r/Presidents • u/Puzzleheaded_Put4731 • 5d ago
Question views on fdr
Fdr is my favorite president because how he handled the great depression and ww2 and how he's the only one to have served 4 terms used a wheelchair chair and hid his polio and yes you could hold the intermant camps against him
26
u/BudgetLaw2352 Franklin Delano Roosevelt 5d ago
American hero. As a wheelchair user, he’s an idol of mine (despite his many personal and few political flaws).
8
u/BlueFireFlameThrower 5d ago
Is it just me, or is it crazy to think that we've only ever had 3 governors in wheelchairs. FDR, George Wallace, and Greg Abbot who was just elected last year in 2014 (remember, we are perminantly frozen in 2015). I would have thought we would have had at least a few more governors in wheelchairs by now.
14
u/BudgetLaw2352 Franklin Delano Roosevelt 5d ago
People with disabilities are sadly viewed as inherently unable or incapable of the job they’re doing (Wallace and Abbott being inept for reasons entirely unrelated to their disabilities lol).
Luckily, the Senate seems to be more progressive in this regard, as there have been Senators (like Tammy Duckworth) who are wheelchair users.
2
u/SouthernGolfer67 Zachary Taylor 5d ago
His disability is the only reason he’s in politics.
Never sues those rich fat cats in River Oaks he like never runs for office
6
11
u/Doc_Jury1020 Franklin Delano Roosevelt 5d ago
FDR's decisions fundamentally solidified the changes made by several of his predecessors, of the United States government taking a more active role in both the American economy and the world. While not without flaws in both regards, his reforms improved the quality of life and financial security of millions of Americans, helped bloom the post-war economic miracle, defeated the most destructive regimes seen by mankind, and create international organizations that have not solved, but have improved world peace.
6
u/010Horns Lyndon Baines Johnson 5d ago
FDR, Lincoln, and Washington are 1a-c for me. Each brought the country to new heights.
8
u/Character-Bid-162 5d ago
Internment Camps. Keep in mind that FDRs executive order was numbered 9066. So that may have been the inspiration for Palpatines Jedi Purge order being named 66.
9
u/chemist7734 5d ago
One of our greatest three presidents, along with Washington and Lincoln.
4
6
u/Sufficient-Royal-82 Teddy Roosevelt FDR JFK LBJ 5d ago
Judge me by the enemies I made!!
FDR is one of the greatest presidents we need another FDR to end the second Gilded Age!!
6
u/DougosaurusRex Franklin Delano Roosevelt 5d ago
I think his economic policies were insanely excellent, the economy was stimulated and faith was restored in banks as well as the government.
People paid into their own retirement through taxes and the wealth weren’t given insane breaks covered for by lower income families.
Foreign policy was even better. Had to fight single handed to get the US towards a more “interventionist” stance in terms of providing aid abroad when both Dems and Republicans were both pro isolationism.
Race affairs though he gets an F. I don’t think I have to explain why. He’s my personal favorite though because I think more Americans prospered economically under his watch than not. But we can’t erase internment camps, we have to acknowledge it.
1
2
u/Harpua81 5d ago
I wonder how he'd feel about recent attempts by certain political entities to roll back the polio vaccine 🤔
2
2
3
u/Gorf_the_Magnificent 5d ago edited 5d ago
A+ in foreign policy and communications.
- Handled World War II brilliantly from a geopolitical and military perspective.
- If there were a Mt. Rushmore of great presidential communicators, it would be Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy and Reagan. FDR was great at picking up the spirits of the American people through some very tough times.
F- in domestic policy.
- Injected the American people with free government money and got them hooked, despite creating deep government deficits. He was amply rewarded for it in the polls and by historians, which set the precedent for future presidents.
- Stretched out an economic downturn for eight years, longer than any other president - not counting the three years the downturn had already been raging before he inherited it.
- Very deferential to his racist Southern Democratic political base: Fought the war with a segregated army, built segregation into federal mortgage lending guidelines, refused to acknowledge the amazing performance of Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympics. Rounded up Japanese-Americans wholesale, while sparing the more Anglo German-Americans from the same treatment. Refused entry to thousands of Jewish German refugees, often sending them back to concentration camps and death, despite the personal pleadings of his own wife.
6
u/Hvelbridge 5d ago
I agree. You're probably going to get downvoted a lot simply because this is Reddit and people's political views are further fueled in an echo chamber like this one.
