Roosevelt in 1933
THE PROGRESSIVE ERA'S LEGACY: FDR'S NEW DEAL
The Progressive era in American politics formally lasted
from the 1890s until the 1920s. But its legacy continued thereafter, permeating
the philosophy and the policies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), who was
first elected President in 1932, while the U.S. was mired in an economic
depression. FDR campaigned, successfully, on a pledge to re-create the war
socialism of the Wilson administration, a goal that was wildly popular with the
liberal establishment of Roosevelt's day.
Once FDR had been elected, progressive-minded newspaper editorial boards, politicians, and pundits exhorted him to become a “dictator.” The revered reporter and political commentator Walter Lippmann, for instance, told Roosevelt in a private meeting: “The [economic] situation is critical, Franklin. You may have no alternative but to assume dictatorial powers.” Similarly, Eleanor Roosevelt mused that America might need the leadership of a “benevolent dictator.”
In FDR's day, the term “dictator” did not carry the negative connotations with which it is currently freighted; rather, it signified the idea that a political "general" or "commander" was needed to take charge of the battle against the economic depression in a manner similar to how Woodrow Wilson and the progressives had fought World War I.
FDR chose to attack the depression with his so-called New Deal, a series of economic programs passed during his first term in office. These programs greatly expanded the size, scope, and power of the federal government, giving the President and his Brain Trust near-dictatorial status. “I want to assure you,” Roosevelt's aide Harry Hopkins told an audience of New Deal activists in New York, “that we are not afraid of exploring anything within the law, and we have a lawyer who will declare anything you want to do legal.”
“The New Deal,” writes Jonah Goldberg, “was conceived at the climax of a worldwide fascist moment, a moment when socialists in many countries were increasingly becoming nationalists and nationalists could embrace nothing other than socialism.”
Many of Roosevelt's ideas and policies were entirely indistinguishable from the fascism of Mussolini. In fact, writes Goldberg, there were “many common features among New Deal liberalism, Italian Fascism, and German National Socialism, all of which shared many of the same historical and intellectual forebears.” Like American progressives, many Italian Fascist and German Nazi intellectuals championed a “middle” or “Third Way” between capitalism and socialism. Goldberg explains:
Once FDR had been elected, progressive-minded newspaper editorial boards, politicians, and pundits exhorted him to become a “dictator.” The revered reporter and political commentator Walter Lippmann, for instance, told Roosevelt in a private meeting: “The [economic] situation is critical, Franklin. You may have no alternative but to assume dictatorial powers.” Similarly, Eleanor Roosevelt mused that America might need the leadership of a “benevolent dictator.”
In FDR's day, the term “dictator” did not carry the negative connotations with which it is currently freighted; rather, it signified the idea that a political "general" or "commander" was needed to take charge of the battle against the economic depression in a manner similar to how Woodrow Wilson and the progressives had fought World War I.
FDR chose to attack the depression with his so-called New Deal, a series of economic programs passed during his first term in office. These programs greatly expanded the size, scope, and power of the federal government, giving the President and his Brain Trust near-dictatorial status. “I want to assure you,” Roosevelt's aide Harry Hopkins told an audience of New Deal activists in New York, “that we are not afraid of exploring anything within the law, and we have a lawyer who will declare anything you want to do legal.”
“The New Deal,” writes Jonah Goldberg, “was conceived at the climax of a worldwide fascist moment, a moment when socialists in many countries were increasingly becoming nationalists and nationalists could embrace nothing other than socialism.”
Many of Roosevelt's ideas and policies were entirely indistinguishable from the fascism of Mussolini. In fact, writes Goldberg, there were “many common features among New Deal liberalism, Italian Fascism, and German National Socialism, all of which shared many of the same historical and intellectual forebears.” Like American progressives, many Italian Fascist and German Nazi intellectuals championed a “middle” or “Third Way” between capitalism and socialism. Goldberg explains:
“The 'middle way' sounds moderate and un-radical. Its
appeal is that it sounds unideological and freethinking. But philosophically
the Third Way is not mere difference splitting; it is utopian and
authoritarian. Its utopian aspect becomes manifest in its antagonism to the
idea that politics is about trade-offs. The Third Wayer says that there are no
false choices—'I refuse to accept that X should come at the expense of Y.' The
Third Way holds that we can have capitalism and socialism, individual liberty
and absolute unity.”
