FDR: A New Perspective

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) has had a wonderful reputation in the United States as one of the great Presidents.  He was the only one in history to serve more than two terms.  Indeed, FDR was a gifted leader, speaker, and a most charismatic and charming man.  He was an able war leader and deserves some praise and accolades.  I have a different view of FDR that I want to present here.  Below I will list some of the many flaws and damaging things that he did as president that cannot be ignored or swept away under the rug.

FDR was a liberal's liberal.  He was the first liberal president of the United States who, in many ways, transformed America - for the worse. An example:

• Economically, he was a follower of John Maynard Keynes, the British economist who was an advocate of big government spending.  FDR spent like a drunken sailor, through his failed New Deal.  He truly believed that big government spending was the fix for economic problems.  We now know that this was wrong.  Let's take the 1930s depression as an example.  Did all the government programs of FDR fix the economy?  In 1932, when he took office, the unemployment rate was 23.5%.  In 1939, after eight years of massive government spending the unemployment rate was still at 17%.  Do you call this an economic success?  The economy was revived after WWII when taxes were slashed by a Republican Congress, which among other things, reduced the highest income tax rate from the astronomical amount of 94% for earners of $200,000 and above, and other incentives for economic growth were passed by Congress, reversing FDR's failed New Deal policies.  Click here for a short essay on this.  Economically, FDR was a failure.

• How about Social Security?  Was that not a stroke of genius?  Well, no, it was not.  Let me ask you a question.  Can you live on what you make on Social Security?  Probably, 95% cannot and would be in deep poverty if they only had Social Security.  Let me give you a personal example.  I prepared for retirement by making private investments in an IRA and a 457 Plan from work.  Together, I invested less than $30,000.  These two investments now give me double the monthly income I get from Social Security.  Oh, you say, most people don't know how to invest.  It's not rocket science; all you need it the willingness to put money in investments that will produce on a regular basis throughout your working life.  I had zero training; I learned it myself.  Very easy.  If I had invested all I paid into Social Security in my 45+ years of working I'd have a multi-million dollar investment now.  Social Security has very limited benefits.

Now for the second part:  FDR's damaging legacy:

•   Government spending.  Because of the huge government spending legacy that he started we now have out of control government spending.  As of this writing the national debt is over 18 Trillion dollars.  In 1945, at the end of World War II, and after spending $296 Billion on the war, our national debt was $259 Billion.  Today, it's 18 Trillion dollars.  Click here for the history of our national debt.

• The internment of Japanese American and to a lesser extent Italian and German Americans.  What FDR did to loyal, good, if not the best, American citizens of Japanese ancestry is beyond forgiveness.  If you were a Japanese-American in 1942, you're life would be changed forever.  You would end up in a concentration camp, accused of crimes you never committed.  You never got your day in court, or your due process under the Constitution, you were arrested by FDR's government and imprisoned like a common criminal.  Many people lost all their property and never got it back.  Italian and German legal immigrants not born in America were labeled enemies of the state just for their ethnicity.  Many Italian and German Americans were rounded up and imprisoned for no reason at all.  Many lost their business and livelihood.  The Italian-American Mayor of San Francisco, Angelo Rossi was publicly humiliated by innuendo as a Mussolini follower, with zero evidence.  All untrue.  So was FDR a great man?  Depends on whom you ask.  To some he was, to others, and I'm one of these, I believe FDR did more harm than good.  Granted he was a gifted leader, but even tyrants such as Mussolini and Hitler were gifted leaders.  What was the fruit of their labor?  You will know them by their fruits.

The Rape of Japanese Americans in World War II

World War II stands out as an example of man's inhumanity to man as no conflict in human history.  There are too many to describe here but here are a few examples that stand out:  The murder of over six million Jews by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis; The Rape of Nan king, China by the Japanese Army; the Soviet Dictator,  Josef Stalin's  murder of over 1.2 million of his own citizens during the "Great Purge" of 1936-38.  In the siege of Stalingrad, the German Sixth Army was destroyed by the Russian Army and Hitler's refusal to see the futility of the operation.  When his Field Marshal, Friedrich Paulus, relayed the hopelessness of his situation Hitler refused to let him withdraw, thus leaving over 500, 000 soldiers to die, either in battle, from the brutal winter weather (many froze to death) or capture.  The Soviets captured over 100,000 German soldiers, all but 6,000 lived to return home.

In the United States, one of the most tragic and appalling act was the forced internment of over 100,000 Japanese Americans who lived on the West Coast of the United Sates.  After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt ordered the arrest and deportation, to what can only be described as concentration camps, of all American citizens or resident aliens of Japanese ancestry.  What makes this a most despicable act is the fact that this was done with no proof of any threat by these innocent people. No due process, no trial.  Their only crime was to be of Japanese ancestry.

Just imagine, if you will, you're an African-American, for instance,  the U.S. is attacked by an African country and all African-Americans are arrested and driven to prisons surrounded by soldiers. Would you say that this was a rational thing to do?

Did any Americans who were not Japanese complain?  There is no record of any demonstrations in support of the Japanese Americans.  In fact, a hysteria of hate toward the "Japs" was unleashed on innocent and loyal Americans.  Today, we're attacked by radical Muslims and the President will not even call them what they are:  terrorists.  This was the insanity of what President Roosevelt did.

Now, you might ask, how did the courts react to this insane act by President Roosevelt?  Good question.  Read the U.S. Supreme court case of Korematsu vs. The United States:  The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling sided with President Roosevelt.  This heinous act was "constitutional." 

Now, you might think that this act by an American President would diminish his status in history.  You would be wrong.  Roosevelt is still revered to this day as the ideal Democrat.  Some survivors of this era still call themselves "Roosevelt Democrats." Some even regard Franklin D. Roosevelt as one of the greatest presidents of all time. No one ever mentions the rape of the Japanese Americans by FDR whenever they speak of him.  Historical amnesia is rampant; especially among the left. It was not until 1988 when President Ronald Reagan apologized for this most heinous act.

To add insult to injury the Japanese Americans lost most of their property, personal and real estate.  Some, very few, were successful in getting neighbors to look after their farm, for instance, but the majority, lost everything, farms, houses, personal belongings.  At the end of the war the U.S. Government made a feeble attempt to reimburse these people but very few got very much.

A few years ago, David Ono, a news anchor for the local news at KABC Channel 7 in Los Angeles presented a compelling documentary on one concentration camp, Heart Mountain, outside of Cody, Wyoming.  Click here to check it out.  This is great film-making.