Yesterday and today we celebrated our 32nd Preisdent, the one, the only: FDR!
I don't have any outfits to wear for FDR, but it was a reason to get out my Eleanor Roosevelt finger puppet. (Of course Hayden would do on to rate Eleanor on his First Lady Dream Team as the 'All Around Badass'- I'm in total agreement).
And I searched through all my old magazines and newspapers to find some pertinate ones to display.
Since we're covering elections this go around, there is a lot to cover with FDR, plus there are a lot of cameos- and Hayden suggested we do it over two days instead of one. It was actually a great idea.
So buckle up, grab yourself a prohibition cocktail (or two!) and have a hotdog! If it's good enough for the king and qeen of england, it's good enough fro you.
Also, worth noting- you deserve a cookie if you finish this one. (Or, a donut in honor of FDR- but don't tell Mrs. Nesbiit- she tried to make sure FDR ate his oatmeal and his brocolli).
2020 Edition By Corinne Waterstraut- Part One
138 years ago today, the future 32nd president of
the United States of America was born in Hyde Park, New York. The Roosevelts
had been the “it” family for generations and had the wealth to prove it. His
businessman father, James, amassed an even bigger fortune than his inheritance
working in coal and transportation (and breeding horses). James wasn’t in the
business of politics, but he did have friends in high places, including
President Grover Cleveland. (Who once told 5 year old FDR: “My little man, I am
making a strange wish for you. It is that you may never be president of the United
States.”)
James’s first wife died, and on his second marriage he went
with a much younger model. Sara Ann Delano was 26 years younger than him. In
fact, she was a few months younger than James’s son from his first marriage.
So by the time Franklin was born, James was well into his 50s
and pretty ‘hands off’ as a father. But, maybe that was to balance his wife
out; because you don’t get more of a hands on parent than Sara Delano
Roosevelt. She often said Franklin wasn’t a Roosevelt at all, but rather a
Delano.
Sara dressed toddler FDR up like a doll. She kept his hair
long and put him in dresses until he was 3 (which, at least was considered
‘fashionable’ at the time). When FDR was old enough to voice his opposition to
it all, though, she finally agreed to stop taking pictures of him in dresses,
but only if he wore a mini navy blue sailor suit (this would be considered a
‘grand compromise’ in the Roosevelt household). When Franklin wanted to cut his
long flowing locks, his mother shed tears. Don’t feel too bad for Franklin, he
did get a pony for his 4th birthday.
But as Franklin got older, Sara got even more overbearing.
She managed and scheduled every moment of every single day from the time he
opened his eyes until he was asleep at night.
Franklin had zero privacy. She followed him everywhere, had a
ladder to climb up to his bedroom window to check in on him, and gave him baths
until he was 9.
FDR couldn’t even get away to hang out with his friends. She
selected all of his playmates for him. But, everyone knew Sara was extreme and
when nobody wanted to come over she’d resort to begging people to come over and
play with him.
Eventually after literally banging his
head against the wall enough, and complaining about being unhappy, Sara gave him
one day of freedom to go out and do whatever he wanted. FDR would die with the
secret of what he did that day.
After that, she let up at least at bath
time and picking out his friends. but FDR went on to have a pretty normal rich
kid in the late 1800’s childhood. He played polo, and tennis and golf. He spent
summers at his family’s “cottage”, often traveled to Europe, and on his 16th
birthday he got a little gift of a sailboat. He was bred for a life of yachting and
cocktail parties.
Money, wealth, power: it was all in his
genes. FDR’s ‘23 and Me’ is a who’s who list of leaders: George Washington,
John Adams, James Madison, Ulysses Simpson Grant and Winston Churchill (7th
cousins one removed). He was also related to Martin Van Buren and Zachary Taylor,
but when you have some of the biggest names in history in your family tree,
those guys become less impressive.
The guy has a pedigree, and money. But
he also has good looks, charisma and a disarming sense of humor. He radiated
confidence and energy. He might be a little cocky and arrogant, or not be the
most studious guy we’ve ever had as president, but he had the charm and style
that rivaled the best of them.
It’s no surprise, Franklin studied with the best tutors. He went
to Harvard College where he majored in history, got mediocre grades, and joined
a fraternity. Eventually he went on to Columbia Law School (he passed the bar,
but dropped out before graduation)
When FDR was 18, his father died. But
lucky for FDR he had to only look to his 5th cousin for a new role
model: just elected Vice President Teddy Roosevelt (who in just one short year
would become President Teddy Roosevelt, thanks to Leon Czolgosz). Like everyone
else who loved Teddy, FDR was attracted to everything Mark Hanna hated about
Teddy.
Then at age 20, FDR’s life would be
changed on a train ride when he ran into Teddy’s niece (and Alice’s cousin!), his
future wife, the most ambitious first lady of all time, the one, the only:
Eleanor Roosevelt.
Ok, so first of all, yes they are
technically related, but they’re fifth cousins once removed. And if you’re
still grossed out by it you have to trace the Hyde Park Roosevelts and the
Oyster Bay Roosevelts back 230 years to find a common relative of FDR and
Eleanor. We’re talking like just after the Pilgrims here, people.
If they weren’t such prominent families- I mean if you say
things like ‘Oh, hi, I’m Eleanor of the Oyster Bay Roosevelts’, and ‘Oh
yea, I’m Franklin of the Hyde Park Roosevelts’, you’re from some pretty
fancy pants lineage- they probably wouldn’t even know they were related (well,
except for the same last name).
Eleanor had exactly the opposite upbringing as Franklin except
for the money part, you know, a Roosevelt and all that. But Anna Eleanor
Roosevelt’s (who was called by her middle name her whole life) parent’s were
very hands off. She was starved for affection, and often depressed as a
result.
Eleanor was also painfully shy. She was not educated and
called an “ugly duckling”. Her mother was ashamed of how “plain” she was and
called her “Granny” because she thought her daughter was boring and unhappy. For
whatever reason, her mother didn’t see the promise in her daughter who would go
on to become one of the most beloved First Ladies in US History. And her father
was too busy drinking himself into alcoholism and having an affair with a
servant to pay her any attention.
Eleanor’s childhood gets even more tragic: Her mother dies
when Eleanor is only 8 years old. Then, two years later her dad died when he
jumped out the window of a treatment center when he was going through
withdrawal.
Eleanor’s aunts and grandmother took her in, finally teaching
her how to read and eventually sending her off to London to study until she was
17, when her grandmother summoned her back for her “social debut”.
Eleanor would have preferred to forgo all the social parties,
though. In her school in London, everyone adored her. She finally got love and
attention, and as a result, gained the confidence she so sorely lacked as a
child. She wanted to continue her education, instead of joining the social
circle of the Oyster Bay Roosevelts.
It’s the 1900s now, and women are still pretty much expected
to sit there and be pretty, but Eleanor has other plans. She’s so annoyed when
one of her male relatives starts criticizing a new organization that is "drawing
young women into public activity", she rushes right out to join.
So here is Eleanor, volunteering for the brand-new New York
Junior League, teaching dancing at the East Side Slums. She saw first hand the living conditions of
the poor, and was appalled at the overcrowding of apartment. She would spend
the rest of her life advocating for people who had less than her (with a brief
break to get married and have kids, but I’m getting ahead of myself).
And now we have Eleanor on this train, where she runs into
FDR, and the rest is literally history. (Though, people say on their first
date, she took FDR to a slum to show him how the other half lived).
In just over a year, the two are engaged. Of course, Sara
isn’t thrilled- because what overbearing mother is ever thrilled- and does
everything she can to thwart the wedding (even enticing FDR with a Caribbean
Cruise), but three years later Franklin and Eleanor are married.
