FDR was a symptom of a badly frightened electorate. He promised relief.He controlled the media which at that time was relatively new as far as radio broadcasting. Churchill, Hitler and Roosevelt share to varying degrees successful access to and manipulation of radio and press. The media gained control by getting JFK elected and since that time plays a large role in making and unmaking elected officials. Three weeks of media treatment and the truth is recognized by all!
NO!
Long time lurker here, newbie poster. I just had to share this poem about FDR. An old cousin of mine found it last year in a box of his long dead father's things. The author of the poem is unknown.
Rejected
A stranger stood at the gates of Hell,
and the Devil himself answered the bell.
He looked him o’er from head to toe,
and said, “My friend, I’d like to know:
What have you done in the line of sin
to entitle you to come within?”
Then Franklin D., with his usual guile,
stepped forth and flashed his toothy smile.
“When I took charge in thirty-three,
a nation’s faith was mine, said he.
I promised this and I promised that
and calmed them down with a Fireside Chat.
I spent their money on fishing trips
and traveled afar on their battle ships.
I gave them jobs on the P.W.A.,
then raised their taxes and took it away.
I raised their wages and closed their shops,
killed their pigs and burned their crops.
I double-crossed both old and young
and still the folks my praises sung.
I brought back beer, and what do you think?
I taxed it so high that they couldn’t drink.
I furnished money with government loans.
When they missed a payment, I took their homes.
When I wanted to punish the fools, you know,
I put my wife on the radio.”
“I paid them to let their farms lie still
and imported foodstuffs from Brazil.
I curtailed crops when I felt mean
and shipped in corn from the Argentine.
When they’d start to worry, stew and fret,
I’d get them chanting the alphabet:
With the A.A.A. and the N.L.B.
the W.P.A. and the C.C.C.
With these silly units, I got their goats,
and still I crammed it down their throats.”
“My workers moved with the speed of snails
while the taxpayers chewed their fingernails.
When the organizers needed dough,
I closed up factories with the C.I.O.
I ruined jobs, I ruined health
and put the screws on the rich man’s wealth.
Some groups who couldn’t stand the gaff
would call on me and how I’d laugh.
When they got too strong on certain things,
I’d pack and head for Old Warm Springs.
I ruined their country and finances---then
I placed the blame on ‘Nine Old Men.’”
Now Franklin talked both long and loud,
and the Devil stood with head low bowed.
At last he said, “Let me make it clear:
You’ll have to go; you can’t stay here.
For once you mingle with this mob,
I’ll have to find myself a job.”
FDR did terrible things to our nation and violated our constituiton. The only thing he did right was to fight WWII as hard as he could. That makes up for a lot, but all his domestic policy was CR@P.
I'm a Reagan Democrat. So were my parents and theirs and theirs. We had all changed party registrations by the end of the Gipper's presidency. He and FDR were cut from the same cloth. Both were leaders. Both inspired. Both believed in America and her little people.
I thank God this nation had the leadership of Mr. Roosevelt at the time it did. Giving Eastern Europe to Stalin was as much Ike's idea as FDR's. Ike was already running for president at the end of that war and FDR was in terrible health by the time of Yalta.
I excuse none of his mistakes, but Reagan had his Bitburg and Lebanon tragedy and Iran-Contra. Leaders make mistakes. That's what makes them leaders.
Just another Bush-bashing liberal article, worthless except for the main question about FDR. Was he a good president? NO! A thousand times NO!
FDR for calming fear during the depression which led to a confident public that he could also help defeat the Axis with a little help from his friends, the British and Soviet Union.
HST for using the United Nations to prosecute the Korean conflict and reasserting civilian control of the military by sacking General MacArthur.
RWR for ending the Cold War with a little help from his friends, the British and Soviet Union.
The presence of Mr. Gorbachev and Mrs. Thatcher in the National Cathedral was the only proof anyone needs to agree that RWR is fully deserving of the honors bestowed, but we should always remember that no one achieves greatnest without a little help from his friends...and RWR clearly had more than enough of the right caliber.
As to the article by Fatlip Farah? Using this approach to belittle President Bush is all the proof anyone needs to agree that Farah is an ass.
imo not as great as some argue.
like his predecessor, there were measures that he could have taken to lessen the depression but did not.
i think ronald reagan is this country's 3rd greatest president--after washington and lincoln.
reagan tried to clean up some of the fdr, lbj, and jimmy mess, and turned the country away from self-destruction.
He was a fatheaded leftist looney that I have visions of sitting in his wheelchair while being pushed by his ugly Marxist wife up the ramp to the pits of hell!
He gave Joseph Stalin the Atom Bomb precipataing the "cold war", and literally GAVE Uncle Joe most of Eastern URP and most of Germany.. I would say he was a lame President. He was Stalin's "bitch". Like in dog, or useful "idiot"..