Posted on 12/23/2021 3:49:30 AM PST by Chad C. Mulligan
Like many people my age (62), I was taught both at home and in school that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a great president. FDR, I was taught, saved American democracy in the 1930s with the New Deal and led the nation to victory against Hitlerism in the 1940s. That view of FDR was reinforced by many television documentaries and history books. And virtually every poll of historians — including the most recent C-Span poll — places FDR in the top five of all U.S. presidents (usually in third place behind Lincoln and Washington). This is so despite persuasive revisionist historical works that paint a very different picture of FDR’s presidency.
Let’s start with the New Deal. In her book The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes shows that the New Deal — so lionized by liberal historians and Democrats — did not restore the U.S. economy as promised by FDR and his “brain trust,” but instead extended the sufferings of the Great Depression for seven more years. Unemployment remained well beyond 10 percent throughout the 1930s, only subsiding with the coming of World War II. “The cause of the duration of the Depression,” she writes, “was Washington’s persistent intervention” in the economy. The end result of the New Deal’s “bold persistent experimentation” was “inflexible statism” that has evolved into a gargantuan federal government exercising nearly unlimited powers to a degree that would have shocked the Founders of our country.
But an even greater failure of FDR’s administration in the 1930s was the nation’s lack of preparedness for the Second World War.
........read it all at the link
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
I'd settle for what LBJ had in 1964! Johnson was another of the SWAMP creators as his "War on Poverty" & "Civil Rights Act" did much to move power to Washington over the States.
A great book is “New Deal or Raw Deal” by Burton Folsom.
FDR did one really good thing and I know Freepers hate to hear it, but truth is truth: By taking the US off gold in 1933-—something every other country had already done-—he stopped the hemorrhage of gold out of US banks and stopped the collapse.
Contrary to popular myth, it was NOT the FDIC/federal deposit insurance that saved the banks. Studies have shown that in fact deposit insurance WEAKENED banks in the 1920s. But while we could not force France to give us gold for francs or Britain to give us gold for pound sterling, all countries in the world were plundering our gold reserves. The bank collapse halted almost immediately when FDR stopped this.
Good book by Burton Folsom, “New Deal or Raw Deal.”
FDR’s only good move in the entire Depression was to take the US off gold. The banking system runs stopped immediately, because we were the only nation in the world still paying out gold for currency. We couldn’t not get gold for francs, or gold for pound sterling, but French & Brits could get gold for dollars. Bank reserves were almost gone when he stopped the foreign run on gold.
It was this, NOT deposit insurance, that ‘saved the banks.’
My parents (Mom 1915-2012, Dad 1917-2011) were wise to FDR and could not stand him.....from the ‘30’s........so I grew up with a true understanding of who he really was - and his commies in his government......
The Roosevelt Myth by John Flynn
Another good book...
It's not really about ideology or morality. We used to say Polk was at least near great because he got the country California and the Southwest. Now we object to him on moral grounds. We are "right," but we did get California (for at least a while) and that can't be denied.
Also read: FDR’s Folly - how he deepened the Depression with his policies.
Thanks for posting this.
I’m reading the definitive FDR 1882 to 1940 the lion and the fox.
True.
from a comment at the link, with which i heartily concur:
Since the early part of the last century, and particularly during FDR's maniacal reign, the communists have infiltrated and subverted our government, economy, media, etc. This book focuses on the subversion during FDR's terms. Not only were out-and-out spies like Harry Dexter White and Alger Hiss roaming free in the halls of the White House, but dozens of smaller fish had a major impact on determining U.S. policy and creating favorable conditions for the Soviet Union to flourish . . .
Was it as much FDR’s skill or what is that he had the cooperation of the bureaucracy? From the perspective of a bureaucrat he are you going to help and who are you going to resist? Obviously you are going to support the guy who is giving you more power and prestige and do everything in your power to thwart the guy taking away power and authority.
Trump lacked insider skills and knowledge, but he also had much of the government apparatus working against him. If he was working to expand their power they would have loved him and made him look like the greatest president ever.
Ah, the great FDR and his “Brain Trust” — among their fantasies was belief in perpetual motion: just appear to do something and everything will work out.
FDR appointed the “first female Cabinet secretary,” Francis Perkins. She may have been, but she was also one of the first socialist cabinet secretaries. This idiot was in charge of industrial policy via her Dept. of Labor. Perkins wanted to force the automobile industry to produce one model, thinking that would create jobs and save the economy:
“This industry has accepted standardization for one year periods, but must extend its practices to include standardization over a period of years...I am old-fashioned enough still to admire the old Model T Ford.”
Idiot. But worse, a destructive idiot.
“’...Idiot. But worse, a destructive idiot. ....”
Aren’t they all ?
If you get the country through a major crisis, people will say you are great.Not working out so well for Barry.
Ike was a disastrous President. He did nothing to drastically shrink the massive Socialist state of FDR/Truman or to purge the equally massive Communist infiltration of the government and culture. He then handed the country over to JFK/LBJ on a silver platter that has sent us downhill ever since (with a brief break during Reagan).
This country needed Patton and/or MacArthur to serve in the White House and to do what needed to be done.
Do we know if he was even able to doodle anyone after he landed in the wheelchair ?
Remember that the "me too" wing of the GOP had become dominant in the 1940s, with Presidential nominees Thomas Dewey and Wendell Willkie part of that faction, the predecessor to today's RINOs. Robert Taft led the conservative wing of the GOP; he would have reversed the New Deal and thoroughly purged the Communists and their sympathizers from the Federal government. Unlike Reagan or Trump, Taft was not a charismatic personality, while Eisenhower was well liked as the man who led the Allies to victory. At the time, the California GOP was conservative, but Earl Warren and Richard Nixon cut a deal with Eisenhower to have the Golden State delegates to the Republican Convention support the former general. The price was that Warren became Chief Justice and Nixon became Vice President.
Well, FDR worked very hard to prepare us for war in spite of the opposition of the pacifists in his own party. He did all he could to keep the UK afloat through Lend Lease and other means in spite of opposition in Congress. He started the draft in spite of opposition of his Secretary of War. When the war started, he worked with capitalist and even brought them into his government through, for example, the “Dollar a Year” program. He was a good war leader. He chucked Henry Wallace and picked HST as vice president just in time.
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