Eleanor is walked down the aisle by none other than Uncle
Teddy who is the current president of the United States. (But family fued alert: You might have
noticed Teddy is a Republican and Franklin is a Democrat- things get awkward
when Franklin actually campaigns for William Jennings Bryan in 1908, against
Teddy’s chosen successor William Howard Taft)
A now married Eleanor and Franklin move into the family
estate. But overbearing Sara makes sure their residences are connected, and
over the next 10 years, Sara watches Eleanor’s every move, and even takes
control of raising the Roosevelt’s five children. Eleanor, feeling she didn’t really
have motherly instincts, let her. (Eleanor would later say "Franklin's
children were more my mother-in-law's children than they were mine")
FDR meanwhile is taking the usual route to the presidency.
He’s been a lawyer, a New York State Senator, and Woodrow Wilson’s Assistant
Secretary of the Navy during World War I. He easily climbs the political ladder
with name recognition, aggressive campaigning, charisma and of course, money.
During all of this, Eleanor is being a dutiful wife. But all
that would change when she unpacked Franklin’s suitcase and came across love
letters to him from Eleanor’s very own secretary Lucy. In the letters, FDR
suggests he’s going to leave Eleanor for Lucy, and Eleanor is pissed.
That might have been the end of it all. Back in those days,
leaving your wife for her secretary was enough to derail a political
career. We might not have had four term
president FDR, and American icon, Eleanor, without what happens next.
Sara Roosevelt was just not having it. She told Franklin he
would be cut off from his inheritance if he ran away with Lucy. And then
Franklin’s political advisor informed him it really would be political suicide.
FDR and Eleanor both decided to stay together. Eleanor
demanded he stop seeing Lucy, which he did, for awhile at least. After that
their marriage shifted to more of partnership than a romance. Eleanor also
decided to refocus her energy back into public service.
That brings us to the election of 1920. Franklin Roosevelt is nominated to be Vice
President on the Democratic ticket with James Cox, the current Governor of
Ohio.
Since we’re not celebrating James Cox’s birthday, I think you
know what happens there. But, we’ll have other opportunities to hear about this
election because every guy except for Cox on the tickets would end up President
at one point or another: the Republican ticket features Warren Harding, and
Calvin Coolidge. It wasn’t even close though. The Democrats were walloped 127 to
404. FDR had emerged as an impressive figure in the Democratic party though,
and his political future looked bright.
Just a year passes and we arrive on August 10, 1921. Yes,
it’s Herbert Hoover’s 47th Birthday, but it’s also an important day
in FDR’s history. The family is off at their ‘summer resort’ and Franklin
spends the day sailing, fishing, swimming and even helps put out a forest fire
with some locals before jogging two miles home. It was exactly how you’d spend
the day if you knew it was the last day you could ever walk.
And, it was in fact the last day FDR could ever walk under
his own power. He’d contracted the dreaded polio, a highly infectious disease
caused by a virus, that invades your nervous system and can cause irreversible
paralysis within hours. (Historians aren’t all convinced he had polio, but
either way he would champion efforts to wipe out polio, including founding the
National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which would later become the March
of Dimes. Then, in the 1950’s the Salk Vaccine would end the polio threat.)
For the next few years, everyone would tell him it was time
to retire from politics, and take it easy: his doctors, his friends, and even
his mother. Everyone believed it was time to hang it up, except for Eleanor,
she was there to support his political dreams.
What follows next is something right out of a Rocky montage:
FDR commits himself to at first to just wiggling his big toe, and then to
rigorous (and painful exercise) to regain his strength. He gets fitted with
iron braces for his legs and his hips. It’s so tight it cuts into his skin, but
it supports him enough he can fool people into thinking he can walk. All he has
to do is swivel his torso while supporting himself with a cane and he can make
it short distances. All his suffering as made him a more determined, humble,
fearless man. What he’s suffering from now is unreasonable ambition, and
infectious optimism (because as he said “If you have spent two years in bed
trying to wiggle your big toe, everything else seems easy.”)
With Eleanor’s help, FDR makes the comeback of all comebacks
and by 1928 he’s back at it, and giving a speech at the Democratic National
Convention in support of presidential candidate, Al Smith: again, no birthday
for Al Smith, so we know he’s a failed candidate.
Not a failed candidate: Franklin Roosevelt for Governor of
New York in 1929. Plus it’s 1929, the roaring 20s have come to a screeching
halt, and FDR is there to save the day, at least for the state of New York. He
initiates programs to help relieve those struggling, and is willing to try
anything. His motto: “Try something, anything, and if it doesn’t work, try
something else”. As Governor, he became somewhat of a beacon of hope and action
for New Yorkers.
By 1932, America needed their own beacon of hope, and FDR
became the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for president. It took
four ballots, mostly because of a now defunct rule that a candidate had to get
2/3 majority.
The only guy keeping FDR from getting that 2/3 majority was
John Nance Garner, the hard-drinking Texan known as “Cactus Jack”, and current
Speaker of the House. So Cactus Jack becomes FDR’s running mate, FDR flies to
Chicago becoming the first candidate to appear in person to accept the
nomination (surprising everyone with his vigor!), and everyone is happy!
Well, mostly everyone. There are some people who don’t love
the idea of FDR at the top of the ticket, calling it a “kangaroo ticket”, code
for stronger in the back than the front. Some claim he is “no crusader” and
“the weakest candidate got the nom.”
But really, Democrats knew the country was in shambles and
their candidate would be a shoe in. All they had to do was not screw this up.
And the Republicans knew they were doomed here. By election season the country
was in the worst economic crisis in it’s history. Personal incomes had fallen by half. A third
of American workers were out of a job. 40% of American banks had collapsed.
300,000 children had been forced out of a bankrupted school system.
The easiest things Republicans can do is nominate Hoover again, and bypass putting their money and
energy into a lost cause. So, Hoover is
nominated, but without enthusiasm or expectations. He was a dead man walking.
Hoover runs on “prosperity just around the corner”, but
nobody buys it. Even former president Calvin Coolidge won’t back Hoover. Ever
the man of few words, he simply says “This country is not in good condition”. Time
magazine calls him “President Reject”.
Hoover makes his way around the country, getting tomatoes
thrown at him in Kansas, in Detroit mounted police have to break up a riot
around Hoover’s limo (which admittedly is a bad look to be driving around in a
limo during the Great Depression), people are pulling up spikes from railroad
tracks in hopes to derail Hoovers train, and mobs of people are demanding he be
lynched.
In public Hoover appears tired and lacking confidence, in
private he complains of exhaustion and an inability to cope with the “demands
of leadership”, and at one point says “I can’t go on with it anymore.”
Franklin Roosevelt is youthful, optimistic, and willing to
use any policy to end the Great Depression. His wife is a campaign superstar. FDR doesn’t need to campaign against Hoover,
the American people are doing that for him. He’s vague about his plans, but
ends up with the tagline a “New Deal” for the American people. He is exciting
and promising relief. He’s a beacon of hope.
It’s like Eeyore running against Tigger. And Tigger is coming
with drinks for everyone! FDR runs on repealing the 19th Amendment
and ending Prohibition. If you’re doing to be down and out, you at least need a
drink in your hand!
To nobody’s surprise, FDR wins in a landslide: 472 to 59.
Hoover wins six measly states. The election of 1932 is seen as a “realignment”
election. It ended the Republican dominance that had a strong hold for years.
Between 1860 and 1932, only four Democrats had won the presidency. Some thought
the Democrats weren’t even a viable party anymore- that they’d go the way of
the Whigs- but this election proved otherwise.
But, more than that, it shifted how we view campaigns. FDR
ran a “candidate centered” campaign. People were more focused on personality than
substance. FDR’s policies were vague, but man could he deliver a speech! His
personality was magnetic. He’s the reason people say Democrats fall in love
(while Republicans fall in line).
