US Presidents, Day 32: FD Roosevelt

[PBrunsel]

Franklin Roosevelt followed the footsteps of his distant cousin, Theodore Roosevelt, all the way to the presidency. FDR was a man who loved power, just like TR, and saw the presidency as a “bully pulpit” in which he could spread his ideas worldwide. This patrician would grow to be loved by the poor and destitute of the nation, and despised by those of his own social class. When FDR visited Indianapolis during the 1940 Campaign, a workingman held up a sign reading, “Roosevelt is my friends.” This sign shows the connection FDR had with his countrymen better than anything else.

The life of a man who would be honored by the working class began in privilege. FDR was born in Hyde Park, New York, to a wealthy father and socialite mother. His mother , Sara Delano, refused to allow Franklin to dress himself until he was 12-years old. He was pampered at prep schools and elite universities, where eh excelled at writing and journalism. FDR thought about becoming a journalist, but decided that he wanted to be like his cousin Teddy, and barnstorm through the political scene.

The two Roosevelt families were united when Franklin married Anna Eleanor Roosevelt in March 1905. Eleanor’s own uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt, gave her away at the wedding. The relationship between Franklin and Eleanor was to be a great political partnership. When FDR was stricken by polio in 1921 he was unable to travel to the nitty gritty parts of the world, but he had Eleanor to be his eyes and legs. She would fight for social justice and civil rights for her entire life, much to the chagrin of her husband. Their marriage produced several children, but there lacked any real sense of love between the homely Eleanor and the handsome Franklin. This partnership would prove to be quite important to FDR as he continued in politics.

After his marriage FDR’s political career shot up like a rising star. He was elected to the New York State Senate in 1910 as a Democrat, which his cousin was not. Roosevelt was a Progressive, and this offended many of the wealthy factory owners which voted for him in 1910. This was the first run in Roosevelt would have with “the bloated plutocracy.” In 1913, like his cousin back in 1897, Roosevelt was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy by President Woodrow Wilson. In this office FDR helped modernize the navy and made his position important. During World War I he designed an official flag for the Assistant Secretary of the Navy and flew it as he reviewed troops in Haiti. The young Roosevelt had become well known when he was nominated by the Democratic Party in 1920 to run for Vice-President. Teddy Roosevelt had been nominated for Vice-President, so FDR saw this as a great step to becoming president himself. He had to tell the newspapers that he was not Teddy’s son or brother, and that he was his own man. The ticket of Governor James Cox and Roosevelt was defeated in a landslide, but FDR was now known nationwide. His future looked bright as he began a career in law at a prosperous New York City law firm. No one would have guessed that tragedy would strike him down.

While vacationing at Campobello Island in August 1921, FDR contracted polio. This disease affected millions of Americans across the country, but it affected Roosevelt in more ways than just his ability tom walk. The pampered and spoiled Roosevelt was now struck down for the first time in his life. With his wife behind him, however, he overcame his polio, even though he was never able to walk again. Roosevelt now understood suffering and pain, and this was what helped him return back to politics.

From 1924-1933 FDR swung through the country talking to people from all walks of life. He nominated Governor Al Smith for President in both 1924 and 1928, calling him the “Happy Warrior.” In 1928 FDR was narrowly elected Governor of New York. This was the same office that Teddy had before he became Vice-President, and it was also the biggest job in the nation next to being President. During the early days of the Great Depression Roosevelt offered unemployment benefits and public works jobs to some unemployed people, just like President Hoover, but FDR was far more vocal about it. he loved to tell the media about al the good things he was doing, where as Hoover never bragged about his accomplishments.  This clash between the media savvy politician and the shy and perceived cold public servant was the 1932 Election. Roosevelt ripped Hoover for taxing and spending too much as President. He called for balanced budgets and said that the economy was on the brink of collapse. President Hover called Roosevelt and “pessimist” and told people the Depression could be much worse. This was not as happy as FDR playing “Happy Days are here Again” and promising a “New Deal for the American people.” FDR easily beat Hoover, and achieved his dream of becoming president.
FDR was not a man with a set plan, and his New Deal would show that. Known as the “Great Improviser”, Roosevelt was gifted at pitting his cabinet members and presidential advisors against each other. Roosevelt’s fabled “100 Days” defined how every President would propose policy for the next three decades. Roosevelt encountered as nation on the brink of oblivion, and he did what he felt was right to pull it out from that abyss. “We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” he told that nation on his Inaugural Day, and it reassured the nation and his own advisors. His “Brain Trust” of political and educational leaders would pound out the First New Deal. Such organizations as the National Recovery Administration (NRA), the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), and the Public Works Administration (PWA) would be condemned as un-Democratic, Communist, and violators the Constitution, but the unemployed nationwide embraced them. Roosevelt’s greatest weapon was the unconditional trust the poor and workingman had in him. “They trust him,” PWA Chairman Harold Ickes said in 1936, “He doesn‘t need anyone else’s trust.”

