FDR: Good or Bad?

[ScratchMonkey]

The subject of which president was the worst came up here, and FDR was proposed by Trooper as the worst:

http://www.tacticalgamer.com/sandbox...-sentence.html

So what do you think?

Here's a couple of articles I found calling into question FDR's reputation as the savior of the world:

http://www.mises.org/freemarket_detail.asp?control=355

http://www.reason.com/news/show/29262.html

A small sample from the first article:

In America: A Narrative History, we get all the details of Watergate and of Nixon's abuse of power (as we should), but not a word about FDR as the pioneer of such activity. When the Paulist radio station of poor Fr. James Gillis in Chicago criticized FDR' s court-packing scheme, the FCC took its license away. As early as 1935, FDR requested that the FBI initiate a series of investigations into a variety of right-wing organizations, and later in the decade secretly sought proof (which, of course, never came) that prominent members of the America First Committee were receiving Nazi money. America Firsters were routinely smeared as Nazis and traitors. Our authors provide us with plenty of one-sided coverage of Joe McCarthy, but nothing about any of this.

The article also has some unflattering points about FDR's economic policies.

[Diceman]

And the Wikipedia article, giving context and background to those who want/need to brush up on their familiarity with FDR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FDR

[El_Gringo_Grande]

There is no doubt that FDR had way to much power for to long. He is the reason the constitution was changed. Now if one person being the cause for a change in the Constitution does not represent a tremendous amount of power then I don't know what does.

Power corrupts yadda yadda. This is true so he was corrupted.

9/11 gave the President and his crew way to much power. More than they needed and it corrupted them (or allowed their already dirty souls to be free depending on who you talk to.)

I think the key is you don't give your representatives any more power than they need and you have to be ready to yank it away the second they start to abuse this power.

That is the main problem as I see it. Giving power seems pretty easy, taking it away seems much more difficult.

[deathknight]

FDR was like most presidents I think, did some good and did some bad. Locking up the Japanese, not stopping Hitler sooner were some of his bad deeds. Getting us through the depression, social security, welfare, etc were some of his good deeds. I know many of these programs are abused today but then they were necessary. Worst president, I think far from it. He is close to the best president we've had but that isn't saying much. I personally think most of the presidents rank pretty low on the evolutionary chain.

[AMosely]

Everyone on this forum is probably underqualified, at least in a general sense, to fully evaluate a president who served before they were even born. My father wasn't even born until Roosevelt's third term, so even he can't offer a first-hand account. Had you lived during Roosevelt's tenure, you could in fact claim that Roosevelt saved your life, your family, and your country.

That aside, based on my grasp of WWII-era American history, I do think that Roosevelt's 'good' outweighed his 'bad.' He certainly got the country through some very trying times - far more trying than 9/11. He was a man of many secrets, the biggest of which was his personal health, but the more severe had to do with armament and Soviet/Russian intelligence.

His domestic legacy certainly included a consolidation and marked increase in executive power, but in a very different way from what we are witnessing in the White House today. Roosevelt's 'New Deal' and related government managed social programs were largely effective in re-establishing the American economy. Oddly, it is these types of social assistance programs that are taking the biggest cuts under George Bush's budget today. While these cuts are blamed on war funding, it is largely believed that the Republican party of today intends to significantly dismantle the social reforms (programs, laws and associated taxpayer costs) that presidents like FDR put in place.

I would say that even given the eventual outcome of his policies, FDR was a good president.