Why was FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) a bad president, socially, politically, and economically?

Question

I need factual information (sources are always nice) as to the low points of FDR's presidency. Numerical stats are good because they are concrete. Thanks!

Answer 1

He made everyone turn in their Gold then took the dollar off the gold standard! However starving Americans did get fed & the war machine put people to work getting paid with paper & ink that was superficial at best! However Abe Lincoln did the same with the civil war! This part of American history keeps being repeated " the majority fleeced/victimized/Kia/explioted to the maximum! Legal Citizen majority rule & control is the only real solution i can come up with to end it. Put the wealthy elite & representative governmrnt out of business! Overall he & his wife were the best team ever in toward the average citizen socially!

Answer 2

I'm suprised how emotionally people responded to this, going so far as to call you ignorant for even asking the question. Yes, FDR did do a lot of good things, he also did some awful things and was inadequate in many ways. There are few presidents with unblemished records and to claim otherwise is ignorant in itself.

That being said, here are the main failures of FDR:

- He DID NOT succeed in ending the Great Depression. This is by far the greatest myth of his presidency. Any high school textbook will confirm this. Ultimately what pulled the US out of Depression was WWII. FDR's economic reforms did little more than very slightly redistribute wealth (the insubstantial income leveling that did occur was due to returns in investments, not redistributive tax policies)

-Established the NRA which protected business cartels, legalizing monopolies

- Took the United States off the gold standard isolating America economically

-Tried replacing federal judges over the age of 70 (mainly because the Supreme Court did not uphold the NRA, AAA and other New Deal reforms)

- The New Deal benefited only 30% of African Americans, and many government civil service jobs were segregated

-The AAA helped wealthy farmers and displaced poor, mainly black, sharecroppers

I hope that helps : )

Answer 3

Anyone who says that FDR was a "bad president" is one of two things -- either mistaken, or a GOPer that either contributed to a relic of a history-book, or was on the "outs" of national power-circles for the decades that FDR presided over our Nation. You need statistics? He started in a Depression Era, not seen since and was our World Leader through the second World War (something that could NEVER, ever have been done by feeble, self-interested people like a Bill Clinton or GWB, his father or Bubba's predecessor, Jimmy Carter). These are 4 of our absolute worst Presidents in the last 100 years, and nearly in succession. In fact, you can say that FDR was an architect of modern-day America with everyone from worker-reforms, social security & income tax (!!) that were initiated (try ThAT today, with a status quo President like we've had) -- these are ALL things that the then Fat Cat GOP (which lost its way BIGTIME from the days of Teddy Roosevelt's Big Stick days!!) despised -- which is what you are taking an 80-year old, discounted tactic that FDR wasn't one of our Top 10, if not Top 5-6 greatest Presidents?!? He was handicapped, and died prematurely - he was married to a very intelligent woman that was before her time (and Hillary isn't 10% of what Eleanor was). In fact, there' NO WAY under the sun that FDR would ever say "we can, and we WILL do better" like the Clintons, while DOING nothing but lining their pockets. $6 million for his "library" for the reputed payoff of a last-second PARDON for Marc Rich -- an int'l wanted black market criminal that supported Saddam's corrupt end-around UN Sanctions, and basically launced the USA into war over this -- and the MEDIA and politicians sweep it ALL under the rug (for their purposes?). That is embarassing. Remember, Scooter Libby is our VP's right-hand man -- and was Marc Rich's DC lawyer (read lobbyist) for that Clinton pardon. Everyone is corrupt, and Clinton should have been jailed.

Answer 4

If you actually think that FDR was a bad president, then I am afraid to say that you are ideologue beyond hope. In the many ways in which he restored American confidence during the Great Depression and led America through World War 2, he is beloved and respected by Republicans and Democrats alike. In that regard, he is one of the very few. I personally would put him in the top three of American presidents, with Washington and Lincoln as saviors of the American experiment.

Was he perfect, no? The interment camps of Japanese civilians during WW2 was not his idea but he eventually signed the executive order permitting it. Also his court packing plan, his attempt to add the number of possible Supreme Court justices in order to get more New Deal reforms declared constitutional, was also severely misguided. Although in both cases, George W. Bush in my opinion, has done worse.

Overall, I don't think America exists today as it is without FDR. We are blessed for having him in office when we did.

Answer 5

Well, let's see....he led the nation out of the Hoover depression by creating government-sponsored programs to provide jobs to the thousands of people out of work....these programs were used to make improvements to parks, cities and towns across the nation, thereby killing two birds with one stone....he got the economy back on its feet and made the nation a paying place to live and work again....he led the United States through the first two and a half years of WWII until his unexepected death in 1944....he was so despised by the people that he was elected President three times in a row, the first and ONLY time that's ever been done.....

Yeah, he was just awful as a president. Really.

Answer 6

To members of his class he was a traitor, but that's not saying much for the pampered darlings of his class of super rich snobs. He came in at the end of the depression, the start of the war, the middle of social upheaval that would mark the beginning of the Atomic Age. You can of course find statistics on his administration, but truly there was no way but up for the country. I know that people disagreed with his ideas of democracy, but that doesn't make him a bad president, and his four terms in office would seem to bear that out.

Answer 7

He was one of the greatest Presidents ever, guiding us safely through two huge national emergencies, the Depression and WWII. He restored confidence in the nation through his leadership.

It is frightful to think what would've happened if he hadn't been there during those years.

Think of how Rudy has been lionized for his leadership during 9/11 and magnify that 10,000 times and you will have some conception of how important FDR was to this country.

Answer 8

that question needs answers , but not the way you want. i was raised during the depression years under his administration. he did more good for the people than i can put down. it would be a good thing for people who put him doewn to live under the same circumstances that we did. sure, he wasnt perfect, but who is. i wish we had someone like him today. generations have a habit of forgetting.. too bad.my vete=== the best

Answer 9

Let me guess, You are at a christian school? Or being home-schooled by a religious nut?

Answer 10

Maybe, the very worst.