FDR Lesson for Obama
This proposal was in effect Roosevelt’s first introduction to supply-side economics. To arm the nation for war, Roosevelt not only had to agree to set aside his own ideological misgivings but almost a decade of his own failed economic policies…The results…were staggering. Barely a year later—by the time Japanese bombs fell on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941—the scale of American war production was fast approaching that of Nazi Germany.
America truly became the “arsenal of democracy” (the phrase Knudsen invented). By the end of 1942 we were producing more tanks, ships, planes and guns than the entire Axis; by the end of 1943 more than Germany, the Soviet Union and Britain combined.
Arthur Herman’s entire editorial in the WSJ.
Throughout much of the second half of the 20th Century, Roosevelt was thought of as one of the greatest U.S. presidents in history — alongside Washington and Lincoln. As the generation of Americans touched by the Great Depression dies, historians are reassessing his place in American history. Roosevelt was an elitist. He held a paternalistic, pessimistic views of the ability of Americans to take control of their own destiny.
While making excuses for Roosevelt, I’ve had teachers and professors argue that his socialistic policies were to preserve what little capitalism he could in response to Huey Long’s share the wealth platform. I’ve also heard historians say he cared about the average person, but was considered a traitor by his wealthy peers. It’s hard to say with any certainty whether Roosevelt did all he could to preserve capitalism; or did all he could to institute socialism (or something in between).
The practical necessities of war trumped ideology.
On matters of economics, certainly, his place needs to be reassessed by even the most adulating of historians.
Interesting.
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