Your “hero” FDR was “not on the front lines” either. He wouldn’t listen to Churchill until it was almost too late.
FDR was not my hero, never has been, not even close.
Reagan was my hero and Cruz is my hero now.
But I know the character of good democrats of the Roosevelt era. They were not progressives. They were blue-collar patriots that no longer exist except in the Perot demographic or in the communities of Reagan democrats.
The Reagan democrats and their parents were in the time of Roosevelt the largest demographic of the democrat party. They were conservative.
The left, the progressives have since taken over the democrat party and kicked their conservatives to the curb.
Roosevelt had been a republican who changed to democrat to offer a ‘New Deal’. Americans were suffering a Great Depression and their suffering was very real. Roosevelt offered them a ‘vision’ or better an ‘illusion’. He did not do this to deceive, he did it because he was weak and incapable of inspiring Americans to embrace their heritage of hard work while at the same time prodding American capitalists to restart the economic engines.
Roosevelt was having troubles securing a second term and was no longer popular into his second term. He swung hard right on immigration in the middle of his second term to reflect the mood of the electorate. The pending war helped him secure a third term.
If I had lived while Roosevelt was President, I would not have liked him. I would have thought he was a weak ineffectual leader, holding his finger in the air to see which way the wind blows.
But I would never have challenged the patriotism of the American blue collar worker that voted for him by the millions. I would have questioned their judgement but never their patriotism.
In 2008, I had some friends that voted for Obama. I tried, in a friend like way, to make them reconsider. One of them was a retired union electrical foreman. He loved America and his 80-year old mother was more patriotic than any American you will ever meet. These were democrats in the towns outside Chicago. Bush had so badly allowed the GOP brand to be damaged that these patriotic Americans thought they were doing their duty to support Obama.
Being patriotic does not always translate to being intelligent. Being unpatriotic does not always translate to being unintelligent.
But being patriotic does translate to being an American that appreciates the heritage.
As for democrat voters these days, yes I question both their common sense and their patriotism. I think a great many of them are lost. I expect Ted Cruz will leave a permanent impression on them as to why America is great. I hope they are ready to learn because they sorely need a good example to follow.
I think FDR wanted us in the war, and deep down he knew that war was inevitable, but the vast majority of Americans did not want to get involved in another European war, and most likely Congress wouldn’t have given FDR the authority to declare war, if FDR had tried.