The German and American New Deals -- i.e., fascism
and progressivism -- also shared the bedrock belief that the state should
be permitted to do whatever it wished, so long as it was for “good
reasons.” Chief among those "good reasons" was the idea that
government's purpose was to protect the interests of "the forgotten
man," on whose behalf both FDR and Hitler were proficient at projecting
deep concern.
Conversely, FDR, Hitler, and Mussolini alike made many populist appeals designed to spark resentment against so-caled “fat cats,” “international bankers,” and “economic royalists.” Such appeals were, and remain, the tools of the trade for demagogues. (As recently as December 2009, for instance, President Barack Obama said: “I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street.”)
Roosevelt used the FBI and other government agencies to spy on domestic critics. He also authorized the use of the American Legion to assist the FBI in monitoring American citizens.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was perhaps the most popular program of the New Deal, mobilizing some 2.5 million young men to work mostly as a “forestry army,” performing such tasks as clearing dead wood. In both substance and style, the CCC was essentially a paramilitary organization. Jonah Goldberg writes:
Conversely, FDR, Hitler, and Mussolini alike made many populist appeals designed to spark resentment against so-caled “fat cats,” “international bankers,” and “economic royalists.” Such appeals were, and remain, the tools of the trade for demagogues. (As recently as December 2009, for instance, President Barack Obama said: “I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street.”)
Roosevelt used the FBI and other government agencies to spy on domestic critics. He also authorized the use of the American Legion to assist the FBI in monitoring American citizens.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was perhaps the most popular program of the New Deal, mobilizing some 2.5 million young men to work mostly as a “forestry army,” performing such tasks as clearing dead wood. In both substance and style, the CCC was essentially a paramilitary organization. Jonah Goldberg writes:
“Enlistees met at army recruiting stations; wore World
War I uniforms; were transported around the country by troop trains; answered
to army sergeants; were required to stand at attention, march in formation,
employ military lingo...; read a CCC newspaper modeled on Stars and Stripes;
went to bed in army tents listening to taps; and woke to reveille.”
While FDR justified these camps as useful vehicles
for getting youth “off the city street corners,” their primary
purpose was to expand the public sector. At the very same time,
the Nazis were busy establishing similar camps that Hitler said would
keep young people from “rotting helplessly in the streets.” A secondary
objective of the camps -- both in the U.S. and Germany -- was to transcend
class barriers and promote a sense of collective unity and duty.
Roosevelt also instituted the National Recovery Administration (NRA), which was led by Hugh “Iron Pants” Johnson, a passionate disciple of fascism who personally distributed innumerable copies of the openly fascist tract, The Corporate State (authored by Raffaello Viglione, one of Mussolini’s favorite economists). Under Johnson's leadership, the NRA imposed hundreds of onerous codes on businesses -- mandating industry collusion and price-fixing that virtually eliminated competition and the free market. Threatening that Americans who failed to cooperate with the NRA's dictates would get a “sock in the nose,” Johnson emphasized that the Roosevelt administration's war on the depression was “lethal and more menacing than any other crisis in our history.”
The NRA established a stylized Blue Eagle as the patriotic symbol of compliance that all American business establishments were expected to hang from their doors, along with the motto “We do our part” -- a phrase used by the Roosevelt administration the way the Germans used “Gemeinnutz geht vor Eigennutz” (“Public need before private greed”). American and German newspapers alike often noted the similarities between the Blue Eagle, which clutched a band of lightning bolts in one claw and an industrial cogwheel in the other, to the swastika or the German Reich eagle.
Johnson and the NRA dispatched a large army of informants, represented by such diverse constituencies as union members and Boy Scouts, to monitor compliance with the Blue Eagle program in neighborhoods across the United States. “When every American housewife understands that the Blue Eagle on everything that she permits to come into her home is a symbol of its restoration to security, may God have mercy on the man or group of men who attempt to trifle with this bird,” Johnson said.
To further promote voluntary compliance with the Blue Eagle program, Johnson organized many military parades and Nuremberg-style rallies, where marchers donned the uniforms of their respective occupations.
The fascist mindset underlying the NRA's authoritarian mandates was confirmed in the results of a study commissioned by the NRA's own Research and Planning Division. Titled "Capitalism and Labor Under Fascism," it concluded: “The fascist principles are very similar to those which have been evolving in America and so are of particular interest at this time.”