If there was anything upsetting about the FDR’s election for
the American people, it was that they still had to live with Hoover for another
four months, because in those days inauguration day wasn’t until March.
Lucky for Franklin, and the American people he lived long
enough to see inauguration day. Seventeen days before his inauguration, FDR was
giving a speech in Miami when a guy who “hated all rulers” pulled out a hand
gun and started shooting. Joe Zangara got off one shot before people tried to
stop him, firing four more shots off wildly. Roosevelt was unhurt, but the
Chicago Mayor who was with him, was killed. (Supposedly his last words were to
FDR, saying “I’m glad it was me, not you.”)
Five years later Congress would pass the 20th
Amendment -nicknamed the Lame Duck Amendment to change the inauguration day
from March 4 to January 20.
But for now, on March 4, 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is
inaugurated as the 32nd president of the United States. He is our
first disabled president, but hardly anyone would ever know it. The secret is
kept from the public, making careful crafted appearances and arriving early so
nobody ever sees him being lifted out of his car, a car that by the way, has
been fitting with hand controls so he can drive for himself.
He goes as far to have a panel installed in the front of the
Resolute desk, so nobody can see his wheelchair or his braces, and he has a
swimming pool installed in the White House so he could get his exercise.
The press know, but they don’t report on it, as FDR convinces
them not to, in a sort of “Gentleman’s Agreement”, which by today’s standards
where the press insists on seeing medical records and birth certificates, is
just bananas. If someone steps out of line and takes a picture, the Secret
Service quickly rush in and destroy the camera. Only two photos ever make it
past the Secret Service.
Eleanor works as his shield traveling when he can’t. She is
his eyes and ears, visiting solders, giving speeches, and having meet and
greets everywhere from hospitals to prisons. She makes appearances when he is
tired, and people love her.
Then of course, there were his “fireside chats” so he can
reach out to America without having to make an actual appearance.
There is really no time to waste when FDR gets into office.
The American people must be saved, and by saved, I mean given back their
alcohol. We must fill the mouths of 13 million unemployed Americans with bread
and booze! Congress meets for a special session where experts come in to present
their case for legalizing alcohol. It’s an argument you may have heard before:
special interest groups said it would boost the economy with the tax revenue,
and ‘wet intellectuals’ claim it’d
benefit medical studies.
Congress passes the 21st amendment and Roosevelt
proclaims: “I believe this would be a good time for a beer”. Though worth
noting: FDR good president, bad bartender, as his guests would sometimes dump
their drinks into plants killing them. His ratios were way off and his drinks
way too strong.
Now that that’s taken care of (ok, not really, he did get to
them both pretty simultaneously, but makes for a better story the way I just
told it): it’s time to get to the business of bringing the country out of the
Great Depression with the ‘New Deal’ and three R’s: Relief, Reform, and
Recovery
It’s fitting that FDR, a man who goes by his initials, gave
us a series of alphabet soup programs everyone came to know by their initials.
There were
the programs aimed at putting people back to work.
WPA: Works Progress Administration, to give people jobs
TVA: Tennesse Valley Authority, to give power to southern
states by harnessing the power of the Tennessee river
CCC: Civilian Conservation Corps- that gave poor young men
jobs by sending them to rural areas to plant trees and fight forest fires.
NIRA: National Industrial Recovery Act, to help states fund
construction projects
Then there
were the programs to help people who needed money.
SS: Social Security, to provide unemployment and old-age insurance
FERA: Federal Emergency Relief Administration, that offered
direct government assistance to help impoverished
And then
there were programs to oversee some of the businesses that got everyone into
the Great Depression in the first place.
FDIC- Federal Bank Deposit Insurance Corp, to manage banks
SEC- Security Exchange Commission, to regulate and manage
stock trading
FCC- Federal Communications Commission, to regulate telegraph
and telephone services
FDR took us
off the gold standard, set just a few days ago on William McKinley’s birthday,
and closed all the banks and refused to let them open until they proved they
were solvent.
It was the
first time the government took measures to help the poor and the jobless. He
tried to put as many people back to work as he could. When someone suggested
including artists in his programs, FDR said “why not? They’re humans. They need
to live. Surely some buildings and murals need painted somewhere”.
He left no
stone unturned. He ordered his whole staff that if someone called the White
House needing assistance, they were to provide it. (After FDR died, Eleanor
actually received many letters, for people who had called the White House
during this time and received help).
And our
history books would tell us all of this saved the country! Yippee! But, it’s
not really so simple.
The New Deal
was not without it’s critics. The Supreme Court actually ruled some of it
unconstitutional, saying FDR was abusing his Executive Power. FDR said it might
not be in the Constitution but “it is our inherent duty to keep our citizens
from starvation.”
Conservatives
likened him to a dictator with his big government programs. (In response FDR
threw a toga party and wore a Julius Caesar crown to his 52nd
Birthday Party.
But, as the
1936 election rolled around, all of FDR’s programs were not having blinding
success. Results were actually kind of spotty
at best. But the economy was improving ever so slightly. It might not be
prosperous country, but it wasn’t falling apart anymore either. The bleeding
had stopped.
So FDR was
an easy nominee for president for Democrats.
The
Republicans, surprisingly, settled on their guy pretty quickly too. Enter:
Alfred Landon: Oil Industry Millionaire , former Chairman of the Kansas
Republican Party, and Current Governor of Kansas. You can call him Alf.
And that,
there in lies the problem. Even his name has a rumpled, doggie quality to it
(and this was before the furry, muppet ALF that graced American TVs in the
1980s) .
They brought
him out as the “everyday American”, but that really just translated to ‘not
terribly presidential.’ Republicans go as far to bring in bring in a “political
groomer” and film director to teach Alf how to smile without his mouth hanging
open, keep his chin up, and give a firm handshake. They tried to tout him out
as a “Kansas Lincoln” with his folksy manner, but people just weren’t buying
what the Republican Party was selling.
The people
who the programs were helping were now indebted to FDR, and the Democrats were
picking up new voters out of gratitude to FDR. Alot of New Deal policies were
helping businesses and farmers, bringing in Midwest and middle class voters.
But, there
was one group that wins for most impressive change in voter behavior. It’s
funny the Republicans should mention Lincoln, too, because a lot of black
voters had been loyal to the Republican Party since Reconstruction because of
the Great Emancipator. Southern blacks, especially, had been reliably
Republican for over 70 years. Nobody thought anyone could alter their devotion
to the Republican gold standard (a little McKinley joke for you): Abraham
Lincoln
But FDR had
won them over with his willingness to make federal relief available to them at
a time when they were considered ‘below’ whites.
Eleanor
should get huge props for this. Eleanor is one of the greatest humanitarians of
the 20th century, She was a firm advocate for the advancement of
Civil Rights and fought to end segregation and discrimination, and encouraged
Franklin to do the same.
Since the
whole Lucy debacle years ago, Eleanor and Franklin shifted from husband and
wives to political partners. They led independent lives, and lacked any sort of
playful husband-wife relationship. They had separate bedrooms, and lived their
own lives.
And FDR was
fine with it. By now he’d moved on to another mistress- Missy. Missy was his
secretary – when he was Governor of NY- not hers, so Eleanor didn’t seem to
mind as much. It wasn’t a secret to Eleanor that Missy would show up sitting on
Franklin’s lap in the oval office.
But FDR
appreciated Eleanor for the partner she was. He knew he was only able to
perform as president with his disability because of his awesome wife, He had an
affection for her, just not a romantic one.
He called
her Babs, rated her the ‘most extraordinarily interesting woman’ he knew, and
allowed nobody to criticize her in his presence. He even quipped he wished she
wasn’t so ‘darn busy’ so he could see her more.
