FDR Seems “Strangely Vulnerable”

Ted Widmer warns in the New York Times that “a recent spate of books from the right, including Jim Powell’s FDR’s Folly and Thomas E. Woods Jr.’s Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, have accused [FDR] of prolonging the Great Depression and generally screwing up America.”

Have a look at Widmer’s column. It’s a bunch of idiotic platitudes backed up by nothing, and endorsing the view of the presidency shared by left-liberals and neoconservatives alike: an office whose ideal occupant doesn’t simply execute the laws, but is a far-seeing demigod whose “vision” and “agenda” overawe all other sectors of society.From Widmer:

“Roosevelt reinvented the presidency during his first hundred days in office, through bold policy innovations, brilliant speeches and broadcasts and a personal connection with the American people that has not been equaled since.”

“F.D.R. embodied hope to a people consumed by despair.”

“Through his words, his improvisations and his effortless optimism, Roosevelt resuscitated American capitalism, and in so doing, may have saved democracy as well.”

Were it not for the fact that these inane sentences contain subjects and predicates, they could have been lifted from any freshman paper on FDR. The one “misstep” Widmer allows, by the way, is FDR’s opposition to federal deposit insurance. Words fail me.

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1:40 am on May 19, 2006