In the early 1930s, both Mussolini and Hitler were very much aware of the similarities between their own programs and those of FDR:
Roosevelt also instituted the National Recovery Administration (NRA), which was led by Hugh “Iron Pants” Johnson, a passionate disciple of fascism who personally distributed innumerable copies of the openly fascist tract, The Corporate State (authored by Raffaello Viglione, one of Mussolini’s favorite economists). Under Johnson's leadership, the NRA imposed hundreds of onerous codes on businesses -- mandating industry collusion and price-fixing that virtually eliminated competition and the free market. Threatening that Americans who failed to cooperate with the NRA's dictates would get a “sock in the nose,” Johnson emphasized that the Roosevelt administration's war on the depression was “lethal and more menacing than any other crisis in our history.”
The NRA established a stylized Blue Eagle as the patriotic symbol of compliance that all American business establishments were expected to hang from their doors, along with the motto “We do our part” -- a phrase used by the Roosevelt administration the way the Germans used “Gemeinnutz geht vor Eigennutz” (“Public need before private greed”). American and German newspapers alike often noted the similarities between the Blue Eagle, which clutched a band of lightning bolts in one claw and an industrial cogwheel in the other, to the swastika or the German Reich eagle.
Johnson and the NRA dispatched a large army of informants, represented by such diverse constituencies as union members and Boy Scouts, to monitor compliance with the Blue Eagle program in neighborhoods across the United States. “When every American housewife understands that the Blue Eagle on everything that she permits to come into her home is a symbol of its restoration to security, may God have mercy on the man or group of men who attempt to trifle with this bird,” Johnson said.
To further promote voluntary compliance with the Blue Eagle program, Johnson organized many military parades and Nuremberg-style rallies, where marchers donned the uniforms of their respective occupations.
The fascist mindset underlying the NRA's authoritarian mandates was confirmed in the results of a study commissioned by the NRA's own Research and Planning Division. Titled "Capitalism and Labor Under Fascism," it concluded: “The fascist principles are very similar to those which have been evolving in America and so are of particular interest at this time.”
In the early 1930s, both Mussolini and Hitler were very much aware of the similarities between their own programs and those of FDR:
·
Both dictators celebrated the New Deal as
an initiative that was compatible with their own economic philosophy.
·
In 1934 the Nazi Party’s official newspaper
depicted President Roosevelt as a man of “irreproachable, extremely responsible
character and immovable will,” and as a “warmhearted leader of the people
with a profound understanding of social needs.”
·
The Nazi Party paper also lauded the New Deal
for having eliminated “the uninhibited frenzy of market speculation” by
adopting “National Socialist strains of thought,” and it noted that
"many passages in [FDR's] book Looking Forward could have been
written by a National Socialist." "In any case," said the
publication, "one can assume that he [Roosevelt] feels considerable
affinity with the National Socialist philosophy."
·
After FDR had been in office for a year, Hitler
himself sent Roosevelt a private letter congratulating “his heroic efforts in
the interests of the American people.” “The President’s successful battle
against economic distress is being followed by the entire German people with
interest and admiration,” wrote the German fuehrer.
·
Mussolini, for his part, praised FDR for
recognizing that the American economy could not “be left to its own devices.”
“Without question, the mood accompanying this sea change [i.e., FDR's policies]
resembles that of Fascism,” Mussolini wrote.
·
In an interview with the German biographer Emil
Ludwig, Mussolini made plain his view that “America has a dictator” in FDR.
·
In an essay written for American audiences,
Mussolini observed admiringly that FDR was bringing “spiritual renewal” and
destroying the anachronistic notion that democracy and liberalism were
“immortal principles.” Added Mussolini: “America itself is abandoning [these
principles]. Roosevelt is moving, acting, giving orders independently of the
decisions or wishes of the Senate or Congress. There are no longer
intermediaries between him and the nation. There is no longer a parliament but
an ‘état majeur.’ There are no longer parties, but a single party. A sole will
silences dissenting voices.”
Mussolini's admiration for FDR was reciprocated in
full measure. In a letter to Breckinridge Long, his ambassador to Italy,
Roosevelt made reference to “that admirable Italian gentleman” who “is really
interested in what we are doing.” “I am much interested and deeply impressed by
what he has accomplished,” said Roosevelt.
