The Roosevelt Myth by Murray N. Rothbard

The Roosevelt = Myth
A Review of FDR, 1892=961945: A Centenary = Remembrance,=20 by Joseph Alsop

by Murray=20 N. Rothbard
by Murray = N.=20 Rothbard

First published in=20 Inquiry, April=20 12,1982.


	The=20 Antidote to Alsop =

When Ronald=20 Reagan highlighted a quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt in his = acceptance speech at the 1980 Republican convention, it = seemed like=20 a clever tactical ploy to gain the votes of blue-collar = workers with=20 long memories. But it has since become clear that this was a = mark of=20 genuine devotion, and that FDR truly serves as a = presidential model=20 for Reagan. In this Roosevelt centennial year, moreover, the = conservative, movement, led by journalists George Will and = Vermont=20 Royster, has hastened to celebrate what Will has called "the = splendid legacy of FDR" and what Royster has termed =96 in = the pages=20 of the Wall Street Journal no less =96 the = "greatness" of FDR,=20 "that quality of being larger than other men, seeming larger = than=20 life." While not exactly a conservative, Joseph Alsop is at = least a=20 Rockefeller Republican, and so it is fitting that this = kinsman of=20 FDR should now be performing the major act of integrating = Roosevelt=20 into the pantheon of American heroes. A gushing memorial = valentine,=20 Alsop=92s book has been excerpted, cited, and generally = treated as the=20 official line on Franklin Roosevelt.

What=92s going on=20 here? How can men who aim to Get The Government Off Our = Backs=20 apotheosize the very man who entrenched the welfare state in = America? Surely the perfervid conservative embrace of the = shade of=20 FDR suggests far more than the usual centennial pieties and = the fact=20 that, with the striking exceptions of Hitler and Stalin, the = mere=20 passage of time for most Americans seems to cast a fuzzy = bipartisan=20 glow upon all defunct heads of state.

In = fact, there=20 is a far more sinister process at work. Americans have long = shown an=20 inclination to invest The President with mythic powers and=20 significance not even accurately attributable to absolute = monarchs=20 and tribal chiefs of yore. Whatever happens in any era, in = the=20 economy, the society, or the culture as well as to all = individual=20 goals and aspirations is loaded onto this chimerical figure. = The=20 president becomes the embodiment of the entire country, even = of much=20 of the globe. But in that case, for us to be great, = we must=20 have a Great President; hence the continuing quest for chief = executives who can be made to fit the mold of the mythic = hero. We=20 have heard much in recent decades of the dangers of "elitist = history"; but this is elitist history gone = berserk.

All = this, of=20 course, fits with the modern buildup of the Imperial = Presidency, of=20 which FDR is the founder and grand exemplar. If one reads = the=20 simpering tributes of Reagan and other conservatives, as = well as of=20 liberals, centrists, and the myriad other worshippers at the = Rooseveltian shrine, one sees always the theme of the = Leader: "He=20 brought us hope." "He saw us through hard times." "He = brought=20 greatness to the presidency."

For = Ronald=20 Reagan himself, the role model is even clearer. Reagan sees = FDR as=20 his prototype, the Great Communicator. What "Ronnie" is to = the age=20 of television, FDR was to the age of radio. He was virtually = Mr.=20 Radio, as Roosevelt=92s mellifluous voice, in the unfamiliar = patrician=20 tones that Americans admire, played on his audience in = masterly=20 fashion. Reagan gushes in remembrance: "When he came on, it = was=20 the biggest radio audience ever=85. This was one of = his great=20 strengths=85his ability to communicate." One consummate = actor salutes=20 another.

A = hallmark of=20 myth is that the mythmakers don=92t seem to care that their=20 generalizations cannot be grounded in hard facts. Roosevelt = brought=20 us hope in the depression? Perhaps. But in the concrete all = he=20 brought us was a decade more of depression, which we did not = get out=20 of until World War II. If we wished to be unkind, we might = surmise=20 that Reagan is enchanted with FDR=92s ability to hang the = Depression=20 as an albatross around the neck of Herbert Hoover forever, = and to=20 absolve himself of all responsibility, while he basked in = the glow=20 of appreciation for bringing us the tinsel of good cheer in = hard=20 times. Reagan is attempting the similar ploy of blaming = Jimmy Carter=20 and other predecessors for his own record deficits, but = this=20 time the hokum doesn=92t seem to wash.

None of the=20 mythmakers excels Joseph Alsop in sundering the glittering = and=20 dearly cherished generality from the hard facts. Thus, in = summing up=20 FDR=92s personality, Alsop reveals an unlovely picture: a = man who=20 enjoyed encouraging his subordinates to fight it out in = public; a=20 man who discarded people "when they ceased to be useful to = him"; an=20 obtuse and insensitive husband; an enigmatic pragmatist = interested=20 only in "results"; and =96 what Alsop doesn=92t sufficiently = stress =96 a=20 politician notorious even in that hypocritical company for = giving=20 any man he saw the strong impression that the two of them = were in=20 complete agreement. But, after that damning litany, Alsop = leaps to=20 the conclusion that FDR was a "truly good man." Why? In an=20 unconscious self-parody, because Roosevelt "was the = unrelenting=20 enemy of misery, poverty, oppression, cruelty=85 and every = other form=20 of nastiness and source of unhappiness that human beings and = their=20 societies are given to, and he was the stout friend of = plenty,=20 generosity, decency" and on and on. "In truth," Alsop = concludes, "he=20 loved the light and loathed the darkness.=85" Will the = friends of=20 misery, darkness, cruelty, and nastiness, and the enemies of = plenty,=20 generosity, and decency please stand up? The author of this = mawkish=20 claptrap is called by his publishers "coolly admiring" of = FDR; one=20 would hate to see what Viking Press might consider an excess = of=20 hot-eyed adulation.

