42
T H E E AG L E - T H E P U P I L S ’ P O L I T I C S M AG A Z I N E
T H E E AG L E - T H E P U P I L S ’ P O L I T I C S M AG A Z I N E
Franklin t l e v e s o o D. R ester
wer Sixth, Glouc
Lo Eleanor Wilson -
THE ONLY PRESIDENT ELECTED FOUR TIMES, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT SHOWED HIMSELF TO BE ONE OF THE MOST, IF NOT, THE MOST EFFECTIVE PRESIDENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY. He led America through the most challenging political issues of the 20th century, World War II and the Great Depression. However, his smaller achievements and positive attributes must not be over-shadowed by the momentous; his excellent relationship with Congress, the media and the citizens of America are also very notable. Essentially, he played an integral part in transforming the US into the superpower that it is today. In his early life, Roosevelt was brought up with very traditional Christian values, and later went on to use these values as moral influence over his later political activities. He went to a private preparatory school, and was raised to be a gentleman, and it is clear to see, that he fostered these values in his later presidential career. After attending Harvard and Columbia law schools, he was keen to launch his political career, due to considerable pressure from his uncle to enter public service. That opportunity to enter mainstream politics came in 1910, when party leaders of Duchess County, New York, persuaded him to run for a seat in the state senate. Surprisingly, he won the election, and emerged as a very promising political figure, who was extremely capable and successful. These early successes eventually spiralled into his presidential career, and it was at this time that he showed himself to be the most influential and effective president in US history. In his first term, Roosevelt was faced with a massive domestic crisis. The Great Depression had gutted America, unemployment was over 20%, and GDP had declined by 30%. The US was in a dire situation and was arguably facing the most serious economic crisis in its history. Roosevelt showed himself to be the man to take on the momentous task of repairing America’s economic situation, and when he was elected in 1932, he quickly set to work on plans
to solve this dire situation. Roosevelt managed to achieve much electoral success; his promise of A ‘New Deal’ to aid economic recovery, with focuses on limiting too much private economic power, balancing the budget, and making extensive use of the Federal Government for the purposes of economic recovery proved to be extremely appealing. This factor combined with Republican ‘laissez faire’ economic policies, which were becoming increasingly unpopular due to their perceived nature of being tired, old fashioned and ineffective, led to him winning the 1932 election by a massive margin, with 32 million popular votes compared to Hoover’s measly 16 million, and the Democratic Party winning extremely significant majorities in both the House and the Senate. Roosevelt showed himself to be particularly effective in the way that he interacted with the American electorate during this time of great economic and social distress. He hosted a series of radio broadcasts cleverly named ‘fireside chats’ in which he clearly and informally explained his planned policies in order to gain the trust of the American people, and it certainly worked. Roosevelt’s clever use of the media meant that the American people trusted their president more than ever before, and to further this, it meant that the electorate felt more included in the political discourse than ever before; setting the bar very high for any future president regarding
43
media presence. Not only did he have an exemplary media presence with regards to direct contact with the electorate, but he also held regular conferences with media outlets and journalists, to ensure that they felt included, and had access to the information they needed. This was an extremely clever move and is particularly telling of his excellent political capabilities and skills, as it made sure that he formed good relationships with the media, limiting the amount of bad press and media slander that he received. It is little achievements and shows of overall capability like this which make him the greatest and most effective President in US history; it is not just the large-scale achievements which matter. Roosevelt’s New Deal was undoubtably one of his greatest achievements. Not only did it facilitate economic recovery, but it was also revolutionary in its ideology. You see, the US had never had such an expansive Federal Government prior to the implementation of the New Deal; it was a completely novel idea of high government fiscal and economic intervention, one which had been thought of but never actually put into practice before. Roosevelt dealt with the banking crisis quickly prior to the implementation of this relief plan; he ordered all banks, even the Federal Reserve banks, to shut for four days, in order for Congress to act. This clever move bought a considerable amount of time for Roosevelt and Congress, meaning that he could put a suitable plan in place for economic recovery, which later materialised into the New Deal. Part of the New Deal were the Alphabet Agencies, which aimed to provide extensive employment opportunities for those who had lost great amounts of money on the stock market. Roosevelt really did have too many achievements to list, but he was arguably one of the most effective Presidents in US history. His accomplishments across the board, on both domestic and international levels were momentous, and their legacy have lived on throughout the 21st century.
