The year was 1932. One in four Americans was out of work – 13 million unemployed. Wages had dropped more than 40 per cent following the stock market crash three years earlier. Farmers were losing their land to weather and their homes to the few banks that had survived.
Entering the race for president was a Harvard graduate with a law degree. He had previously been a New York State senator, served as assistant secretary to the navy, had stood as vice presidential candidate (losing to Warren G. Harding), and, at the time of his electoral campaign for presidency, the two term governor of New York State.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt sailed into office, an overwhelming winner, with the support of a coalition of liberals, farmers, big city voters, African-Americans and organized labour. His theme song was Happy Days Are Here Again. More than 100,000 people attended his inauguration. Embarking on his presidency with the message: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustifiable terror that paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance,” FDR started the 100 Days of Action campaign so often copied by subsequent politicians up to the present day.
Roosevelt immediately took to the radio. His fireside chats mobilized the nation and immeasurably helped the growth of the American broadcasting industry. He regulated the banks and financial markets, establishing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He set up social security.
He put millions back to work with the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Works Progress Administration and Civil Works Administration. His most popular move, argued by some, was the repeal the 18th Amendment that abolished Prohibition. Just about every American looks upon his programs today as common sense. But he had opposition – from the left wing of the Democrats who wanted more, and by right wing Republicans and the corporate sector who wanted less government spending and much less intervention into the economy.
He was rewarded not only with a second term but three more terms – ending with the USA becoming the most powerful and richest nation on Earth. He launched the global American empire.
Doesn’t some of this seem awfully familiar? At least at the beginning. The difference this time is stark however. President Obama has, to date, failed to manage Congress. Congressional members cannot but admire his oratorical skills and fundraising abilities. But there is precious little respect for his governing and administrative competence. And the American public has reflected that thinking in not changing anything in the make up of the newest Senate and House of Representatives.
That doesn’t mean he has done nothing. The United States National Health Care Act is absolutely needed at this time in U.S. history. Obama also prevented the total collapse of the automobile industry. The financial markets have not imploded (yet). But he lacks the crucial elements of a successful presidency. He has no governance credibility with Congress. And he has failed to make American citizens believe they can succeed and recover. If he had, they would have changed Congress, and his margin of victory at the polls would not have been so harrowingly narrow.
Would a more experienced governor who understood what it is to make a living in the real world have made a better president? We will now never know.
Still the U.S. needs to continue to champion FDR’s four basic human rights – freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. That must be President Obama’s mission over the next four years.
Alan Murdock is a local pediatrician.