Eleanor traveled
so much, a headline once appeared: “Mrs. Roosevelt spends night at White
House.” She would become the first first lady to have a public life of her own.
She really broke the mold! (In other “first” women: Eleanor was even about to
get flying lessons from another badass woman, Amelia Earhart, when Amelia
disappeared.)
Eleanor made
her cause, FDR’s cause too. They communicated via an “Eleanor Basket” next to
his bed, where she’d place papers and memos she wanted him to read.
She
pressured him to work for the unheard. She advocated for him to improve the
lives of women, blacks, and poor people.
She once
resigned from a group that wouldn’t let a black singer give a concert at their
auditorium in D.C. Then, she arranged for the singer to put on a concert on the
steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
She was
responsible for a 1st woman in a presidents cabinet. FDR faced
backlash for the appointment too. He chalked it up to Eleanor, and said he’s
rather have trouble with his critics for an hour than Eleanor for the rest of
his life.
She also
allowed only woman to attend her weekly press conferences, since they usually
weren’t allowed in the presidential press conferences. Not only was Eleanor out
there having her own press conferences, but she was writing her own column
called “My Day” where she shared about her life as First Lady.
She was
tough as nails. There was a family story that when a bomb went off across the
street from their house in 1919, (they lived across the street from the Attorney
General and America was at war- crazy things happened) FDR rushed to his kids
to see if they were ok, and Eleanor told them to go back to bed because “It’s
just a little bomb”, a phrase the kids would use for years. She refused Secret
Service, and instead carried her own gun.
People just
loved her: women, minorities, the underprivileged, they all found her to be a
calming presence as if they were their bff.
And Eleanors
helped FDR’s campaign just as much in 1936 as she did four years earlier, if
not more. Working people often met with her and said things like “Mrs. R (as
she was called) is the only man we have ever had in the White House who would
understand that my boss is a son of a bitch.”
FDR had a
way of campaigning that he used though most elections. The election season was
short back then, most candidates only campaigned from Labor Day in early
September through October and into the first few days of November.
FDR would
campaign even less. He found it best to show up sometime in October, give
speeches that attracted thousands, and demolish his competition, before wiping
the floor with them on election day.
And he
preferred to do it all without mentioning their name. In fact, that was his
number one rule: do not use the candidates name. You could call them “gentleman
from…”, you could call him “FDR’s opponent”, but never by his name. FDR didn’t
want them to get any sort of name recognition, because he thought people vote
for names they know, and if we don’t say it, they won’t recognize the name.
Not everyone
loved FDR in 1936. And FDR knew it was an election about who liked him and who
didn’t. Time for an FDR quote: “There is one issue in this campaign- and it’s
me. People are either for me, or against me.” Some Progressives thought the New
Deal didn’t go far enough, and they needed more help.
And then
there were the third party candidates, and there were a lot of fringe groups
formed by opposition to FDR and the New Deal.
· There’s the Old People’s Movement
formed by a doctor in LA who said FDR was ignoring the most vulnerable groups.
Old people wanted their pensions.
· Then, there’s this crazy Louisiana
Senator who proposed a program called “Share the Wealth” where the government
should redistribute money.
· And finally we round out the trifecta
of crazy with Catholic Priests, who are now giving weekly radio sermons talking
about how the New Deal was “controlled by Jewish banking interests.”
The three crazies get together to form
a super crazy: the Unity Party.
Republicans
know FDR is going to win a lot of places, but if they can get the third party
to play spoilers, they just might have a chance.
So,
presidential or not, they bring out the guy they think gives them the best
chance, Alf Landon. After all, he’s the only Republican Governor who won
re-election in 1934. They think his
Kansas roots will appeal to farmers, his work in the oil business will appeal
to businessmen, and his balanced state budget with appeal to fiscal
conservatives.
FDR is a
hard guy to run against in 1936, though, and Alf is facing an uphill battle. If
he rejects the New Deal, that’s become pretty popular with some people, he’ll
alienate voters. If he didn’t argue against it, he’d piss off Conservatives who
thought the government was becoming too centralized. We were basically
Communists and we were just days away from falling into a totaling state like
the Soviet Union, or turning into facist Italy.
So he toed
the line, supporting relief programs, but also talking about spending limits.
He suggested sending things back to the states instead of relying on the
federal government.
Landon
complained to his campaign managers that he wasn’t seeing working people, and
instead the Republicans were only setting him up with “stuffed shirt
businessmen and bankers”. Alf was pretty sure he was about to lose the
election. At one point a reporter asked him if he was going to win. Alf
responds: “no chance”, and then begged the reporter to keep his remark off the
record.
Some people
thought Alf was turning the tide. The reliable Liberty Digest Poll was released
in October, and it had Landon ahead. They had him winning 370 to 161.
The
Republicans ramp up their efforts with scare tactics. They claimed the Social
Security Act set to go into effect January 1, 1937 was a giant swindle, so they
took a page out of Mark Hanna’s playbook and
posted flyers in factories that announced: “Your sentenced to a weekly
pay reduction for all your working life. You’ll have to serve the sentence unless
you help reverse it in November.” And workers had slips inserted with their
pay, that warned: “Effective January 1937, we are compelled by Roosevelts New
Deal to make a deduction from your wages and turn it over to the government.”
Hey, it worked for McKinley!
They even
claimed that all American’s would have to wear dog tags with their Social
Security numbers on it.
It was
October now, so FDR thought it was time to stop his sailing vacation and campaign.
His speeches attracted as many as 100,000 people. By now he was pissed at the
Republicans and called out their selfishness and greed, and their unwillingness
to help the people.
FDR didn’t
call his opponents bad names in public, but privately he called Alf “the White
House mouse who wants to live in the White House.”
But Alf
would never move to the White House. In fact, he was further from it than any
other candidate in history. He won only two states: Maine and Vermont, for a
total of EIGHT electoral votes.
FDR won
98.49% of the electoral votes, the greatest electoral college victory for
anyone who ever ran opposed. His popular vote count wasn’t shabby either, at
61%
Fun fact:
people gave Maine and Vermont a hard time for being outsiders. Some suggested
FDR should sell them to Canada, and someone put up a sign going into Maine and
Vermont that read “you are now leaving the United States.”
But Maine
and Vermont got to stay, and so did FDR. He was moving on to his second term.
If the first go around was about the New Deal, this second go around would be
all about the New War.
And the from
what we know now, the New War, more than the New Deal would in actuality be
what pulls America out of the Great Depression.
But that’s
for tomorrow and Franklin Roosevelt part two.
The Story of Franklin D. Roosevelt
2020 Edition By Corinne Waterstraut-
Part Two
So here we
are, less than three years into FDR’s second term, Germany invaded Poland and
World War II has begun.
America
stayed out of the conflict, but they also capitalized on it. American factories
began producing weapons for the Allies. We were producing ships and planes and
supplies faster than every before. It got dubbed the “Arsenal of Democracy”.
It was a
good plan, one designed to get America involved in the war effort without
getting America involved in the war. The war was putting jobs back into
America, and while FDR’s plans helped with relief from the Great Depression,
the war is ultimately what pulled us out of it. (Even more irony for you, years
later everyone basically admitted all those New Deal programs came from
programs Hoover had started).
While we’re
busy producing guns and ammunition, the world is busy killing each other, and
Hitler is busy enacting his plan for world domination, we rolled around to the
Election of 1940.
At the time
there was an unwritten rule, set by George Washington’s example, that
president’s did not serve more than two terms. But it’s become increasing clear
that eventually the US is going to have to get involved in the war, and people
are worried about switching a president in times like these.
Because FDR
told them they should be worried about switching leadership in times like
these. America needed strong and constant leadership, that he so happened to
provide.
