's involvement in financing the Nazi war machine dovetails with the fact that he was part of a criminal cabal that actively sought to impose a fascist coup in America.
Prescott did not succeed but many would argue that two generations down the line the mission has all but been accomplished.
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Bkumm1 year, 1 month ago
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No President and no person of power could go far wrong by emulating and trying to accomplish what FDR advocated in his "Four Freedoms" speech:
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"In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression--everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way--everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want--which, translated into universal terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear--which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor--anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb."
We've got a long way to go.-
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BB641 year, 1 month ago
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Too bad today's Dems no longer support this. Speech is only protected when they agree with what you're saying. Disagree and it's hate speech.
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Religion, only if you're not Christian. If you are, get ready for the rules. I dare you to say a prayer before a football game.
Want? Not exactly. I'm not sure what you're saying. Global control on everyone's economies?
Fear? Then you really don't understand the world in 1933 or today. There has always been evil surrounding this nation. People who fear the freedoms and hate them. Some are dictators or monarchs. Sometimes it's religious leaders. Then as now, they're out there wanting to destroy this nation and "convert" us to their beliefs or at least control us.
Your last statement confuses me most. We have peace because of superior firepower and protection of our military. Without this protection, we would have been beaten many times before. The brave men and women of our armed forces have always been there to protect the rights you take for granted. The four freedoms are simply a shortening of our Constitution.
As to "no other president", blah, blah, blah. He was a gifted reader like BO. FDR, Truman, JFK, Johnson, Nixon and Kennedy never wrote their own speeches. Reagan was one of the few that did. At least in the history of recordings.
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Bkumm1 year, 1 month ago
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I don't know if this link will work, but here are the iconic images produced by Norman Rockwell showing the "Four Freedoms":
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http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://chaw...-
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 1 month ago
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In case Bkumm's link doesn't work for you, here is a link for the the Rockwell "4 freedoms"-
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http://www.roac.nl/roac/_pictures/news%20stories/N...
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tadair9191 year, 1 month ago
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What kind of horrible headline is this? FDR engaged in theft and counterfeiting as a solution to a problem caused by theft and counterfeiting.
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Doesn't anyone know that he signed an order to confiscate everybody's gold??
Read: strike-the-root.com/columns/Chkoreff/chkoreff1.htm... -
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Progressive1 year, 1 month ago
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Good find, RFE -- thanks for the invite. Here's the video of FDR's inaugural speech:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F1gHZ3o2-U -
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Endoscopy1 year, 1 month ago
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His fiscal policies dragged the depression for an extra 7 years. That is such good work. He was our president in WW2 and was a very good war president. We were involved even before we actually entered the war. Lend lease with Great Brittan etc.
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Tangent0011 year, 1 month ago
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"His fiscal policies dragged the depression for an extra 7 years."
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I see, so 2 UCLA economists publish this opinion way back in 2004, and it immediately becomes fact? I thought you had higher standards than that.
Interesting, now that people are comparing Obama to FDR that this obscure report resurfaces...
But then, the Right never really liked FDR and his pro-middle-class New Deal policies in the first place. -
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chevydog1 year, 1 month ago
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Endo -- think it more proper to say that his policies didn't end the Depression, not that they dragged it out. Obviously, it took WWII to end it for good.
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One has to wonder what any prez could have done to end the Depression before WWII. There may be a lesson in dogmatism here. Hoover, like GWB, was a strong believer in free market economics. And he was far more accomplished than GWB, both intellectually and professionally, before being elected. That he didn't do stuff akin to what FDR did was not for lack of intellect; but rather because he felt that solutions had to fit within certain restraints. FDR felt some of this, but not nearly as much. Maybe some of the "solutions" didn't work very well; but they gave the impression of trying. And psychology is worth something. -
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simonsez1 year, 1 month ago
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The only similarity is a nation in trouble ... Different time, different solutions needed. FDR made a lot of mistakes.
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I fear that the infra-structure jobs will go to Mexicans. As a population, we're generally too fat and lazy to do the work.-
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toph19731 year, 1 month ago
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Every president makes mistakes. I know many of them, including the current one, will say they've never made any mistakes, but we all know that's a load of crap.
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I have the same fear as you that the infrastructure jobs will go to Mexicans and illegals. Many people wouldn't do the jobs. That said, if I make more than I do now I'll do any job. -
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BB641 year, 1 month ago
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As a senior person with a major global manufacturer, tell me why we should keep production here in the USA. We currently have around 15,000 US workers. This is everything from engineering to final assembly. Process systems, energy production, conventional, solar, nuclear to robotics. We've been fighting to keep things here but with the promises of corporate tax increases, EPA, national health, new union rules, and other challenges from state & local politicians, we're no longer able to make a profit. No profit, no business. No business, no jobs. The auto industry is learning from unfair contracts just how deadly uncontrolled unions are. Why do you think the Asian firms have stopped union infestation. Pardon the term but what else do you call a pest like them.
