Obama is better than any Republican, but the comparisons with FDR were grossly exaggerated

[Becky72]

Because:

-When Roosevelt asked Congress to establish the Tennessee Valley Authority to provide cheap electric power for the impoverished South, he did not consult with utility giants like Commonwealth and Southern.

-When he asked for the creation of a Securities and Exchange Commission to curb the excesses of Wall Street, he did not request the cooperation of those about to be regulated.

-When Congress passed the Glass-Steagall Act divesting investment houses of their commercial banking functions, the Democrats did not need the approval of J. P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs or Lehman Brothers.

-Social Security became law over the ideological objections of those who believed that government was best which governed least and that individuals should fend for themselves or rely on charity. And the authority of the government to set maximum hours and minimum wages, as well as the right of labor to bargain collectively, was established despite the vociferous opposition of American business.

-Roosevelt relished the opposition of vested interests. He fashioned his governing majority by deliberately attacking those who favored the status quo. His opponents hated him — and he profited from their hatred. “Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today,” he told a national radio audience on the eve of the 1936 election. “They are unanimous in their hatred for me — and I welcome their hatred.”

-Roosevelt sought consensus among his fellow Democrats, which is why he sometimes kowtowed to the Southern oligarchs who were the chairmen of Congressional committees. But his Republican opponents were relegated to the political equivalent of Siberia.

-For Roosevelt was a divider, not a uniter, and he unabashedly waged class war.At the Democratic Convention in 1936, again speaking to a national radio audience, Roosevelt lambasted the “economic royalists” who had gained control of the nation’s wealth. To Congress he boasted of having “earned the hatred of entrenched greed.” In another speech he mocked “the gentlemen in well-warmed and well-stocked clubs” who criticized the government’s relief efforts.

[polichick]

1. Agreed - FDR had political courage and that's what many of us hoped...

...we were voting for.

[DrDan]

2. think you have a typo - don't you mean "oligarh"?

[slay]

3. Great post Becky72

Argh I wish Obama was the strong bold leader for change we NEED right now - but it appears he is not. I'd love for him to prove me wrong, but these little things like FACTS that you listed seem, at least in the world of reality, to show otherwise. K&R.

[quantass]

4. Wow this guy sounded AMAZING! Yea this is what i was "Hoping" for too!

FDR sounds like a true champion of the people...Very classic figure!

[Captain Hilts]

12. After polio, he realized that if he hadn't been born wealthy he and family would be SOL...

and when he went to Georgia for rehab he saw rural poverty at its ugliest.

As Eleanor put it, even without the polio he would have become president, but a different kind of president.

[dolphindance]

5. So you WANT Obama to divide us. Nice going there. Unrecced (n/t)

[Jennicut]

6. I never compared him to FDR...how can anyone be as great as FDR?

Or Lincoln, or Teddy Roosevelt,etc.?

I think most politicians want to be their own person and not be compared to anyone else. However, he should follow FDR's example of telling the Rethugs to shove it.

[Teaser]

7. Roosevelt did not "unabashedly wage class war."

He just didn't. He was trying to implement the minimum necessary social change in America to prevent a communist revolution. That's what he was afraid of, and it is what drove him to implement the reforms that he did.

[Captain Hilts]

10. The shift in wealth he instigated was pretty massive in the long run. nt

[phleshdef]

8. Obama isn't FDR or Johnson or any other President. Obama is Obama.

He has his own set of problems, his own people in the Senate to deal with, his own America to deal with. People put way too much stock in what a President alone actually gets done.

[Captain Hilts]

9. EXACTLY!

[Jennicut]

13. No one President is like the other....how can they be when they grew up in different

eras and with different circumstances?

[phleshdef]

15. Yea and really the only comparison that makes any contextual sense would be Clinton...

...and there are holes in that one too.

[Jennicut]

17. And Clinton was a baby boomer, white, and from the South

[AuntPatsy]

16. Good post and it deserves it's own thread..feel free please to begin one..

[Captain Hilts]

11. FDR's reforms dispersed economic power, Obama's reinforced existing power structures.

So, that is an important difference. It's still too early to know if prez Obama took the right track. I'm not sure either way.

FDR also had some true progressives around him: Eleanor, Harry Hopkins, Harold Ickes, Henry Wallace, Frances Perkins.

[Thrill]

14. Obama hasn't shown a willingness to be a strong tough leader

On some very big issues. I'm concerned about that. He doesn't have to be FDR. But be strong and tough. Take a strong stance and stand by it.

[AuntPatsy]

18. Yeppers, darn it....wish he could be more like ole bushy there who couldn't give two shits what

anyone else thought be they a simple citizen or a ranking member of his own party...sure, we need more like him ....


:freak:

[liberalpragmatist]

19. FDR governed in extremely different circumstances

As bad as our current economic climate is, it pales in comparison with the Great Depression.

The Republicans were also nearly wiped out; in 1933-1935 (first half of FDR's first term), the breakdown in the House was 313 Democrats, 5 Farmer-Labor (MN), and just 117 Republicans. In the Senate, the breakdown was 60 Dems, 1 Farmer-Labor, and 35 Republicans.

In 1935-1937 (second half of FDR's first term), the majorities were even greater: In the Senate, 69 Democrats, 1 Progressive, 2 Farmer-Labor, and just 25 Republicans. In the House, there were just 103 Republicans, compared with 322 Democrats, 7 Progressives, and 3 Farmer-Labor members.

FDR's original version of Social Security was also very skimpy. And FDR never tackled universal health care or civil rights because of opposition in Congress.

And while FDR's class warfare rhetoric is noteworthy, they came in 1936, in his reelection bid. In reality, his accomplishments in his second term were very minor. The New Deal stalled in his second term, despite Roosevelt's energetic rhetoric. Almost all the significant New Deal legislation came in his first term.

[ej510]

20. Unless he makes some serious changes he will be known as a corporate President.

It sucks. I donated and worked for his campaign. In reality I knew what he was, but hoped for something different.