Now you’re
probably thinking, couldn’t he pass the torch to someone in his cabinet? The
thing about it is, FDR didn’t really want to give up the presidency. Yea, Yea,
he thought he was the best person to lead us through the likely dark times
ahead (after all he’d pulled us out of the Great Depression), be he also loved
being president. Case and point, this FDR quote: Wouldn’t you be president if
you could? Wouldn’t anybody?
And so FDR
hatched a plan to stay in office. First, he had to sabotage any of those people
that America thought he could pass the torch to.
Cactus Jack?
Why, he’s just too conservative, and didn’t even support all of those New Deal
programs. He’s Anti-labor and we all know it, just look at him and his
industrialist and coal mine owning buddies! He’s an embarrassment to the FDR’s
liberal administration!
General Jim
Farley, Postmaster General, the first Irish Catholic politicians in American
history to achieve success on a national level, the leader of the Democratic
Party? Why he just knows too little about international affairs.
And
coincidentally, both of these guys are strongly opposed to FDR running for a
third term. Whether it’s self serving, and they’re hoping to be the next in
line, riding those FDR coat-tails all the way to the Oval Office, or they’re
trying to uphold the standard set by George Washington is up for debate.
But while
FDR can spread gossip and whisper about these guys, he knows he can’t actively
seek the nomination. But, if the American people were to, say I don’t know, nominate
him anyway, well, what’s a guy to do? Abandon their country when they need
him the most?
And there
was a plan for this too, enacted at the Democratic Convention in Chicago. While
party bosses weren’t thrilled with the idea of a third term, FDR had plenty of
people in his corner.
Take Harry
Hopkins (name not important), but he’s one of FDR’s BFF’s and the guy in charge
of the Convention in Chicago. He put a private phone in his hotel bathroom that
had a direct line to the White House to keep FDR updated on all the going ons.
And then
there’s the Chicago Mayor, an FDR supporter, who is prepared to go on stage and
read a memo from FDR to the entire convention, announcing he will not actively
seek re-election.
And finally,
there is the infamous “voice from the sewers”, that belongs to Chicago’s
superintendent of Sewers. He’s coordinated with the Mayor, and as soon as the
Mayor reads the memo, Sewers guy, from the basement, shouts “no! no! no! We
want Roosevelt!” into a microphone from the basement that broadcasts through
the speakers in the Convention Hall.
And that’s
all it takes. Delegates think the voice if from the floor, jump on the
bandwagon and start shouting for FDR, who is easily nominated on the first
ballot.
Might he
have been nominated without the voice from the sewers? Maybe. But, we’ll never
know. FDR had taken center stage in possibly the first convention where a
president actively manipulated delegates in his favor.
And then he
went on to manipulate them even more. Cactus Jack couldn’t possible be his VP
again after all this. So he needs a new guy, and FDR wants Henry Wallace, his
Secretary of Agriculture who would appeal to farmers, and who had,
conveniently, supported the idea of Roosevelt serving a third term.
Democratic
bosses don’t love the idea, and FDR knowing everyone really wants him now, says
he won’t accept the nomination if Wallace isn’t on the ticket (the balls on
this guy, am I right?) If his empty threat didn’t convince everyone, his secret
weapon would: Eleanor. She was sent to the Convention to speak to the delegates
and convince them they wanted Wallace. Of course she was successful, she’s
Eleanor Roosevelt!
So the
Democrats have their nominee, and the Republicans need one too. After being
utterly destroyed in 1936.
They look at
Thomas Dewey, the current Manhattan District Attorney; the Senator from
Michigan Arthur Vandenburg. They consider William Howard Taft’s son, Robert A.
Taft (WH. Taft wasn’t around to campaign though, he’d been dead for 10 years).
But all of
these guys are isolationists, and by the time the Convention rolls around, it’s
pretty clear we aren’t going to be able to just isolate ourselves from what’s
going on the world. Hitler has invaded Belgium and France and reached the
English Channel.
The
Republican Convention in Philadelphia in 1940 was not ideal. They still seemed
like the hot mess of a party that FDR murdered in 1936. Right before the
convention Philly’s zoo oldest elephant died, setting newspaper editors up with
the easiest joke ever. And it was the first convention ever to be televised, so
those Americans with a tv (which wasn’t that many at time) could see if all
happen in real time.
Republicans
have to go to the sixth ballot to find their candidate, too. He’s not the party
bosses favorite, and he is a bit of a dark horse candidate. He comes out of
nowhere, and his nomination gets dubbed the “Miracle in Philadelphia.” He’s a
guy who has never held public office before, but is having success with him grass
roots campaign: Meet Wendell Willkie.
Willkie has
everything Alf Landon didn’t. He has a compelling personality, bright and
lively, and articulate. Republicans think maybe this guy could be
another Abe Lincoln, and this time they mean it. He’s tall (6’2”, 230 pounds to
be exact), good-looking, and young-ish at only 48 years old. He doesn’t need
any political groomer to teach him how to shake hands; his handshake grip could
pop a can. Nobody has to teach him how to smile; he’s warm-hearted and oozes
energy, drive, and confidence.
Basically if
personality and intellect are the sole criteria for a nominee: Willkie is it.
He’s a dynamo, a force of nature.
He might not
be a political guy, but he has a pedigree. Both his parents were lawyers, he
was Class President, and an overachiever. He had experience in a lot of fields:
during college he worked all over the country in iron mills, and cement plants, oil fields, farms, and even
taught history.
He worked
his way up to become a Corporate CEO of a Monopoly at one of the most
successful companies in America: public utilities. But unlike Corporate CEO’s
today, he did what he could to help the people, and developed a rate structure
to help Americans have cheap power, especially in rural areas.
He’s the
most colorful and exciting guy we’ve seen since, well, FDR. He matches him in
charisma. But, Wendell Willkie and FDR have something else in common too:
Willkie is also a Democrat, or was, at least up until 1939.
He had
supported most of the New Deal, he had openly favored FDR’s aid to Britain, and
he was even a delegate who voted for FDR in 1932. Hell, he even donated $150 to
FDR’s campaign that same year.
It wasn’t
uncommon for people in 1940 to have politicians jumping ship and swapping party
for political advantage. But most were moving from Republican to Democrat, not
the other way around. FDR even said “You know, Willkie would have made a great
Democrat, too bad we lost him.”
Americans
are divided over the war. The Doves are anti-intervention, the Hawks and
interventionalists, and the Hawkish Doves favor aid to Britain, short of war.
Wendel
Willkie is a Hawkish Dove, leaning more toward the Hawkish part than the Dove
part. He believed in supporting the Allies, and said we were being “foolish for
ignoring growing crisis”. He argued that FDR running for a third term was
hurtling America toward “one man rule”, and claimed that all FDR’s programs
were costing Americans too much, calling him “Franklin Deficit Roosevelt”.
His
grassroots campaign is impressive. His “Willkie for President” Clubs bring out
4 and a half million voters to petition for him. They send out millions of
letters and telegrams. His supporters love his crusading and aggressive style,
with his dramatic speeches in which he is wildly waving his arms.
He travels
by train to 31 states in 7 weeks. His engaging conversational style works to
his benefit until his voice gives out, and he never fully recovers (even with a
doctor following him around). His scratchy throat makes him a less effective
speaker, the thing he had going for him the most.
And
Willkie’s voice isn’t his only problem. He’s been a Wall Street Lawyer, and a
Utilities Executive, but never a politician, and his inexperience is showing,
and he’s making Rookie Mistakes.
He’s
neglecting organizations that have historically helped Republicans get elected,
he’s leaving too much to amatures, and writing his own speeches. His impromptu
talks with voters are going way too long and he’s constantly falling behind
schedule.
