Was FDR a progressive?

[mandingo]

???

[storch]

FDR was a communist

[Holden McGroin]

a progressive what?

[DiabloTX]

Yes.


And no.

[FrodeMk3]

He sure as hell belonged to a breed of Democrat that's long since vanished from the government scene.

In that generation, the GOP and the Dem's seemed more closely aligned. Albeit, They did not have the same issues prior to WWII that we have today.

[Airscrew]

Originally posted by FrodeMk3
He sure as hell belonged to a breed of Democrat that's long since vanished from the government scene.

In that generation, the GOP and the Dem's seemed more closely aligned. Albeit, They did not have the same issues prior to WWII that we have today.

do you really think so?  the way I see it nothing really original has happened in American politics since about 1820
here's a little something from a history book

Vigilance committees rounded up radicals.  Attorney General Palmer raided immigrant neighborhoods and jailed about 4,000 aliens, some of whom he had deported on trumped up charges.  All of this went on for six months, from November 1919 until Spring of 1920.  Then, suddenly, people seemed to realize how foolishly they had been behaving ever since the war had begun.  Hysteria at last subsided.  The country appeared all at once to have grown tired of being stirred up by political leaders.    Harding, promising a return to "normalcy" (a word he coinned), seemed just the man to supply it.

and this about Harding

...But there were few such exceptions good or bad; most men in politics belonged to the group that a Republican senator described when he explained how Harding came to be his party's nominee in 1920.  "This year we had a lot of second-raters," he said.  "Harding is no world-beater.  But he's the best of the second-raters"

Harding's oratory, said Democrat William Gibbs McAdoo, gave "the impression of an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea; sometimes these meandering words would actually capture a straggling thought and bear it triumphantly, a prisoner in their midst, until it died of servitude and overwork."

[rpm]

Originally posted by storch
FDR was a communist

 

[Shuckins]

The policies of FDR's New Deal sprang directly from the Progressive movement, although modified somewhat because of the need to address the realities of the Great Depression.  

Teddy Roosevelt had given the Sherman Antitrust Act and the ICC real teeth, and thereby reined in the excesses of the great monopolies.  Labor unions gained his support as well.  FDR carried these a step further, regulating industrial practices and creating government programs in an attempt to provide work and relief for the unemployed.  

The difference between Roosevelts time and our own is that his administration reached across the aisles of government and employed many Republicans, and prominent business leaders as well, in the formulation of the New Deal.  

Such bipartisan cooperation is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

[lazs2]

fdr was one of the all time worst presidents...  He was a liberal socialist in the extreme..  calling him a commie was not that far off.

lazs

[lasersailor184]

FDR ruined america.  We still haven't recovered.  (Though to be fair, Lincoln got the wrecking ball going)

[Vudak]

Originally posted by lasersailor184
FDR ruined america.  We still haven't recovered.  (Though to be fair, Lincoln got the wrecking ball going)

"People don't eat in the long run.  People eat every day." - Harry Hopkins, responding to the whines of people like you at the time

[rpm]

Originally posted by lazs2
fdr was one of the all time worst presidents...  He was a liberal socialist in the extreme..  calling him a commie was not that far off.

lazs

Yeah, if it wasn't for FDR we'd all be homeless migrant workers speaking Japanese. Good call lazs.

[lasersailor184]

Originally posted by Vudak
"People don't eat in the long run.  People eat every day." - Harry Hopkins, responding to the whines of people like you at the time

It was FDR that initiated the "Social Solutions" we have right now that are crippling this country.

[Vudak]

Originally posted by lasersailor184
It was FDR that initiated the "Social Solutions" we have right now that are crippling this country.

And Harry Hopkins' reasoning is why he had to do that.  It's also why many, many of our elders absolutely adore FDR to no end.  My grandfather was born dirt poor, his family was living in a little shack made of broken down boxcars during the Depression.  He credited, rightly or wrongly, FDR with saving his life.  Up until his last breath, if you'd ask him about FDR, his eyes would light up.

Is there a single president of our lifetimes (we're about the same age) that you'll be able to say that about someday?  Do you even think it's possible that we'll ever see one?

I dunno.  FDR had a good little quote of his own (might not be verbatim, don't feel like looking it up):  "It is common sense to take a method and try it.  If it fails, admit it frankly and try another.  But above all, try something."

Were some of his policies shortsighted?  Sure.  But times were tough then.  You had to try something, and I'll give him credit for being a president who actually got off his butt and put in some effort trying to find solutions.  He might not have been immaculate, but you've got to give him credit for trying.

Besides, some of his "socialist" ideas like the CCC seem an awful lot more appealing today than straight up welfare.

[FrodeMk3]

You know, hindsight being 20/20 and all; You really have to judge the performance of American presidents, by the way they handle the problems they have at hand during their stint in office. Lincoln had the Civil war; FDR had the Great Depression, and JFK had the Cuban missile crisis. Now, there are numerous smaller things in the background that deserve scrutiny (Could FDR have done something sooner to curb Japanese and German expansionism?) But, what we find that we are asking ourselves is, What is the total sum of the man in whole? Take for example his predecessor, Herbert Hoover. Herbert Hoover was a republican, like Coolidge who came before him. Here's a link for some quick info on Hoover:

http://www.millercenter.virginia.edu/Ampres/essays/hoover/biography/9

Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover all got bad reps because alot of the things that contributed to the Great Depression have been attributed to them. However, what most people don't know, is that Hoover started up alot of social programs to try to help during the Depression. Most would argue that he really had no choice, that he would have faced impeachement had he not made any kind of relief effort. FDR instituted even more social programs to try to help the nation out. But, you will also notice in the link, that one thing is said. Our recovery from the Depression was not caused by any economic or social changes instituted by any president, but by the United States' entry into WWII.