February 07, 2004

FDR just used Lincoln's blueprint for ignoring the Constitution.

Even then, FDR did not suspend habeus corpus, he did not order a Supreme Court Justice to be imprisoned, nor did he force the expatriation of a sitting member of Congress.

But Abe did. Matter of history.

I say we clone Reagan and thaw out a new one every eight years. We'd have a quadrillion dollar GDP inside of two decades.

And the islamonuts, well, they'd get the ray-gun.

Rob, I agree that FDR was as bad as can be imagined on the Constitution, even resorting to packing the Supreme Court by increasing the numbers on the bench.

And indeed, once the war was joined, any number of personages could have served the Presidency in equal, or better effectiveness.

You're entirely correct too, in your view that the war economy of WW II is to credit in ending the depressoin.

But I'll stand by my post for this one reason. FDR stood virtually as alone as did Churchill while the war clouds gathered across the Atlantic.

We Republicans were the isolationist party then, and the Democrat party was pretty much just apathetic regarding the perils of socialism, both from Hitler and Stalin. They largely thought then, and still think now, that socialism is a thing to be welcomed. However, the great majority of Democrats then were still patriots, a virtually heretical stance for them, now.

Oddly though, FDR and a very few Congressmen and Senators did indeed recognize the danger of Nazism, recognizing Hitler's ambitions for what they were.

And they did so when the overwhelming majority of this nation flat didn't give a flying fuck about Europe. And Japan? At most, an occassional curiosity in their Sunday papers.

With the passage of the Lend Lease Act, FDR manuvered the United States into a position of allegiance with Great Britain, while still in compliance with America's diplomatic status as a Neutral.

Heeding Churchill's urgings, and those of our decimated General Staff, FDR also began the rearmanent process to restore a military utterly decimated by post WW I budget cuts. To slowly, too little, and damned near too late, but the fact remains he did.

Of course, he also used every dirty political trick in the book, and invented dozens more on his own. Including the massive abuses of the Constitution.

If FDR had lost the next election after December 7th, 1941, I don't think the outcome of WW II would have been materially different, save for the travesty of Yalta which you so correctly pointed out.

But I give him immense credit for facing the critics and forcing the issue, and striving to prepare a slumbering nation for the rude awakening to come.

FDR did one crucial thing right.

Upon this one right thing, history turned on a world-changing fulcrum:

He read and listed to Churchill, at a time when Churchill was virtually a pariah. And he acted on Churchill's warnings, to the best of his ability.

For that, I indeed rendered honor to him in my post, and stand by every word.

Respectfully,

Jim
Sloop New Dawn
Galveston, TX

What Jim said. One of the reasons I could never be a politician....I DO think the end justifies the means, and the heck with legalities.

Jim gives Roosevelt credit for beling a good follower, not a leader. If you ever get a chance, read Stud Turkle's "The Good War." Roosevelt doesn't come out looking so good in that one, but he damn sure picked the right people to build the most awesome war machine ever developed. And we did it from scratch..

Rob, you can't have it both ways, man.

You credit FDR with this.

but he damn sure picked the right people to build the most awesome war machine ever developed. And we did it from scratch.

That's leadership, sir. And insofar that he caught the clue from Churchill, it's no slight to the man to have listened to wise counsel.

Note also, that FDR did not enlist Churchill to come to the United States and prepare this nation for war. Like it or not, FDR was instrumental in the buildup to war period ,spanning the mid-thirties to the advent of war in 1941.

Like you, I despise just about every single domestic policy position that FDR either espoused or enacted.

But I do give credit where credit is due, albiet with a mighty large Constitutional chip on my shoulder.

And yes, I read Mr. Terkel's book when it first went to paperback. I'm in complete agreement. FDR was a tyrant, and anything but a saint.

The old quote goes: "Some men are born to greatness, some men aspire to greatness and others, have greatness thrust upon them.

Without WW II, FDR would have never succeeded in his quest for a third, much less a fourth term. He would be remembered for disasterous social policy, and perhaps even be considered as a failed Presidency.

But, WW II was thrust upon him, and like it or not, he wears the dented, rusty and flawed mantle of greatness, whether we like it or not.

Finally, let me seperate the two conflicting insights into his character. He is remembered by history as a Great President. However, he was anything but a Great Man.

In that regard, he was actually rather despicable.

Jim
Sloop New Dawn
Galveston, TX

A DAY FOR OWELLS


Waiting to read this:

FDR's folly : how Roosevelt and his New Deal prolonged the Great Depression /

by Jim Powell

Thomas Sowell recommended!

Roosevelt, huh? Okay, he presided during momentous events and we survived. Credit where it's due.

What I want to know is how the hell JFK made your list, Jim. The only bumper sticker I ever had was one that said, "I miss Ike. Hell, I even miss Harry." Glib as Clinton, sure. Even more privleged than Kerry. Don't give me Cuban missile crisis. Kruschev said he only put missiles in Cuba because he thought JFK was a wimp. Tax cuts? Good. Stealing the other party's issue. Maybe Bay of Pigs? The moon? That was going to happen anyway. Having Ted as a brother? Asshole wasn't fit to carry Reagan's jock strap. I'm pissed that he was assassinated and made a martyr to the point that his record is ignored or glorified.

To be poor without bitterness is easy; to be rich without arrogance is hard.

'Love -- a grave mental disease.' Plato

You do a good work, keep it going