He’s
stumping in areas where FDR is super popular, and Republicans are still blamed
for the Great Depression. Voters in these areas have taken to throwing things
are Willkie to air their grievances. Eggs were the most common projectile, but
people also threw everything from tomatoes, oranges, and potatoes to ashtrays,
phone books, rocks and even chairs. Willkie takes it all in stride until
someone threw an egg at his wife and he lunged at them. (A guy also pulled a
gun on Willkie, so I wouldn’t say he had the easiest time on the road).
His
conversational style has gone from endearing and exciting to “off the cuff”
comments that are getting him in trouble. He says “to hell with Chicago”, which
doesn’t play well in the Chicago papers. He’s talking about his Secretary of
Labor and says “And it won’t be a women, either”, seemingly attacking the first
woman ever appointed to a cabinet position (thanks again, Eleanor!) Willkie’s
running mate, Charles McNary, a hardened politician, told him “Don’t forget,
young fellow, in politics, you’ll never be in trouble by not saying too much.”
It’s October
now, so FDR is ready to get himself into the swing of the campaign. He follows
him same strategy and doesn’t acknowledge his opponent (because people remember
names!), instead Willkie gets called that “simple, barefoot, Wall-Street Lawyer”.
And things
start to get ugly. The Democrats put out pamphlets claiming Willkie’s utility
company used spies to break up labor unions, and publish pictures showing
Willkie’s fathers grave, where he’s been buried and then neglected in a potters
field (what kind of monster neglects his own father’s grave, after all?)
Willkie has
scare tactics of his own. He warns everyone we will assuredly go to war under
FDR, meaning “wooden crosses for our sons and brothers and sweethearts”. He
claimed American boys are “almost already on transports”.
FDR hit
back, exaggerating Willkie’s isolationist stance saying “anyone who is pro
Hitler in this country is also pro Willkie”.
For all the
mudslinging, it’s kind of weird that some smears remained unused from both
parties.
Republicans
had discovered weird coded messages written by FDR’s Veep Candidate, which
looked like he was in cahoots with some foreign governments (sound
familiar).
While the
Democrats had uncovered Willkie’s mistress. FDR had his fair share of
mistresses as well, but apparently Willkie was now paying his wife for making
certain appearances for him. He’s basically living with his mistress, Irita,
who he likes more than his “pedestrian thinking Indianan wife”. Friends say if
he wins, Irita will move to the White House with him, instead of his wife.
Some suggest
some sort of agreement was made between the two candidates, but nobody knows
for sure why the scandals were hidden from the public.
In the end,
FDR would be elected 449 votes to 82. FDR carried every single big city in the
US except for Cincinnati, Ohio, but he still didn’t win over Maine and Vermont.
On the bright side for the Republicans,
Wendell Willkie won five times as many states as Alf Landon, with 10. He also
got more popular votes than any Republican candidate had ever gotten, a title
he would have through the next two elections as well.
1940 was a
big year for FDR. He became the first guy to run and win a third term, and he
was given the best Christmas present ever, a regal Scottish Terroir, who would
be named Murray the Outlaw of Falahill (after John Murray of Falahill, a famous
Scottish Roosevelt ancestor). Don’t worry though, he’s not super formal, you
can just call him Fala for short.
Fala joined
the lineup with his other doggie siblings: Major the German Shephard, Tiny the
English Sheepdog, and Winks the Llewellyn Setter.
While Major
had a ‘biting off the pants of the British Prime Minister’ incident, and had to
be exiled from the White House, Fala, was universally loved and the star of the show. Eleanor and the media
mentioned him often, and as a result he received thousands of letters.
Fun fact:
FDR had to make a strict rule he was the only one allowed to feed Fala after
White House kitchen staff members were giving him scraps and making the puppy
sick.
So now we
move into 1941. The inauguration is just monotonous at this point, even the
Chief Justice who had done all of FDR’s swearing ins had joked about it. But
things are getting worse for the country, and FDR personally.
His second
favorite mistress Missy died (making him run back to his first mistress Lucy),
but more importantly on a historical scale: December 7, 1941 the Japanese
bombed Pearl Harbor and whether we wanted to be involved in World War II or
not, now we were.
FDR for his part
wasn’t opposed to going to war, he’d wanted a reason to get involved for
awhile. In October, before Pearl Harbor, Germany was attacking US boats, and
FDR announced “America has been attacked”, but stopped short of declaring war.
As far as Japan was concerned, FDR had cut off the sale of oil to them, which
accounted for 25% of their supply.
Everyone knew where we were headed. It wasn’t a matter of if, but when.
FDR was sure Japan would attack, but he was thinking they’d go after us in the
Dutch Indies, or Thailand, and send bombers to the Philippines.
But, that’s
not where Japan attacked. They killed 2,403 Americans with their surprise
attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor,
and FDR gave his infamous speech to Congress about the “day that will
live in Infamy”.
Anti-war
sentiment had evaporated overnight, and before anyone could digest what had
happened in Hawaii, we were officially in World War II.
This is an
all hands-on-deck situation here, and FDR enlists everyone to help.
Eleanor
becomes a calming-moral-boosting-presence, traveling all over to visit troops.
She becomes the first first lady to fly across the Atlantic (Amelia Earhart
would have been proud) solo, when she heads over to Europe to tour bombed areas
in London, visit women’s training centers, and inspect US Red Cross Stations.
Her great
communication skills rival FDR’s. The Roosevelt’s are offering a one-two punch
of optimism and reassurance to the American public: her with travel, him with
his Fireside chats. (Worth noting, here FDR adds to his alphabet soup of
programs with the USO, the United Services Organization, the provided social,
educational, welfare and religious services to armed forces.)
Even the
Roosevelt kids are there to help. Two of his sons enlist to fight in the war
effort. Their daughter takes over hosting duties at the White House since
Eleanor is traveling so much, and hardly ever there. (It’s a point of
contention for Eleanor and her daughter, but it all works out in the end).
And don’t
forget the dog! Fala ‘s name was used as a password American troops to
safeguard against Germans trying to pose as Americans on the front lines. And
FDR took him out on moral boosting trips, including a visit to the USS Baltimore
where so many sailors cut his hair off as souvenirs, the poor dog was left with
bald patches.
That help
also comes from an unlikely source in
the guy FDR just beat for president of the United States: Wendell Willkie. A
week after the election, Wilkie gives his “Loyal Opposition” speech, telling
his supporters we have to get behind the president in these dangerous times.
He works for
FDR, going out on personal envoy missions to the Middle East, China, Britain,
and the Soviet Union. Before we even got into this whole mess, back in 1940,
Wendell was instrumental in getting the Lend-Lease Act passed (So we could
lease vital supplies to our allies after Britain didn’t have enough money to
outright buy them).
FDR was
impressed by Wendell’s patriotism, even giving a toast in honor of “Wendell
Willkie, in word and action, who is showing what patriotic Americans mean by
rising above partisanship and rallying to a common cause”. Privately, FDR would
say “I’m glad I won, but I’m sorry Wendell lost”.
Republicans,
meanwhile, called him Judas, “Roosevelt’s Stooge” and said he was only “a
Republican by name for less than a year, and that period was much too long”.
So we all
know the major players in WWII: Hitler (Germany) and Mussolini (Italy) are the
bad guys. And the good guys, who aren’t without their flaws, but still seen
generally favorable: Winston Churchill (Great Britain) and FDR. Then you have
Stalin in Russia. He’s like a bad guy, but not the worst of all worst guys
because he’s not outright committing genocide, and he’s like the necessary evil
that the good guys need to work with in order to get ahead.
FDR and
Winston Chruchill were bros. Churchill, now the British Prime Minster, likened hanging
out with FDR “like opening a bottle of campaign”, which is fitting, since
Winston and FDR weren’t just bros, they were drinking buddies.