Soon after having taken his second Oath of Office in January 1937, President Roosevelt, in a conversation with a speechwriter, articulated his belief that the limits on governmental power that were enshrined in the U.S. Constitution were impediments to the transformative social and economic policies he wished to implement:
Soon after having taken his second Oath of Office in January 1937, President Roosevelt, in a conversation with a speechwriter, articulated his belief that the limits on governmental power that were enshrined in the U.S. Constitution were impediments to the transformative social and economic policies he wished to implement:
"When the chief justice read me the oath and came to
the words 'support the Constitution of the United States,' I felt like saying:
'Yes, but it's the Constitution as I understand it, flexible enough to meet any
new problem of democracy -- not the kind of Constitution your court has raised
up as a barrier to progress and democracy.'"
It was not until the late 1940s, when classical
liberalism was revived by Friedrich Hayek, that a cohernt, articulate
opposition to big-government collectivism was mounted in the United States and
Europe.
Barack Obama
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP, and Madelyn Payne Dunham
was his maternal grandmother.
Note: R. Eden Martin is
counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and
the president of the Commercial Club of
Chicago.
Newton N. Minow
is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and a senior counsel at Sidley Austin
LLP.
Michelle Obama
was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP,
and an advocate for the ONE Campaign.
Susan
McCue was the founding president & CEO for the ONE Campaign, Harry Reid’s
chief of staff, and is a trustee at the Third
Way.
ONE Campaign is
a partner with the International Rescue
Committee.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the International Rescue Committee, the Committee for Economic Development, Economic Policy Institute, the Roosevelt
Institute, the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace (think tank), and the Aspen Institute (think tank).
George
Soros is the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society, and is Jonathan
Soros’s father.
Georgette F.
Bennett is an overseer at the International
Rescue Committee, and a trustee at the Third
Way.
Reynold
Levy is an overseer at the International
Rescue Committee, and was a trustee at the Third Way.
William M. Daley
is a trustee at the Third Way, a
member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, was the chief of staff for the Barack Obama administration, and a
director at the Boeing Company.
Madelyn Payne
Dunham was an aircraft inspector for the Boeing Company, and Barack
Obama’s maternal grandmother.
Barbara G. Fast
was a VP at the Boeing Company, and
a VP for the CGI Group Inc.
CGI Group Inc.
was the Obamacare contractor that
developed Healthcare.gov web site.
Obamacare
is Barack Obama’s signature policy
initiative.
Donna S. Morea
was the EVP for the CGI Group Inc.,
and a trustee at the Committee for
Economic Development.
James S. Turley
is a trustee at the Committee for
Economic Development, a national executive board member, officer for the Boy Scouts of America, and was a member
of the President's Export Council.
W. James McNerney
Jr. is the chairman of the President's
Export Council, the chairman & president & CEO for the Boeing Company,
and a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago.
Philip M. Condit
was the chairman & CEO for the Boeing
Company, and is a national executive board member for the Boy Scouts of America.
Dennis H.
Chookaszian is a national executive board member for the Boy Scouts of America, and a member of
the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Robert M. Gates
is the president of the Boy Scouts of
America, and was the - defense secretary for the Barack Obama administration.
R. Thomas
Buffenbarger is an officer for the Boy
Scouts of America, and a director at the Economic Policy Institute.
National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is a paid for staff by the Economic Policy Institute.
Paul
Ryan is a member of the National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and a member & speaker
for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Rhonda Weingarten
is a director at the Economic Policy Institute,
and a director at the Eleanor Roosevelt
Legacy Committee.
Eleanor Roosevelt
was married to Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
the first lady for the Franklin Delano
Roosevelt administration, Franklin
Delano Roosevelt Jr’s mother, and Laura
Delano Roosevelt’s grandmother.
Franklin
Delano Roosevelt was married to Eleanor
Roosevelt, the president for the Franklin
Delano Roosevelt administration, Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Jr’s father, Laura Delano Roosevelt’s
grandfather, and attended the Yalta Conference.
Franklin
Delano Roosevelt Jr. was Eleanor
Roosevelt & Franklin Delano
Roosevelt’s son, and Laura Delano
Roosevelt’s father.
Laura Delano
Roosevelt is Eleanor Roosevelt & Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s
granddaughter, Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Jr’s daughter, and a governor for the Roosevelt
Institute.
Jonathan Soros is
a senior fellow at the Roosevelt
Institute, George Soros’s son,
and was a vice chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Roosevelt Institute, the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Alger
Hiss was the president of the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and attended the Yalta Conference with Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR).