Icke’s words rang true in 1938 in a negative way. FDR’s New Deal was under “attack” by the conservative Supreme Court. Roosevelt despised the court for ending the NRA and the NIRA, and he further hated them for eyeing the AAA. While Conservatives claimed that Roosevelt’s polices were deepening the depression, the Supreme Court was saying that he was overstepping the Constitution. Chief Justice Hughes said in 1935 that the NA was unconstitutional because you can not force a company to sign on for government insurance and that NIRA was also unconstitutional because it too away private property for private use, against Eminent Domain. Roosevelt wanted to add six new justices to the court, and this “Court Packing Scheme” was attacked by Roosevelt’s own party. After winning every state but Maine and Vermont in 1936, FDR thought he could get away with anything. When the Congress voted down his plot against America, Roosevelt was shown he was not a dictator.

On the foreign scene Roosevelt proved to be a mixed blessing. By adopting Hoover’s Central America policy, FDR was able to create his own “Good Neighbor Policy.” By withdrawing nearly all troops from Central America and apologizing and paying reparations to Colombia for their loss of Panama in 1904, FDR was ending his cousin’s legacy in that region. From 193-1941 FDR focused on the European front. Adolph Hitler and his Nazi Party had taken over Germany and were building it back from the ashes of the Treaty of Versailles. Roosevelt issued the first peace time draft in October 1940 and began the Lend Lease Act with Great Britain to help them combat the Nazi blitzkrieg. After December 7th, 1941, the United States was involved in, “The Great Struggle for Democracy.” The U.S. and its “Arsenal of Democracy” gave much aide to the Allied Nations as they fought the good fight against Axis aggression.  After promoting several generals, meeting with Churchill and Stalin in Casablanca, and making three cameo appearances in the Superman Comic, FDR initiated “Operation Overlord”, the invasion of Mainland Europe. General Dwight Eisenhower, loved by both America and Britain for his victories in Northern Africa, would lead D-Day to success. By April 1945 the Axis had folded, and the bloodiest war in history had ended. His heroic leadership through World War II only increased the Roosevelt Myth, so many have forgotten his many failings.

FDR was a man who loved beautiful women, and beautiful women loved him (must have been the wheelchair). His affair with his wife’s secretary (Lucy Mercer) and his own secretary (Missy LeHand, that was her real name, not her stripper name) was well known by his family. Eleanor chose to live with FDR and his massive sexual appetite. When she would travel to the coal mines of West Virginia or to the Italian Front, FDR would let Lucy or Missy sit on his lap while he worked at his Oval Office desk. When he passed away at Warm Springs, Georgia, on April 12th, 1945, he was with Lucy, not his wife. She was at the Whiter House greeting the new President, Harry S Truman.

From his controversial New Deal policies, to Japanese Internment, to the “sell out” at Yalta, there is much to criticize FDR about. Throughout his unprecedented twelve years in office Roosevelt would stretch the Constitution like a pair of elastic pants, and the Republicans never let him forget it. The 22nd Amendment, restricting the President to 10-years in office, was a slap in the face of “That Man in the White House.” The wealthy called him a “traitor his class” but the workingman loved him. Perhaps the legacy that Roosevelt lived can best be summed up in a short saying: When you are president for that long, people are sure to have an opinion about you.