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 1 month ago
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I'm surprised you don't see the similarities. Should Barack do exactly what FDR did? No. He made mistakes of course, because his solution was to throw everything at the problem and whatever showed positive results continued, whatever did not was admitted as a failure and removed. It was not an ideology. Unless valuing humanity is an ideology.
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flyonthewallzz1 year, 1 month ago
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Sorry to speak about a personal thing here.
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This story makes me think about my Dad.
My Dad was a college professor, so was my Mom.
Their marriage ended when I was 7 years old.
I guess I am a bit of an anti-intellectual for personal reasons.
My Dad loved FDR and I was always careful not to get him started on a long winded lecture about him. He did say that he sucked at playing marbles as a kid and that during the depression his parents spent too much money on his bad habit.
At my Fathers Funeral FDR was spoken about quite a bit.
It was not until today that I had read those words in the inauguration address.
I now understand more about things, I wish I could chew them over with Dad now.
This got me:
“In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others—the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.”
Radio : this story hit me at a gut emotional level and pointed out a big hole in the crap that I thought I knew.
My Grand Father had Polio too, Shoes do last longer.
Obama will have a lot of leather to burn though before he can really compare.-
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 1 month ago
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Wow! Thanks for sharing that insight ! I had hoped to hear some personal stories.
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Though I know they would be second or third hand because of the age. I as a child (for some unknown reason) used to enjoy sitting at the table with various great -relatives, (now all deceased) and talking about those days, seemed most who lived through the era had fascinating tales to tell. I remember the horror they described regarding the abject hopelessness of the Depression, how my grandfather the barber still cut peoples hair for IOUs that people meant to pay but never could, how my grandmother took a family heirloom diamond ring to a jeweler to appraise (thinking of selling it) and having it returned with a fake diamond in place of the real one, which no one noticed til years later when she finally broke down and tried to sell it. (Of course Jeweler number 1 was long gone). A great Uncle lost his successful masonry business as work disappeared, then his house. But the loss of dignity as a human being I believe was the true unbearable weight for him. He was a big burly guy who worked hard every day before this, and afterwards,
His eyes would light up as if he saw angels as he described the CCC camp where he taught (and worked). He truly believed it saved his life. For my family who were there, FDR was more than a politician, He was almost like a friend or relative. Other than creating work for my great uncle, no one got any handouts, and if private concerns don't create jobs what's wrong with public ones?
But somehow FDR changed their lives for the better, by simply uniting or offering hope, I don't know. But he appealed to their highest nature, made them believe in a tangible future. And I too am moved as I read the speeches, not hearing the words through my own ears but through the ears of my now gone family of that generation. Imagining what it must have been like, after all the loss and suffering to suddenly have a sense of joy and hope.
This is why it matters to me a little more than most. My Dad also now gone, had a more pragmatic view of the FDR years..."He sent me off to war...so I didn't care for him" (Dad enlisted in the Navy, left before actually finishing his senior year in HS). He liked Truman better "He brought me home, so I liked him". Dad went to Drexel on the GI bill provided by... you guessed it ...FDR. At times I feel a little lost without that generation to talk to, at least in my family they are all gone now. And I feel I didn't really finish those talks, that there was more to discern....
They had an understanding, perceived through experience; about human dignity, that later generations by and large, are completely devoid of. I guess you had to be there.
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Radiofreeeuropa1 year, 1 month ago
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WINNER!
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wtagg, You win a week of rhythm lessons with Robert Fripp!
(Everyone else receives 55 weeks)
LOL!
I guess to my way of thinking the first to releases are related.
Cirkus was a new slant, Islands was something altogether new,
Then came Wetton... so to me it's version 4
(though personnel did change)
I can't say Fripp would agree, but let me know when he stops by for your rhythm lesson.
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CHAM1 year, 1 month ago
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Interesting. So those who dislike Liberals find reason to dislike FDR and those who dislike Conservatives find reason to praise FDR. Whatever the "truth" happens to be, those on the other side won't believe it.
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But FDR did come into the Presidency when the country was in serious difficulty. We came out of it during his Presidency.
There were those who didn't take to his helping the desperate people. Are you surprised that those most against him were the Powerful and wealthy, yes those who found the defenseless easy prey. Remind you of the Powerful and wealthy today?
No I don't mean every powerful or wealthy person, just the majority of them. They had a reason. they knew that crime does pay. And it remains that way today.
Not for the poor and defenseless, they go straight to jail for their crimes. Even the big dogs that go to jail, usually get to go to the Country Club prison. -
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