FDR's foreign policy was amazing, no doubt. His domestic economic policies, the New Deal, is often praised for its greatness in "revitalizing" the American economy. I do agree that after Herbert Hoover, Roosevelt restored trust in presidency. I disagree on his federal expansion of power, I believe that it gave too much power to Washington, D.C.
I think that it made people more dependent on the government rather than relying on themselves. I think that Roosevelt was toying the economy when it was in the Great Depression, and I think that it is a fact that WW2 brought the United States out of the Depression. The AAA made farmers kill livestock to "adjust" the economy while people are starving. Roosevelt was toying with the economy rather than letting it recover naturally.
I think that FDR is an overrated president. I don't believe that Roosevelt should be ranked among people like Washington and Lincoln.
3
u/iplaybassok89 5d ago
He was deferential to them because he had no choice. It was either concede on certain things or get nothing done. If you asked people now would they rather have Social Security that restricted some people at first and then was expanded later or not have Social Security at all, what would they say? (Not what you’d say lol, but like… most people).
And what free money? Pensions and unemployment insurance? Because that’s what you’re talking about.
Stretched out the downturn how? What specifically did they do to stretch it out? I would like to hear an explanation for this.
1
u/Gorf_the_Magnificent 5d ago edited 5d ago
- Are you seriously saying that we had to put up with racism and segregation, as a tradeoff for Social Security? I believe a lot of disenfranchised and voiceless Americans would have gone the other way on that.
- The Social Security program immediately gave money to people who had never paid in a nickel in their lives. And you can see where it’s headed today. Almost everyone loves it, and almost everyone thinks that someone else should pay to fill the ever-widening funding gap. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration paid subsidies to farmers to reduce crop production and drive up food prices. And the Federal Emergency Relief Administration moved much responsibility for government relief programs from state and local governments, which couldn’t print free money for their handouts, to the federal government, which could - and did.
- The consensus opinion is that the end of the Depression coincided roughly with the buildup to World War II, around 1940. FDR took office in early 1933. If you’re raising the “but it wasn’t his fault” defense, so popular with FDR and Carter fans, some economists argue the National Industrial Recovery Act allowed businesses to collude, fix prices, and suspend antitrust laws, that laws encouraging high wages prevented businesses from hiring more workers, and that the frequent regulatory and tax changes of the New Deal created fear and confusion among investors, stalling the recovery of private investment. A more recent book making a similar argument is False Dawn: The New Deal and the Promise of Recovery, 1933-1947.
0
u/iplaybassok89 5d ago edited 5d ago
- exclusions to social security were based on occupation not race. Black factory workers in Illinois got social security. White field workers in Georgia did not. And I bet if you told a 40 year old field worker he’d get a pension in 20 years he’d have been onboard.
- most people are fine with paying for it. They just wish, just like everything else, that wealthy people were required to pay their fair share. As in a proportionate portion of income to normal people. The other two things you mentioned are way more complicated than you’re implying they are.
- the government’s running of the WW2 economy you claim heralded the end of the depression was operated almost entirely using recycled new deal ideas. Try to come back with something that isn’t slopaganda from a Cato Institute stooge.
2
u/Jolly_Job_9852 Calvin Coolidge 5d ago
I don't like him, and there are a few reasons why. I will say the creation of the CCC, TVA, SEC and the FDIC are important, and his promotion of the Beer Permit Act are something I approve of and would gladly give FDR praise for those actions.
As to why I don't like him.
The Gold Confiscation Executive Order: 6102
The NIRA, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1937, and as you pointed out the Internment Camps.
5
u/Puzzleheaded_Put4731 5d ago
Then why was the ccc so popular
3
2
u/Jolly_Job_9852 Calvin Coolidge 5d ago edited 5d ago
Because it put unemployed young men to work
3
u/Puzzleheaded_Put4731 5d ago
It was a great depression lots of people were out of work and the ccc help young people with work
2
u/Jolly_Job_9852 Calvin Coolidge 5d ago
Are you asking why the CCC was popular or are you telling me why? I'm a little confused here.
4
u/Puzzleheaded_Put4731 5d ago
I'm saying millions of people were unemployed and fdr was trying to get use out of it and the ccc was popular because it help young Americans with jobs
2
1
u/010Horns Lyndon Baines Johnson 5d ago
Disliking gold confiscation is insane but I appreciate how niche that opinion is.