Jessica Tuchman Mathews was the president of
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), is a
director at the Nuclear Threat
Initiative (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg
(think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace uncovered the plans for population control by involving the
United States
in war)
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think
tank) was a funder for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank).
Warren E. Buffett
is an adviser for the Nuclear Threat
Initiative (think tank), Howard G.
Buffett & Susan A. Buffett’s
father, and an advisory board member for the Everytown for Gun Safety.
Howard G. Buffett
is Warren E. Buffett’s son and a
director at the ONE Campaign.
Susan A. Buffett is Warren E. Buffett’s daughter, and a director at the ONE Campaign.
Michael R.
Bloomberg was an advocate for the ONE
Campaign, and is the founder of Everytown
for Gun Safety.
Everytown
for Gun Safety is a “Gun Safety, Gun
Control” group for guns.
Michelle Obama was an advocate for the ONE Campaign.
Susan
McCue was the founding president & CEO for the ONE Campaign, Harry Reid’s
chief of staff, and is a trustee at the Third
Way.
ONE Campaign is
a partner with the International Rescue
Committee.
Clifford S.
Asness is a director at the International
Rescue Committee, and supported same-sex
marriage in New York.
Daniel S. Loeb
supported same-sex marriage in New
York, and a trustee at the Third Way.
Bernard
and Irene Schwartz Foundation was a funder for the Third Way, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(think tank).
Alger
Hiss was the president of the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and attended the Yalta Conference with Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR).
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think
tank) was a funder for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank).
Ted
Turner is a co-chairman for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank), the founder of CNN, and the chairman for the United
Nations Foundation.
Hisashi Owada is a
director at the Nuclear Threat
Initiative (think tank), a director at the United Nations Foundation, and was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
Walter Isaacson
is the president & CEO for the Aspen
Institute (think tank), a director at the Bloomberg Family Foundation, and was the chairman & CEO for CNN.
Bloomberg
Family Foundation was a funder for the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
Michael R.
Bloomberg is the founder of the Bloomberg
Family Foundation, the founder of Everytown
for Gun Safety, and was an advocate for the ONE Campaign.
Everytown
for Gun Safety is a “Gun Safety, Gun
Control” group for guns.
Michelle Obama
was an advocate for the ONE Campaign.
Susan
McCue was the founding president & CEO for the ONE Campaign, Harry Reid’s
chief of staff, and is a trustee at the Third
Way.
William M. Daley
is a trustee at the Third Way, a
member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
was the chief of staff for the Barack
Obama administration, and a director at the Boeing Company.
Madelyn Payne
Dunham was an aircraft inspector for the Boeing Company, and Barack
Obama’s maternal grandmother.
Rozanne L. Ridgway
was a director at the Boeing Company,
and a U.S. ambassador for Germany.
John B. Emerson
is a U.S. ambassador for Germany,
and married to Kimberly Marteau Emerson.
Kimberly
Marteau Emerson is married to John
B. Emerson, and is a director at the Human
Rights Watch.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Human Rights Watch.
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Human Rights Watch, and was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, and
a benefactor for the Human Rights Watch.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Human Rights Watch, and the Roosevelt
Institute.
Gara LaMarche was
a VP & director of U.S. programs for the Open Society Foundations, an associate director for the Human Rights Watch, a director at the White House Project, and is a director
at the Roosevelt Institute.
Daisy
Khan was a director at the White
House Project, is an executive director for the American Society for Muslim Advancement, and a developer for Park51.
American
Society for Muslim Advancement is the sponsor for Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow.
Park51
Park51 (originally
named Cordoba House) was a
planned 13-story Islamic
community center in Lower
Manhattan. The majority of the
center was set aside for the general public to promote interfaith
dialogue. Plans for the center included a Muslim prayer space which, due to its
location two blocks from the World Trade Center site,[6][7]
has been widely and controversially referred to as the "Ground
Zero mosque",[8]
though numerous commentators disputed that characterization.[9][10]
As of August 2014, the owner proposes to build a three-story museum instead of
the original 13-story center.
Park51 would have replaced an
existing 1850s building of Italianate style that was damaged in the September 11 attacks. The design included a 500-seat auditorium, theater, a performing arts center, a fitness center,
a swimming pool, a basketball court, a childcare area, a bookstore, a culinary school,
an art studio, a food court, and a memorial to the victims of the September 11
attacks. It included a prayer space for the Muslim community to accommodate
1,000–2,000 people.
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