Earlier this month, Time magazine released a special president's edition magazine, which ranked each president based on polls taken throughout the years of their presidency and afterwards. It placed each president in one of four "categories": Icons, Great Leaders, Capable Hands, and Feet of Clay. In the top "Icons" category were only three presidents: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, or FDR.
American history lessons consistently uphold FDR as a great man, a president who led America through the trying times that were the Great Depression and World War 2. In history's eyes, he was a man who could truly do no wrong, and made aggressive reforms that succeeded in restoring American power and confidence.
It is in fact true that FDR inherited one of the most difficult terms a president could have, and certainly made some good of it. His fireside chats helped give an economically unstable nation the ability to hear and connect with their leader, and many New Deal programs gave hope to the enrolled workers who otherwise would be on the streets.
However, FDR was a very controversial figure in his day, and many modern Americans don't know the details of what was the most unique administration in our country's history. It is my personal opinion that while FDR was a fairly good president, he doesn't deserve quite as much praise as he receives. He made just as many bad decisions as any other leader, some of which could have threatened the nature of our free nation.
First, lets discuss his breaking of term limit precedent. It was well-known that George Washington set the precedent of stepping down after two terms of the presidency, which every leader before FDR followed. Washington's decision to pass power onto another person helped to solidify the country as an electoral democracy, where the people's vote actually mattered and wasn't just a formality to keep the same man in office every election cycle (consider Vladimir Putin's Russia). FDR broke this trend, claiming his continued efforts were needed to help save the country. This is an interesting mindset when one considers the foundation of American government, which depends on the wishes of the voters to run things, not the power of one man to make change and preserve democracy. Yet this seems to be what FDR believed. Therefore, he broke precedent and ran for a third, and then a fourth term. Following his death in 1945, Amendment 22 was ratified in 1951, which formally limited every president to just two terms. Had FDR done such a perfect job, why did this amendment gain massive support? This is merely food for thought.
FDR changed the way that our government was structured, in ways that bypassed congress. Traditionally, the executive office was designed to enforce the laws put in place by congress, making the popularly elected house and Senate the most powerful part of government. However, FDR managed to circumvent this structure, and make the presidency the most powerful office by adding agencies, departments, and programs under the executive that did great things, but were beyond congress's reach in terms of regulation. Social Security, the FAA, AAA, TVA, FHA, and various other "alphabet soup" agencies were created under FDR's administration but were designed to be so deeply ingrained in the system that any future president attempting to remove them would be committing political suicide. Therefore, he expanded the government to the point where the legislative branch seemed more and more irrelevant, on questionably constitutional grounds. Was this really the best move for the preservation of democracy?
FDR further enhanced the power of the executive by using the executive order more than any other president before him combined, again circumventing congress and therefore the voters. Roosevelt, through the course of his presidency, passed 3,721 executive orders; for contrast, Obama passed 235, Bush 291, and Washington 8. That's an average of 930 per term. The executive order is supposed to only be used when absolutely necessary, but FDR lived by it and governed primarily through it. The most controversial of these was EO 9066, which called for the internment of Japanese-Americans on the west coast; had any other president passed something like this, they would be crucified.
Of course, FDR did great things as well. He led the country successfully during World War Two, and worked closely with Churchill and Stalin to guarantee victory. But domestically, his presidency changed the way government is conducted in this country, in many ways giving one man more power than he realistically should have, leading to a modern presidency where nobody could possibly do a job good enough to please the whole country.
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