[headsonpikes]

FDR governed as a fascist...

I would argue that he had lttle political choice. As Lord Conrad points out, there were numerous populist and 3rd party movements who were far more lunatic than the New Dealers. Not only Russians and Germans were infatuated with 'modernism' and 'progressivism'.

There were scarcely a handful of prominent Americans by the mid-30s who were fully, and vocally, in favor of the classical liberal principles which had governed the U.S. intellectually since its inception.

Now, there is a revival of interest in America's founding ideas, which we can only hope reaches critical mass before an over-reaching State closes off all escape from some form of national socialism.

[JohnGalt]

FDR ran as a libertarian in 1932, and won mostly because of Hoover's poor handling of the Bonus Army marchers. FDR governed as a fascist, the worst of all worlds, and it's hard to look at the results of the election and draw Black's conclusion:

1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democrat 472 22,821,857
Herbert C. Hoover, Republican 59 15,761,841
Norman Thomas, Socialist ... 884,781