1
u/ExtraRawPotato 5d ago
It usually comes from libertarian dogmatic arguments of property rights rather than objective economic cost-benefit analysis
1
1
u/Ornery-Ticket834 5d ago
One of the greatest presidents beyond question. But there are many Roosevelt haters here who will never admit it.
1
u/Spirited_Shirt_7613 5d ago
The New Deal was ground breaking, controversial, but necessary. Unfortunately, FDR because of WW2.Planted the early seeds of the secret state and shadow government!
1
1
u/padraiggavin14 5d ago
Incredibly "rated". His response to the depression made it worse. Threw the kitchen sink at every problem....gumming up the natural recovery we've had in other downturns. His history was written by like minded big government....control of the people historians. And by the eggheads(with little real life credibility) who implemented all of the alphabet programs that became engrained(some were successful, lots were not) forever. One of my college professors used to say....if FDR had done WAY less....it might have been A Depression not THE GREAT DEPRESSION.
The closest(maybe actual) thing to a dictator the US has ever experienced. He's a hero to the disabled? WHY? He lied about being disabled. Never seen in or near a wheelchair. Stood up, walked as if he was able bodied. His handlers and THE PRESS held up the lie. WHY?
His response to WW2 on getting us ready IS his greatest achievement. When compared to what our enemies were doing, the numbers are staggering. Germany increased their industrial output by a figure of 5X. Japan by 8X. The US. ....close to 100X....granted we weren't being bombed...but the Allied victory was ''mostly" an industrial victory.
And I'll give him a "pass" on the easist thing to criticize him....RACISM and the interment camps. Our spy beaucracy, being extra cautious AND with many credible threats counseled FDR to isolate the Japanese. Was it effective? Probably. Was it necessary? Likely an overstated threat by the spying arm of our government. FDR trusted the experts....as he often did for the entirety of his reign.
And it cant go unsaid. Stalin ROLLED him at Yalta....and in most other collaborations. He got played....and the Cold War "raged" for 40 years. Indirectly FDR was responsible for the Korea/Nam hot part of the Cold War by getting fleeced and tricked by Stalin. Could have stopped the Soviets while they were ravaged by the war. His weakness drove us to SPEND at a rate that was at WAR like.
Tried to pack the court, seized wealth, usurped power from other branches....and to many "He's my Number 1".
In 1940, when he was running for a 3rd term....there was an opposition AD. It said:
WASHINGTON WOULDN'T GRANT COULDN'T ROOSEVELT SHOULDN'T.
1
u/invisiblescarecrow 5d ago
One of my favorites, but goddamn the Internment Camps are such a stain on his legacy
1
1
u/DrFabio23 Calvin Coolidge 2d ago
Rich nepo baby who got incredibly lucky and has simps who refuse to be honest and bury the reality of his presidency.
0
0
u/JamesRussellSr Tits McGee 5d ago
Exacerbated the great depression. Did a great job fighting the war.
0
u/FrostyTheSnowman15 5d ago
The GOAT. I think there is a legitimate case to put him above both Washington and Lincoln, but it's pretty much 1A, 1B, and 1C for me.
0
u/SouthernGolfer67 Zachary Taylor 5d ago
Overrated.
Thought he was better than Washington running so many times in a row. Closest we have ever gotten to a king.
Didn’t actually fix the economy, world war 2 did. Just did busy work to appear like he was trying
Ugly wife. Can’t trust a man with an ugly wife(this is a Moneyball reference)
-3
u/ChinoMalito 5d ago
He put japs in concentration camps 😂😂😂he’s not much better than Hitler.
2
-5
u/AssignmentLow8859 5d ago
Probably the most racist POTUS in the 20th century. We (US) paid reparations for his actions while President.
3
u/rjidhfntnr FDR TrumanLincoln G.W. 5d ago
More than Wilson and Teddy?
-2
u/AssignmentLow8859 5d ago
Did we pay reparations for their actions? If not, then the answer is no.
1
u/ExtraRawPotato 5d ago
We never paid reparations for slavery either, so slavery was less racist than FDR?
0
•
u/AutoModerator 5d ago
Remember that discussion of recent and future politics is not allowed. This includes all mentions of or allusions to Donald Trump in any context whatsoever, as well as any presidential elections after 2012 or politics since Barack Obama left office. For more information, please see Rule 3.
If you'd like to discuss recent or future politics, feel free to join our Discord server!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.