Winston
would show up to the White House for week long visits, and pull all nighters,
double fisting vodka, and martinis. The staff would call it “Winston Hours” and
when Winston left to go home, FDR would sleep ten hours a night to recuperate.
Stalin
proved more of an enigma. FDR was used to people falling for his charm and
sense of humor, but he just couldn’t break Stalin. So at one meeting with
Churchill and Stalin, FDR pre-emptively apologized to Winston, and then made
fun of Churchill behind closed doors with Stalin, complaining about “Winton
cranky this morning” and going on to make fun of Winston’s quirks. Later in a
meeting between all three, FDR would snicker at Stalin , and Stalin was amused.
FDR’s joking
had gotten him an in with Stalin. Well, that and his martinis. They might have
not been too popular among US diplomats
for how strong they were, but in the Soviet Union they struck just the right
balance. FDR’s martinis became known as “America’s lethal weapon”, and an
integral part of International Diplomacy (there’s even a bar in Munich named
Roosevelt).
So the War
is now churning along, complete with US involvement (Great Grandpa Ainsworth is
part of the boots on the ground in Italy), and the Axis (Germany, Italy, Japan,
Hungary, Romania, Bulgari) and the Allies (US, Britain, France, USSR) are now
both working with their complete teams, and the Allies are kicking ass and
taking names, and eventually in June of 1944, we’ll have D-Day where General
(and future president) Eisenhower lands
one of the biggest blows to the Axis powers.
But back at
home, something is going on that really only gets to be a footnote in the
history books, but is actually a pretty big effin deal. In February of 1942,
racism against anyone of Japanese decent in America was at an all time high,
especially on the West Coast, with the thinking that they could be terrorists
or spies for Japan trying to sabotage the US.
So, FDR orders
all foreigners to register with the government, and then he rounds them all up
and sent them to camps: Japanese Internment Camps. California says if you’re
even 1/16 Japanese that’s plenty Japanese to be sent off to the internment
camps.
Except,
America doesn’t even bother to figure out if someone is even 1/16 Japanese. If
you’re from Korea or China, people think you look like you could maybe be from
Japan, and off to the camps you go. It’s not even based on any real threat as
much as it’s clearly and obviously racism (Jimmy Carter would have a Commission
investigate and come to this conclusion).
They’re forced to give up their properties and
businesses and transported to hastily built camps in harsh locations. Some
wehre better than others. Some got barracks with cots, some lived in tents
without plumbing or electricity. But they were all surrounded by barbed wire
and armed guards who would shoot if they tried to leave. And hey, there were
only a few isolated incidents of guards killing detainees.
Really, how
severe living conditions were depend on where you get your white-washed history
from. Sometimes you read it wasn’t all that bad. They had laundry facilities
and formed a sense of community. Then sometimes you read about the nearly 2,000
people who died from illnesses while in the camps.
And it’s
almost as if FDR gets credit because none of this is nearly as bad as what Hitler
is doing. He’s not hurting anyone, and at
least he gave them time to get their affairs in order before they reported to
the internment camps. Of course, they would be forced to sell their property
and belongings, which white Americans were more than happy to take advantage
of, giving low ball offers to desperate owners.
FDR gets
credit too, because he never actually names the Japanese in his executive
order, instead he just gave the U.S. military “authority to exclude any persons
from designated areas”. But everyone knows that meant Japanese on the West
Coast.
Even the
United State Census is in on it, by spying providing confidential information
on Japanese Americans.
There was a
power struggle over the camps. The War Department claimed it was necessary for
the safety of our country. But the US Department of Justice said you can’t just
detain innocent civilians.
The camps
wouldn’t all be closed until 1946, when FDR is firmly in the ground, and Harry
Truman is firmly in the oval office, but it would be a stain on the legacy of
FDR, for sure.
And to be
clear, too, FDR wasn’t a friend to the Jewish people over in Germany either. He
was entirely in the know about the Holocaust and insisted on military action
rather than trying to stop the genocide. He believes the sooner we stop the
war, the sooner the Holocaust will end.
Let’s go
back for now, though, to 1944. It’s an election year, and D-Day has just been a
rousing success, the economy is booming thanks to those defense contracts, and
the idea of FDR running for a fourth term phases next to nobody. FDR would
consider not running, but he told friends and advisors he wouldn’t stand to see
a Republican victory and a Republican presiding over a powerful post-war era.
Plus, if he runs again, he might actually win Maine and Vermont for the first
time.
11 million
Americans are in the military service by now though, and some people think the
election might even get postponed due to the war.
But, FDR and
experts believe the Constitution doesn’t allow for the cancellation of an
election, so onward we go. FDR easily
wins the nomination for president, but Vice President is once again the major
source of the suspense. It’s time to drop that liberal Wallace, who does
nothing for FDR but weaken the ticket.
And it’s
time to replace him with the pro-labor moderate, Senator from Missouri, the
one, the only: Harry S. Truman, of Harry’s Haberdashery fame! FDR mildly, if
not unenthusiastically endorses Harry, who wins the VP slot on the second
ballot.
The
Republicans come out swinging with their guy too, this go around they put out
current Governor of New York, Thomas Dewey (of Dewey defeats Truman fame!) He
wins the nomination on the first ballot, mostly because Wendell Willkie had a
poor showing in the Wisconsin Primary, then keeled over dead, and General
Douglass McArthur withdrew his name after some letter to an ex-choir girl from
Singapore who called him “daddy” circled it’s way around.
Thomas Dewey
is really the only option they’re left with. He’s a younger guy, only 42, and
the 1st presidential candidate born in the 20th century.
Republicans are hoping he’ll radiated an ‘air of efficiency’ appearing modern
and young, compared to an aging Roosevelt.
He had a record as an honest Governor. Before
that he had snuffed out mobsters as the New York District Attorney. But for
being an effective executive, he is lacking sorely in personal appeal.
His pencil
mustache, neatly combed back black hair, and slim stature make him and easy
target for his nickname “The Little Man on the Wedding Cake” (which some say
came from Alice Roosevelt, but either way, FDR made full use of it.)
1944 was the
first wartime presidential election since 1864, when Abraham Lincoln was
running for his second term. With
overwhelming bipartisan support for the war effort, and a majority of Americans now in agreement
that the federal government had to play a role in promoting the economy and
protecting the welfare of it’s citizens to get us out of the Great Depression,
the issues in the 1944 election seemed more like nitpicking than anything else.
Dewey said
he wouldn’t repeal the New Deal programs, he would just fine tune them to make
them even more effective.
FDR
countered by saying the Republicans new found appreciation for the New Deal was
“insecure and inconsistent”
Both knew
America would have to be in post war efforts, and supported that idea, just in
different ways. Dewey was more vague and wary in his ideas, FDR more precise
and gung-ho.
The only
issue Dewey really harped on was FDR’s health. When FDR is taking one of his
pre-campaigning vacations, rumor swirl he’s in the hospital after having had a
heart attack, and reporters refuse to leave until they see a living, breathing
FDR (which would lead FDR to say “those newspaper men are a bunch of God damned
ghouls”
Dewey’s
point was gaining traction though. He claimed FDR wouldn’t even survive another
term, and to be fair, Dewey wasn’t wrong. It’s kind of a miracle FDR survived
past the election. By now he was suffering from heart disease, high blood
pressure, chronic bronchitis, and insomnia. He looks white as a ghost and has
spells where the “collywobbles” make him lay on the floor until he can begin
breathing normally again.
But the
Democrats didn’t need to know that. All the whispers and talk, needed to be
quieted, and FDR had just the guy for that: his doctor. The doctor released a
statement saying “nothing is wrong”, he’s “perfectly ok”, the “stories are not
true.
