The Most Consequential Elections in History: Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Election of 1932

The Greatest president of the 20 century

Thanks to Mr Kenneth T. Walsh for excellent article on FDR.

How important it is to study History. There are some parallels to the present situation.

FDR is a great Favorite for me, like Lincoln and Kennedy.

There are also parallels of the present times ( year 2008 ) to Lincoln and Kennedy. Specially on the subject of critiques of "inexperienced candidate".

I have read biographies in which FDR is portrayed as tender, human and respectful of others, particularly blacks.

Other stories and gossip tell me that he was unfaithful to wife Eleanor, and that he said some foolish racist things.

FDR also made the mistake of attacking the Supreme Court, and these judges did not like him too much.

FDR was a great friend of Latin America and got lots of political support and materials for the second world war in that region.

FDR followed the advice of Bismark of being very patient for political developments, You can not do what you want but you have to wait for the "developments". Churchill had to wait for America's involment.

Thanks a lot, US News and World Report. You are a magazine of Intelligence and Quality.

Vicente Duque

1960 Kennedy Election

I think the 1960 election is as close to 2008 as one can get. A junior Democratic Senator running after an 8 year Republican administration in recession during wartime (Cold vs. Iraq) a young minority (Catholic) Democratic candidate creating uncertainty whether his religion would trump his office facing an older Republican stalwart. Yes, in 1960 there were naysayers about JFK even saying the absurd such as putting a rosary around the State of Liberty not to mention his abilities to handle foreign affairs against an older Khrushchev and the very real threat of nuclear war. As in 1960, nobody knows for certain the best decision for America however, somehow the chosen candidate seems to rise to the office regardless. I feel it is best to take a chance on the new which can grow than the old which can only wilt. So I guess I'll go with Obamelot just like Camelot!!!

Undermining FDR's Legacy is the Target of Reactionary GOP

1932 is the most important election of the 20th Century, when FDR effectively stabilized a collapsing country and started to rise all boats to become the superpower that it is now. In discussion of this election, its important to point out the sore losers of that election and their descendants our modern GOP party that has spent the last fifty years trying to undermine and reverse FDR's legacy.

FDR was America's greatest modern president and his policies created the prosperity of the last fifty years that has made the US the superpower that is is. The list of FDR accomplishments is extensive and undeniably the greatest contributions to the US's success in the 20th Century.

Thank god for FDR institutions like the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the FDIC. FDR inherited a collapsed country from Republican incompetence and restored a populist government to work for the people, thus created mortal enemies of America's wealthy aristocracies and privileged oligarchies.

Unfortunately the GOP has never got over the election of 1932, and now we have an aristocratic GOP presidential candidate who has promised to continue rolling back FDR's reforms, exemplified by his promise to kill Social Security. We are enduring an administration now that has done everything in its power to erode or destroy regulatory agencies, by withholding any regulatory enforcement funding and by installing incompetence political hacks and industry insiders with conflicts of interest.

Folks who grew up in the depression knew who screwed up the economy and voted Democratic religiously. Again we see history repeating itself with Republicans like Bush screwing up our economy, bringing us close to another collapse. Fortunately some of FDR's institutions are still firewalls to some of the GOP incompetence, but the US economy might not survive another round of Republican economic impotency and GOP fiscal irresponsibility.

It is time to dump Bush/McCain if we don't want to see our country's economy and integrity continued to be squandered. We need to dump the current aristocracy with a real regime change, to bring real reforms to recover for the incompetence of the past eight years.

While USN&WR defines FDR as one of five inexperienced presidents, FDR has the competence to make his first 100 days in office after the 1932 election the most important period of reform and stabilization of our country at one of its most dire times. The current Republican presidential candidate offers the experience of Coolidge and Hoover, while our country is desperate for the competence of a Democrat like FDR and Clinton.

All this must be revisionist history. Everyone knows that only Republicans can prosecute wars and engineer prosperity.

FDR- The Master, the Lion and the Fox, the Soldier of Freedom

Thank G-d for Franklin Delano Roosevelt! Ken Walsh's column hit the nail squarely on its head. The 3 years of Hoover inactivity on top of the Coolidge five year sleep-a-thon created, as Arthur Schlesinger articulated in his book about FDR, "The Crisis of the Old Order" created a climate of collapse, panic and the inability to cope. One should read his great prose. The Great Depression threatened the very essence and survival of our Democracy. All over Europe, country after country, turned to dictators and desperation was turning into an air of social revolution in America. Roosevelt stopped the bleeding, reversed the slippery slope of collapse and engineered the greatest period of financial, economic and social reform in our history into 100 days. The recovery to the pre-crash inflated and unrealistic markets numbers advanced every year until the Dixiecrat forces and the Wall Street plutocrats demanded a slowdown in New Deal spending. When FDR exceeded to their wished the economy quickly reverted to almost pre-recovery statistics. FDR realized that the pump must be still continued to be primed, and he reversed course and the severe but short recession of 1938 was stopped. FDR warned us of the fascist rise with his Quarantine Speech, but he was silenced by the hundreds of American First isolationists that sought his impeachment for his warnings. Eventually with Lend-Lease, the repeal of the Neutrality Laws, and the Atlantic Charter built from the Four Freedoms State of the Union Address in January of 1941, the country started to take re-armament seriously. FDR beat back the Lindbergh hatred and the isolationist insanity, racism and xenophobia. After Pearl Harbor he made the United States into "The Arsenal of Democracy," created a winning strategy and partnership with Winston Churchill and selected excellent military leaders to prosecute the war. He became truly "The Soldier of Freedom," as named by James McGregor Burns. His leadership established the GI Bill of Rights, the Bretton Woods Monetary Reforms, the United Nations and established the basis for Eleanor Roosevelt's authorship of "The Universal Rights of Mankind." The future world is more in the image of FDR than any other person. It is his world we live in. Roosevelt's dual leadership through the panic and recovery days of the Great Depression and the Dark Days of WWII made him the "essential" and "indispensable man." Churchill said that he was the greatest man he had ever known, and thanked G-d for his life!

RJ Garfunkel

Tarrytown, NY