Learn From FDR, Obama, and Show Some Backbone

Roosevelt biographer says president needs to block out GOP

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 3, 2009 7:20 AM CDT

(Newser) – As President Obama prepares to pull away from a public health care option, it shows not just that he's giving in to his opponents, writes Jean Edward Smith; worse, it "suggests that the Democratic Party has forgotten how to govern." In an op-ed for the New York Times, the FDR biographer writes that Roosevelt and his Democratic majorities passed the bulk of the New Deal over vociferous opposition. "Majority rule, as Roosevelt saw it, did not require his opponents’ permission," he writes.

"Roosevelt was a divider, not a uniter," Smith writes approvingly. FDR never called in Wall Street bankers before creating the SEC or signing the Glass-Steagall regulations; instead, he made sure he had the support of the American majority and ignored the "economic royalists" at the top. Roosevelt's greatness lay in an understanding that "governing involved choice and that choice engendered dissent"—a lesson Obama would be wise to learn.

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President Barack Obama listens to a question as he speaks about health care during a town hall meeting at Central High School in Grand Junction, Colo. Saturday, Aug. 15, 2009. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Franklin D. Roosevelt at his desk at the White House, May 7, 1933. (AP Photo)

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

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Showing 3 of 30 comments

SilenceDogood

Sep 4, 2009 10:47 AM CDT

To be certain it was WWII that pulled the US out of the depression and the subsequent massive spending. It was also the tremendous effort by every American to build a massive war machine, no effort was lost. Every cent was spent to build an enormous industrialized machine known as American Industry to combat our enemies. Obama’s omnibus spending bill is a catastrophic waste of money with much of it going to earmarked special interest groups. We are not building the infrastructure that occurred in WWII, and any comparisons of Obama and FDR are absurd

SilenceDogood

Sep 4, 2009 10:36 AM CDT

As a conservative I agree that that something needs to be done for health care, the costs are obscene. I also agree that it would be great to have everyone insured, I disagree with the 45 million uninsured, it’s probably closer to 15 million, but that another issue. The question is, where will the 500 billion to 1 trillion come from, especially with this depressed economy?

freethemall

Sep 4, 2009 6:44 AM CDT

SilenceDogood, on the subject of WW2 expenditures, Quoting you: "Every cent was spent to build an enormous industrialized machine known as American Industry to combat our enemies." This is not accurate. The industrial machine was already in place. It was largely idle due to the lingering depression. It was cranked up when we entered the war. The bulk of the spending was on war materials. Because there was no corresponding increase in the supply of consumer goods and services, there was inflation and rationing. But the depression ended, and after the war, rationing ended, inflation was brought under control, and the economic boom continued.

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Learn From FDR, Obama, and Show Some Backbone