Franklin D Roosevelt was one of the greatest presidents in America but did he ever have any failures?

Question

What was his biggest mistake/failure?

Answer 1

Conservatives consider him one of the least democratic presidents of all time. He linked the federal government much more strongly to state governments, eroding the jurisdiction of individual states. He created a large-scale welfare system that has had dubious results in the long term (though this can as easily be blamed on the failure of later politicians to reform the system effectively).

Answer 2

Well the times were so desparate when FDR first took office and his leadership so appealing to the average american that its hard to say that any of his policies were failures. Yes, they have left us with some baggage, like social security but those have become political issues that FDR from the grave can't do anything about. One of his mistakes might have been thinking he had the political clout to increase the size of the supreme court or force retirement of some of the senior justices who happened to be ruling against his policies. This "court packing plan", although clearly legal as the size of the supreme court had always varied and could be set by Congress found FDR in serious hot water, even with his within his own party.

Answer 3

He started the US shift to a welfare state, but it was necessary at the time.

His biggest failures were 1. not setting any type of time limit on his social programs, so that theyve far outlived their necessity and are now causing problems; and 2. trying to completely control all 3 branches of gov't. Luckily even his own party saw that this was crazy and refused to allow him to add another judge to the Supreme Court (which would have given them a majority there as well as in both houses).

Answer 4

Yep. He who has not failed has attempted nothing. And mistakes don't matter if you can live with the consequences (ask Bush). FDR had the good sense to learn from failures, the courage to try another way, and the integrity to really aim for the betterment of his people, and not merely for his mates. Well, so far as I know, anyway!

Answer 5

You would find varying opinions on this.

On social policy, one might note that social security, one of his greatest achievements, was also a completely open-ended commitment which has exploded to an enormous budgetary quandrary. It is hard to blame FDR for the failure of subsequent leaders to manage Social Security, though.

Many historians would consider his position at Yalta, where he seemed to try to steer a "middle course" between Stalin and Churchill, as his worst showing. It has been argued that that he permitted Stalin to seize control of much of Eastern Europe- and most particularly Poland, whose sovereignty had been the cause of the outbreak of WWII.

FDR was clearly ill and not at the height of his powers at Yalta, though . . .

Answer 6

It's called Social Security, and we're still living with it and its huge unfunded mandates.

Answer 7

He sure did! He outlawed zombies and was the lynchpin in the party that was the precursor to the Nazis!

Really, some dead American president. Who cares?

Answer 8

It depends on who you ask.