Moving away
from health, Dewey focus on age, saying the Democrats have “grown old in
office”, that they’ve become “tired” and “quarrelsome”. FDR’s Secretary of the Interior countered
with “Dewey has thrown his diaper into the ring”.
Then, as a
last resort, Dewey was reduced to smear tactics. And Dewey had a whopper.
Republicans were sure that FDR knew about Pearl Harbor ahead of time, and let
it happen anyway. They were considering bringing their case to the American
people, when Army Chief General George C. Marshall swooped in, before FDR even
knew anything about it.
All their
circumstantial evidence was based on the fact that the US had been able to
decipher Japanese code, which by now, they had in fact figured out. Marshall
assured the Dewey campaign that they hadn’t decoded the Japanese until after
Pearl Harbor, so if the Republicans went public with the information, they’d be
jeopardizing national security.
They begged
the Dewey campaign to drop it so the Japanese wouldn’t find out the US were
reading their secretly coded messages. The Democrats sent Dewey letters, made
telephone calls, and sent anyone they could to talk him out of it.
Eventually,
Dewey agreed, telling his people to “put it away securely, and forget it”. But
Dewey still needed to go after FDR if he hoped to win the election, so he
started charging that the Roosevelt administration was under Communist
influence.
And then
they go after the president’s dog, claiming Fala got left on some islands in
Alaska and a warship had to be sent in to retrieve him, costing the taxpayers
million of dollars.
FDR ran his
usual apathetic campaign until he suddenly came alive, once his dog was
attacked. Speaking to his large crowds in five major speeches, he told them: “I
don’t resent attacks, my family doesn’t resent attacks, but Fala resents them.
He has not been the same dog since!”
He came to
the defense of his administration (of course they’re not Commies!), and said
the age argument is ridiculous because “we’re all 11 years older than we were
when this mess was dumped into our laps in 1933”.
FDR, of
course, goes on to win the election. Pollsters predicted it would be close, but
it was not. Thomas Dewey wins 99 electoral votes, while FDR rakes in 432. It’s
not the most he’s ever won, and he STILL can’t get Maine and Vermont on his
side, but he’s still in office and the Democrats have increased their numbers
in both the house and the Senate.
The election
was good for the country. It showed even during wartime, we can have an
election and still be united on the war front. The fourth inauguration comes
and goes with little fanfare, and FDR is sworn in on the White House lawn
(we’re a nation at war, after all- and it might be a good way to cover up the
president’s health without having him have all that fanfare).
His son, on
leave from military duty, came back to see his dad’s fourth inauguration. James
also knows the war is winding down, but he’s concerned about Japan. He knows
there’s more fighting to come, and the body count will climb with an invasion
there. FDR assures him “there will be no invasion of Japan. We have something
to end the war before any invasion takes place.” FDR can’t tell him what, and
James didn’t know it then, but he was one of the very few people in the United
States to learn about the Atomic Bomb.
After the
inauguration, Roosevelt heads on over to meet with his drinking buddies Winston
and “Uncle Joe”, as he’s now calling Stalin, at the Yalta Conference (in
Crimea, Soviet Union then, Ukraine now) to decide how Europe should be
reorganized after the war, since it’s now a matter of when, not if, the Allies
will be victorious.
Stalin will
take advantage of his ailing drinking buddy here though, and swindle FDR into
giving the Soviets control over Eastern Europe (which as we know now, will sow
the seeds of the Cold War).
When he got
back from his conference, he addresses Congress and everyone noticed how frail
and old he was looking. They say the presidency ages you, and he’s been
president for 12 years.
In an effort
to rest up, FDR starts spending time in his home and rehab center in Warm
Springs Georgia. 83 days after his fourth inauguration, on April 12, 1945 he
was sitting with three woman: his cousin crocheting, an artist sketching a
portrait, and Lucy (as in mistress #1 Lucy).
Since
Mistress #2, Missy, had died, FDR circled back around to Mistress #1. She still
had to be kept secret from Eleanor, or course, so Secret Service had been
sneaking her in and out.
At 3:35 pm
FDR uttered his last words: “I have a terrific pain in the back of my head”,
and he slumped over dead.
Any trace of
Lucy was covered up, and Eleanor showed up to escort the body of her husband
home. Vice President Harry Truman, knowing nothing about what he had gotten
himself into (including the atomic bomb), was sworn in as the 33rd
president, and the nation was in mourning.
Ironically,
the body of a superstitious Franklin who refused to light three cigarettes off
a single match, sat at a table set of 13, or started a trip on a Friday, left
Warm Springs, Georgia on a funeral train on Friday the 13th, where
he was taken to the White House, before eventually being buried at his family
home in Hyde Park.
Harry
Truman, realizing what an asset Eleanor had been to FDR, asked her to be a U.S.
Delegate at the UN, where she created the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. He called Eleanor “First Lady of the World.”
JFK, might
not have loved Eleanor as much as Truman (he once said: “She hated my father,
and she couldn’t stand that his children turned out so much better than hers”.
But, he recognized her talents and intellect, and asked her to serve on a
committee about woman.
FDR left
most of his $2 million estate to Eleanor, who would continue on becoming one of
the greatest humanitarians of the 20th century, becoming a firm
advocate for the civil rights movement, helping to work to end segregation and
discrimination.
She would
give lectures and publish writings, donating all of her earnings to charities.
She’d take in Fala, becoming inseparable with the most famous pet in
presidential history, who lived 7 years after his master. (Fala is buried near
to FDR).
Eleanor would
go on to live 17 more years than her husband, and despite their differences,
she would be buried right next to him.
He was the
first president to ride on Air Force one, the first president to make the Oval
Office his office, and the first president to appear on television.
He saw the
dedication of the Golden Gate Bridge, and the completion of Mount Rushmore, but
what he’s remembered for is being our leader during the 12 most difficult years
in American history, seeing us through the Great Depression and WWII. He was
the era’s biggest hero.
Roosevelt is
cemented pretty firmly as one of the best presidents. It’d be hard to forget
him. Just visit his library in New York to see for yourself.
FDR actually
was the first president to design his own presidential museum. Libraries
designed by the men they’re meant to inform the public about is quite the
conflict of interest. They become ‘archives of spin’, and ‘propaganda museums’.
Over time they balance out (FDR’s library was renovated in 2013 and when it
reopened, Japanese Internment Camps got a display), but at first they present
their legacy with the rosiest of rose-colored glasses. (Fan fact: Fala’s leash,
collar, and dish are all on display at the library)
After his
death, an editorial in the New York Times Declared “Men will thank God on their
knees a hundred years from now that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in the White
House.”
While we
know legacies can change over time, so far, FDR’s presidency has been
remembered, honored, and revered. In 1997, the FDR memorial was unveiled in DC.
He joined the best of the best there: Jefferson, Lincoln and Washington. Plus,
it’d be kind of hard to forget a guy who’s face is on the Dime.
And no
matter what, he’ll always be the only guy who served four terms. After he died,
the 22nd amendment would be added to the Constitution, limiting a
president to serve two terms.
So what do you think? Legacy a Scathing Review?
Or Rose Colored Glasses?
Hayden thought most of the elections weren't too sleezy. But he was not pleased with the Wendell Willkie election of 1940. It's funny what he latches onto. Tomato throwing plus rocks and stuff really seemed to make him sympathize with Willkie. I try not to influence his decisions. For the most part I'd put all of FDR's elections in the middle-ish.
Of course, FDR ends up much closer to National Treasure (as opposed to Dumpster Fire) than anyone else we've covered so far.
And I loved Hayden's drawing today. He's finally hitting his stride in what I'm hoping to see. He just did Alf Landon on Thursday...
...but today he did an awesome job!
