Is FDR Dead... In The Current Democratic Party... Because if It Is...

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45. It died because FDR wasn't Progressive enough

And just like today, since some on the left didn't get everything on their liberal "wish-list", we've pushed progress back another generation.

Let me say up front that I consider FDR our greatest President.

But I also don’t think that folks comprehend that he was NOT a flaming Liberal. Most Progressive President of the past 100 years? Sure, but President Obama would give him a run for the money on that title.

Below are a few policies that FDR supported and pushed for. Try to imagine, if you will, how some on DU would react to these issues, and you’ll get an idea of my point.

Bottom line is that I firmly believe that if DU existed under FDR’s time, we would have DUer’s consistently questioning his liberal bonafides, and quite possibly, saying the same shit that they say today;

- “On the Eve of the Election, explain why we should support FDR”

- “Let me get this straight” – FDR did something, or said something I don’t approve of

- “Hoover more Progressive than FDR”

And on and on….

Just try to imagine the vitriol we would see on DU regarding just a few of the things FDR did. (Source is Wikipedia)

- In March 1917, after Germany initiated its submarine warfare campaign, Roosevelt asked Wilson for permission, which was denied, to fit the naval fleet out for war. He became an enthusiastic advocate of the submarine and of means to combat the German submarine menace to Allied shipping: he proposed building a mine barrier across the North Sea from Norway to Scotland. In 1918, he visited Scotland, England, Wales, and France to inspect American naval facilities. Roosevelt wanted to provide arms to the merchant marine; knowing that a sale of arms was prohibited, he asked Wilson for approval to lease the arms to the mariners. Wilson ultimately approved this by executive order, and a precedent was set for Roosevelt to take similar action in 1940.

- Roosevelt needed the support of Southern Democrats for his New Deal programs, and he therefore decided not to push for anti-lynching legislation that could not pass and might threaten his ability to pass his highest priority programs

- Roosevelt campaigned on the Democratic platform advocating "immediate and drastic reductions of all public expenditures," "abolishing useless commissions and offices, consolidating departments and bureaus, and eliminating extravagances" and for a "sound currency to be maintained at all hazards."

- Roosevelt expanded a Hoover agency, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, making it a major source of financing for railroads and industry. Roosevelt made agricultural relief a high priority and set up the first Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA). The AAA tried to force higher prices for commodities by paying farmers to take land out of crops and to cut herds.

- Roosevelt tried to keep his campaign promise by cutting the federal budget – including a reduction in military spending from $752 million in 1932 to $531 million in 1934 and a 40% cut in spending on veterans' benefits – by removing 500,000 veterans and widows from the pension rolls and reducing benefits for the remainder, as well as cutting the salaries of federal employees and reducing spending on research and education.

- Enemy aliens and people of Japanese ancestry fared badly. On February 19, 1942, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 that applied to everyone classified as an "enemy alien", including people who had dual citizenship living in designated high-risk areas that covered most of the cities on the West Coast. With the U.S. at war with Italy, some 600,000 Italian aliens (citizens of Italy who did not have U.S. citizenship) were subjected to strict travel restrictions; the restrictions were lifted in October 1942. Some 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were forced to leave the West Coast. From 1942 to 1945, they lived in internment camps inland. Those outside the West Coast, and in Hawaii, were not affected.

- Roosevelt stressed both his proven leadership experience and his intention to do everything possible to keep the United States out of war. In one of his speeches he declared to potential recruits that "you boys are not going to be sent into any foreign war”.

AND HOW WAS FDR REWARDED?

In the November 1938 election, Democrats lost six Senate seats and 71 House seats. Losses were concentrated among pro-New Deal Democrats. When Congress reconvened in 1939, Republicans under Senator Taft formed a Conservative coalition with Southern Democrats, virtually ending Roosevelt's ability to get his domestic proposals enacted into law. The minimum wage law of 1938 was the last substantial New Deal reform act passed by Congress. Following the autumn Congressional elections in 1938, Congress was now dominated by conservatives, many of whom feared that Roosevelt was "aiming at a dictatorship," according to the historian Hugh Brogan. In addition, as noted by another historian, after the 1938 election increased the strength of Republicans,

“conservative Democrats held the balance of power between liberals and Republicans, and they used it to prevent completion of the structure of the Second New Deal.”

See, even the great FDR was not “progressive” enough for some, and just like today, the reins of power were turned over to the 1938 equivalent of the Tea Baggers.