FDR and the Devil

[Xargos]

Got this e-mail, sorry if it's already been posted.

A stranger stood at the gate of Hell

And the Devil himself had answered the bell

He looked him over from head to toe

And said “My friend, I’d like to know

What you have done in the line of sin

To entitle you to come within?”

Then Franklin D. with his usual guile

Stepped forth and flashed his toothy smile.

“When I took over in ’33,

A nation’s faith was mine”, said he

“I promised this and I promised that,

And I calmed them down with a fireside chat.

I spent their money on fishing trips

And I fished from the decks of their battleships.

I gave them jobs on the WPA

Then raised their taxes and took it away.

I raised their wages – then closed their shops,

I killed their pigs and buried their crops.

I double-crossed both young and old

And still the folks my praises told.

I brought back beer and what do you think?

I taxed it so high they couldn’t drink.

I furnished money with good loans

When they missed a payment I took their homes.

When I wanted to punish people, you know,

I put my wife on the radio.

I paid them to let their farms lie still

And imported foodstuffs from Brazil.

And curtailed crops when I felt mean

And shipped in corn from the Argentine.

When they started to worry, stew and fret,

I’d get them to chanting the alphabet.

With the AAA and the NLB

The WPA and the CCC.

With these many units I got their goats

And still I crammed it down their throats

While the taxpayers chewed their fingernails.

When the organizers needed dough

I signed up plants for the CIO.

I ruined their jobs and I ruined their health

And I put the screws on the rich man’s wealth.

And some who couldn’t stand the gaff

Would call me up and how I’d laugh!

When they got too hot on certain things

I’d pack up and head for Warm Springs.

I ruined their country, their homes, and then

Laid the blame on the ‘nine old men’.”

Now Franklin talked both long and loud

And the Devil stood with his head bowed.

At last he said “Let’s make it clear,

You’ll have to move, you can’t stay here.

For once you’ve mingled with this mob

I’ll have to hunt myself a job.”

[storch]

the communist bastige was easily the worst president the US has ever had.

[lazs2]

maybe... but at least he had an excuse.. he was pure evil but it was dire times and some good came from it...  not near enough to offset the evil but...some good.

LBJ tho... he was the ultimate commie evil pres... worst ever.  No excuse for what he did to the constitution and the country.

lazs

[lasersailor184]

The country is still suffering from what FDR did.

[lazs2]

The country is still suffering from what Lincoln did too but..  the real hammer blows for no good reason all came from LBJ and the "great society".

lazs

[Yeager]

I honestly do not know enough about the three terms of the FDR Presidency to say for certain, in my mind, one way or the other as to whether he was a good leader or a poor leader, but I am quite sure that for four terrible years he was considered by most free people in the world as the single most inspiring human being alive.  That ought to be worth something to consider when viewing the man as a destructive and negative force in american history.

[JBA]

the damage LBJ did,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Society

[lasersailor184]

Originally posted by Yeager
I honestly do not know enough about the three terms of the FDR Presidency to say for certain, in my mind, one way or the other as to whether he was a good leader or a poor leader, but I am quite sure that for four terrible years he was considered by most free people in the world as the single most inspiring human being alive.  That ought to be worth something to consider when viewing the man as a destructive and negative force in american history.

The same could be said about Hitler.  That doesn't mean he should be considered as a good president.

[Yeager]

"but I am quite sure that for four terrible years he was considered by most free people in the world as the single most inspiring human being alive."

The same could be said about Hitler. That doesn't mean he should be considered as a good president.
====

[Boroda]

It's hard to believe that so many people hate the greatest leader that their country ever had.

I say it not only because he was a member of the Great Three and was probably much closed as an "ally" then sir Winston, but because of what he did with the US after the depression. We badly need such a leader now. In the 30s JVS didn't have time, now it looks like we don't have to hurry, so we need FDR. Damn, JVS will be better then the current regime in Russia, anyone can be better, anyone who does something!

[john9001]

Originally posted by Boroda
It's hard to believe that so many people hate the greatest leader that their country ever had.
 

you think he was great because he gave the USSR eastern europe.

[Yeager]

because he gave the USSR eastern europe.
====
FDR could not have given them what he did not own as his own.  If you want to play "pin the blame on the donkey" you could just as easily blame Truman.  Fact is that the USSR had just lost 20 million people to Hitlers european invasion (ww2), and had previously lost several million to an earlier european invasion (ww1), and had been invaded by europe on several earlier occassions.......(Napolean to name one).  The USSR finally had the military muscle to build a "NO MORE INVASION" fence.......I cant say that I blame them.  Europe had caused Russia tremendous grief and they finally had the strength to say "enough of that invasion crap already".

Try to think outside the box man, no one person has the market on reality cornered.  There are other larger perspectives available to the mind that seeks a greater knowledge.

[lasersailor184]

It's not surprising that a communist thinks a socialist president was the greatest we ever had.

[Boroda]

Originally posted by lasersailor184
It's not surprising that a communist thinks a socialist president was the greatest we ever had.

Who's communist?

If I said in another thread that I'll vote for Communists doesn't make me a Communist myself.

Seriously, I first learned that there are  Americans hating FDR when I read Heinlein's books. But I never saw anyone giving an alternative to what FDR have done. Even pushing the US into War turned out to be a decision that finally made the US a first-class player in global politics and one of the two greatest powers on the planet at that time.

[Wotan]

Originally posted by storch
the communist bastige was easily the worst president the US has ever had.

Absolute truth - Lincoln, FDR and Johnson are all up there as the worst.