FDR’s 90% tax rates on businesses really spurred the economy though! /s
BFL
"The functions of government are in a very real sense independent of legislation, and even constitutions, because [they are] as old as government and inherent in its very nature. The bulk and complex minuteness of our positive law, which covers almost every case that can arise in Administration, obscures for us the fact that Administration cannot wait upon legislation, but must be given leave, or take it, to proceed without specific warrant in giving effect to the characteristic life of the State." ["Notes for Lectures at the Johns Hopkins," January 26, 1891, Papers of Woodrow Wilson Vol. 7, p. 121]
While FDR is indeed responsible for his own actions like 'Court Packing', he does come from the infamous heritage of the 1880s-1920s Progressivism/Populism. While they were not 'specifically' Socialist or Communist, it is instructive how influenced they were from German & European intellectuals and proposals.
For a LENGTHY treatment on the ancestry of the SWAMP, I recommend this 2007 monograph from Heritage Foundation / Hillsdale College; "The Birth of the Administrative State: Where It Came From and What It Means for Limited Government". The above Wilson quote comes from this paper.
Bkmrk
FDR was the worst. He started, with social security, the idea that government would take care of us, birth to death. People were no longer responsible for their lives and look where we are today.
Give us more, we are victims. It is not up us, it is up to you, government.
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.
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 . . .
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.
Jewish people need to remind themselves he did VERY little to stop the concentration camps... In 1939 he turned away 60.000 Spanish refugees who were forcd to seek refuge in Mexico. My father spoke of thim with contempt.