In = one of his=20 most bizarre judgments, solemnly repeated by Time = magazine,=20 Alsop asserts =96 again without the slightest evidence =96 = that=20 Roosevelt put an end to WASP rule in America and brought the = Catholic ethnics into the American system. How he is = supposed=20 to have done so, Alsop keeps to himself. And one can only = comment=20 that when Alsop goes on to attribute all opposition to = Roosevelt to=20 the virus of WASP bigotry, he forgets that there were a host = of=20 Catholic ethnics second to none in their intransigent = hostility to=20 FDR.

One = test of the=20 mettle of any Roosevelt biographer is how he handles the = Warm=20 Springs Foundation story. Alsop repeats the self-serving = half-truth=20 trumpeted by FDR himself that he lost two-thirds of his = personal=20 funds investing in the Warm Springs spa for polio victims. = What he=20 conspicuously fails to add is that Roosevelt=92s condition = for running=20 for governor of New York in 1928 was that DuPont magnate = John J.=20 Raskob, the major backer of Democratic presidential = candidate Al=20 Smith, bail out his Warm Springs losses. Nor is there any = mention of=20 FDR=92s pioneering the kind of spying on law-abiding = American citizens=20 that became notorious among his successors. As political = scientist=20 Allen Weinstein pointed out in a refreshing article in the=20 Washington Post, the recently discovered fact that = Roosevelt=20 secretly bugged the Oval Office and discussed with aides the = possibility of using "dirty tricks" on Wendell Willkie in = the 1940=20 campaign should be seen in a wider context: the use of = secret agents=20 and wiretapping to keep track of and harass his political = opponents.=20 Roosevelt, for instance, had a wiretap as well as an = informer=20 planted in the offices of the great anti-interventionist = paper, the=20 Washington Times-Herald. Other critics of = Roosevelt=92s war=20 policy were similarly bugged; and J. Edgar Hoover was given=20 instructions to monitor the affair going on between young = John F.=20 Kennedy and Inga Arvad, a young reporter on the = Times-Herald.=20 In short, many of the excesses we associate with the = subsequent=20 baddies in the Oval Office have their real origin in the = "great"=20 FDR.

But = Reagan and=20 his fellow conservatives are not merely engaged in embracing = the=20 Imperial Presidency. In hailing FDR they are symbolizing = their=20 enthusiastic acceptance of the whole welfare-warfare state, = which a=20 domineering executive power has built in America. Standing = on the=20 shoulders of his political mentor, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin=20 Roosevelt was the premier figure in converting America from = roughly=20 a land of individualism to a country dominated by a Big = Government=20 wielding imperial power at home and abroad. Despite all the = rhetoric=20 about Getting Government Off Our Backs, the conservative = movement=20 intends nothing of the kind. In the course of a paean to = FDR, George=20 Will hails Roosevelt=92s irrevocable redefinition of the = relationship=20 of the citizen to the central government." The = "redefinition" was in=20 fact a restructuring of an entire country. Once a land where = the=20 citizen had been sovereign and the government at least = apparently=20 his servant, FDR above all others forged a nation where the=20 government is master and the citizen a hapless = pawn.

As = Will puts=20 it, before Roosevelt "government had acknowledged only a = duty to=20 produce =91conditions=92 in which people could pursue = happiness." But=20 since FDR, government "has the final responsibility for the=20 well-being of its citizenship"; it is an "agency for = delivering a=20 measure of happiness." I don=92t know how much happiness = government=20 has brought to any of us lately, but in any case if = government has=20 final responsibility it must have the ultimate power to tell = us what=20 to do and to make sure that we do it. In that sort of a=20 post-Rooseveltian world, our happiness and well-being are = highly=20 problematic; but the power over us is not.

But it is the world empire Roosevelt gave us = that truly=20 enchants conservatives of every stripe, from Will to Reagan = to=20 Alsop. As George Will rhapsodizes: "When FDR died in 1945 = America=20 was more supreme than Great Britain after Waterloo, than the = France=20 of Louis XIV =96 than any power since the Roman Empire. And = it had a=20 central government commensurate with that role." That=92s = what=20 the current apotheosis of FDR is all about. Conservatives = may=20 quarrel with the details of what Roosevelt did with the = American=20 empire, but they can forgive him everything for the mighty = power=20 that he has secured. (Both Will and Alsop dismiss = Roosevelt=92s=20 dealings with Stalin as of little moment, though Will is a = bit more=20 critical. Alsop manages to shift the blame to FDR=92s = fatigue and=20 ill-health combined with pro-Soviet misinformation = disseminated by=20 the New York Times.)

Reaganites might subtract a few food stamps = here and=20 add a few missiles there, they might transpose a few of the = formerly=20 designated "good nations" and "bad nations," but they are = clearly=20 content with the legacy of Big Government at home and abroad = that=20 Franklin Roosevelt left us. Conservatives, liberals, and all = breeds=20 in between are content to salute the centennial and dance = together=20 around the Maypole of the status quo.

Murray N.=20 Rothbard (1926=961995) was the author of Man,=20 Economy, and State, C= onceived=20 in Liberty, What=20 Has Government Done to Our Money, For a = New=20 Liberty, The=20 Case Against the Fed, and many other books = and=20 articles. He was also = the editor=20 =96 with Lew Rockwell =96 of The=20 Rothbard-Rockwell Report.

Murray=20 Rothbard Archives=20 =

The Roosevelt = MythA Review of FDR, 1892=961945: A Centenary = Remembrance,=20 by Joseph Alsop

The Roosevelt = Myth
A Review of FDR, 1892=961945: A Centenary = Remembrance,=20 by Joseph Alsop