Criticism of Franklin D. Roosevelt

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Both during and after his terms, and continuing today, there is much criticism of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Critics questioned not only his policies and positions, but also the consolidation of power that occurred due to his lengthy tenure as President, his service during two major crises, and his enormous popularity.

By the middle of his second term, much criticism of Roosevelt centered on fears that he was heading toward a dictatorship, by attempting to seize control of the Supreme Court in the Court-packing incident of 1937, attempting to eliminate dissent within the Democratic party in the South during the 1938 elections, and breaking a tradition established by George Washington in seeking a third term in the White House in 1940. As two historians explain, "In 1940, with the two-term issue as a weapon, anti-New Dealers...argued that the time had come to disarm the "dictator" and to dismantle the machinery."[1] These criticisms largely ended after the Attack on Pearl Harbor, as Americans left and right called for strong presidential leadership of the war effort.

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[edit] Criticism of the New Deal and of tax policy

Further information: Critics of the New Deal
Although Harry Hopkins denied having used the "Tax Spend and Elect" mantra, it stuck.
Although Harry Hopkins denied having used the "Tax Spend and Elect" mantra, it stuck.

Roosevelt also was attacked for his economic policies, especially the shift from individualism to collectivism that he represented with the dramatic expansion of the welfare state and regulation of the economy. Those criticisms remained strong decades after his death. However as the old generation died out so did these debates. One factor was the rise of Ronald Reagan, who greatly admired Roosevelt and who dominated conservative thinking by 1980.[2] When, in 1981, Ronald Reagan was quoted in the New York Times saying that fascism was admired by many New Dealers (not including Roosevelt), he came under heavy criticism, for Reagan himself was a leading New Dealer in Hollywood.[3].

Today, Roosevelt is criticized by libertarians for his extensive economic interventionism. These critics often accuse his policies of prolonging what they believe would otherwise have been a much shorter depression. Their argument is that government planning of the economy was both unnecessary and counterproductive, and that laissez-faire policies would have ended the suffering much sooner. Austrian school economist Thomas DiLorenzo, says "FDR’s New Deal made the Great Depression longer and deeper. It is a myth that Franklin D. Roosevelt 'got us out of the Depression' and 'saved capitalism from itself,' as generations of Americans have been taught by the state’s education establishment."[4] Historian Jim Powell, in FDR's Folly, points out that the median joblessness rate throughout the New Deal was 17.2 percent and never went below 14 percent. He says the Depression was worsened and prolonged "by doubling taxes, making it more expensive for employers to hire people, making it harder for entrepreneurs to raise capital, demonizing employers, destroying food...breaking up the strongest banks, forcing up the cost of living, channeling welfare away from the poorest people and enacting labor laws that hit poor African Americans especially hard."[5] However as Alvin Hansen pointed out at the time, few businesses were attempting to expand. The poor voted at the 80-90% level for Roosevelt according to public opinion polls. [Cantril and Strunk] A study by Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian concludes that the "New Deal labor and industrial policies did not lift the economy out of the Depression as President Roosevelt and his economic planners had hoped," but that the "New Deal policies are an important contributing factor to the persistence of the Great Depression." They say that the "abandonment of these policies coincided with the strong economic recovery of the 1940s."[6]

[edit] Criticism of Roosevelt as a "Warmonger"

As World War II began, Roosevelt was among those concerned at the growing strength of the Axis Powers, and he found ways to help Great Britain, the Chinese Nationalists, and later the Soviet Union in their struggle against them. This prompted several ambiguous isolationist leaders, including air hero Charles Lindbergh, to criticize him as a warmonger who was trying to push America into war with Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. This criticism was largely silenced in the public arena after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but was occasionally replaced by the private belief that FDR knew of the attack beforehand.

[edit] Criticism of post-war plans

Roosevelt has been criticized both for his doctrine of unconditional surrender, and for his plan for the "pastoralization" of post-war Germany, a plan that he used a $6 billion Lend Lease agreement to buy UK support for.[7] Both these Rooseveltian policies have been accused of prolonging the war and causing unnecessary deaths[1],[2],[3], the latter also after the end of the war. In a report on the German situation after 2 years of occupation President Herbert Hoover would in 1947 remark:

"There is the illusion that the New Germany left after the annexations can be reduced to a 'pastoral state'. It cannot be done unless we exterminate or move 25,000,000 people out of it."[4].

[edit] Criticism of Roosevelt as a "Fascist"

After 1945 the term "Fascist" conjured up horrible images of death camps. However in the 1930s it had a very different connotation, meaning the centralization of political power as in Mussolini's Italy. While most American businessmen thought FDR was hostile to them, some critics said he was too friendly.

Former President Herbert Hoover, who developed the fascist theme, said that the NRA was too closely linked to the "fascism" that big business industrialists wanted to impose:

“ Among the early Roosevelt fascist measures was the National Industry Recovery Act (NRA) of June 16, 1933 .... [these ideas] were first suggested by Gerard Swope (of the General Electric company)... They were adopted by the United States Chamber of Commerce. During the campaign of 1932, Henry I. Harriman, president of that body, urged that I agree to support these proposals, informing me that Mr. Roosevelt had agreed to do so. I tried to show him that this stuff was sheer fascism; that it was a remaking of Mussolini's "corporate state" and refused to agree to any of it. He informed me that in view of my attitude, the business world would support Roosevelt with money and influence. That for the most part proved true.”

Hoover Memoirs 3:420 [Whatever Hariman told Hoover, Roosevelt had not signed off on Swope's plan]

A different line of attack came from Michael S. Sweeney, who accused Roosevelt of misusing the Office of Censorship during the war. Sweeney says Roosevelt used it to censor media coverage of his travels in order to conceal his deteriorating health and to hide visits with his former mistress, Lucy Mercer Rutherford.[8]

Upon Roosevelt's death in 1945, H. L. Mencken predicted in his diary that Roosevelt would be remembered as a great president, "maybe even alongside Washington and Lincoln," opining that Roosevelt "had every quality that morons esteem in their heroes."

[edit] References

  1. ^ Herbert S. Parmet and Marie B. Hecht. Never Again: A President Runs for a Third Term (1968) page x.
  2. ^ Bruce Frohnen, Jeremy Beer, and Jeffery O. Nelson, eds. American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia (2006) 619-21, 645-6.
  3. ^ "Reagan says many New Dealers wanted fascism." New York Times. December 22, 1981.
  4. ^ DiLorenzo, Thomas. The New Deal Debunked, The Free Market, Volume 24, Number 11, November 2004
  5. ^ Powell, Jim. FDR's Folly: How Franklin Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression, Random House, 2004.
  6. ^ Cole, Harold L and Ohanian, Lee E. New Deal Policies and the Persistence of the Great Depression: A General Equilibrium Analysis, 2004.
  7. ^ John L. Chase "The Development of the Morgenthau Plan Through the Quebec Conference" The Journal of Politics, Vol. 16, No. 2 (May, 1954), pp. 324-359
  8. ^ Sweeney, Michael S. Secrets of Victory: The Office of Censorship and the American Press and Radio in World War II. University of North Carolina Press. 2001. Pp. 274

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