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I have never been impressed with FDR and his various economic "fixes" were a disaster. The depression was made much worse with this Socialist ideas of "fixing" it and the underlying goal was for a huge government run economy. He put this country on the path to the modern day welfare state that we have now. It's been a huge waste of money and solved little if any social problems. He was warned not to put the fleet into Pearl Harbor by Admiral Richardson so he fired Admiral Richardson. Bang. 2300 dead Americans at Pearl Harbor. He should have pulled the troops out of the Philippines like the British pulled their troops out of France when they faced certain defeat. He did not and doomed those troops to death or endless torture from the Japanese. He went overboard helping "Old Joe Stalin" with supplies, money etc...while not demanding Stalin open a Second Front against the Japanese in China. He never should have run for the fourth term due to his terrible health condition but did not care and was consumed with power. All in all, he helped fixed the banking system, but made the taxpayers responsible for banking failures. To this day the MSM, education system give him a free pass and never ending praise. <<cut>>
I agree with his political flaws. He was a really odd person as was Eleanor and their marriage.
I wonder if the internet (with more information than 1930's radio reports and print newspapers) was available back then could he be elected? Idk. We have a long history/list of awful 20th Century presidents.
Last edited by YorktownGal; 01-03-2022 at 10:06 AM..
I have never been impressed with FDR and his various economic "fixes" were a disaster. The depression was made much worse with this Socialist ideas of "fixing" it and the underlying goal was for a huge government run economy. He put this country on the path to the modern day welfare state that we have now. It's been a huge waste of money and solved little if any social problems. He was warned not to put the fleet into Pearl Harbor by Admiral Richardson so he fired Admiral Richardson. Bang. 2300 dead Americans at Pearl Harbor. He should have pulled the troops out of the Philippines like the British pulled their troops out of France when they faced certain defeat. He did not and doomed those troops to death or endless torture from the Japanese. He went overboard helping "Old Joe Stalin" with supplies, money etc...while not demanding Stalin open a Second Front against the Japanese in China. He never should have run for the fourth term due to his terrible health condition but did not care and was consumed with power. All in all, he helped fixed the banking system, but made the taxpayers responsible for banking failures. To this day the MSM, education system give him a free pass and never ending praise. <<cut>>
Thanks for posting something off topic and totally irrelevant. You have stated why you think FDR was not a good President.
This thread is about a specific topic. Its about whether FDR did enough to aid European Jews in the Holocaust. Do you understand now why your post is not on topic?
Frankly, I'm capable of believing that before the war FDR and his administration simply didn't see urgency of it and had bigger fish to fry with their efforts fighting the Great Depression, rearming this country, and creating the Lendlease program for Britain and the USSR.
The Depression was very slow to go away. The unemployment rate was about 10% as late as 1940.
Also, how big were the quotas? How many slots went unfilled?
In addition to the above (which I certainly agree was the biggest part of the equation) there was also enough latent antisemitism, combined with a public that had much bigger concerns domestically, it never blipped FDR's radar in a significant way. Meaning, there wasn't a lot of outcry about it that made it an issue he politically needed to deal with.
In addition to the above (which I certainly agree was the biggest part of the equation) there was also enough latent antisemitism, combined with a public that had much bigger concerns domestically, it never blipped FDR's radar in a significant way. Meaning, there wasn't a lot of outcry about it that made it an issue he politically needed to deal with.
Whether it was based on antisemitism or something else American public opinion in 1939 was heavily against allowing additional refugees into the US.
In a January 1939 poll, 83% of Americans opposed accepting additional European refugees, and although newspaper coverage generally sympathized with the plight of the passengers, few editorials or letters to the editor advocated admitting the St. Louis passengers.
I will note World War II began in September of 1939. After that, it became very, very difficult to get refugees out.
In addition to the above (which I certainly agree was the biggest part of the equation) there was also enough latent antisemitism, combined with a public that had much bigger concerns domestically, it never blipped FDR's radar in a significant way. Meaning, there wasn't a lot of outcry about it that made it an issue he politically needed to deal with.
There were three things -
First, the US entered Europe's WWI. The American public didn't understand why their sons hat to fight in a European war. They didn't want another 116,516 American boys dying overseas.
Second, the anti-German WWI propaganda was fake news. The reports of German soldiers raping nuns and spearing babies were lies and Americans didn't want to fall for fake news again.
Third -there had been immigration quotes against Asians, Italians, Poles, Catholics and Jews because US saw them as an inferior people.
Quote:
May 1924: The Immigration Act of 1924 limits the number of immigrants allowed into the United States yearly through nationality quotas. Under the new quota system, the United States issues immigration visas to 2 percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States at the 1890 census. The law favors immigration from Northern and Western European countries. Just three countries, Great Britain, Ireland and Germany account for 70 percent of all available visas. Immigration from Southern, Central and Eastern Europe was limited. The Act completely excludes immigrants from Asia, aside from the Philippines, then an American colony.
Since the 1890 census reflected higher numbers of northern Europeans, immigrants from those countries had greater opportunities to emigrate. The arguments, outlined in Madison Grant's 1916 book The Passing of a Great Race, held that older immigrants were skilled, thrifty, hardworking like native born Americans and recent immigrants from southern and eastern Europe were unskilled, ignorant, predominantly Catholic or Jewish and not easily assimilated into American culture. Madison Grant and Charles Davenport, among other eugenicists, were called in as expert advisers on the threat of "inferior stock" from eastern and southern Europe, playing a critical role as Congress debated the Immigration Act of 1924. The act attempted to control the number of "unfit" individuals entering the country by lowering the number of immigrants allowed in to fifteen percent of what it had been previously. Existing laws prohibiting race mixing were strengthened as well. The adoption of incest laws and many anti-miscegenation laws were also influenced by the premises of eugenics.
I think it's a mistake not to understand the wide acceptance of the intellectual belief/ideas of eugenicists. It was worldwide phenomenon even in China, Japan and Korea. It did not begin with the German-Nazis.
Last edited by YorktownGal; 01-04-2022 at 09:18 AM..
In younger years, I despised FDR in just about every way, but with age comes wisdom and thoughts have changed. FDR was exactly what people here needed at the time: a charismatic, educated, well spoken leader who could reassure the masses and had enough political clout to get things done. His programs, with all their flaws, put millions to work and built the infrastructure of this country at the time. Did anyone really care what he supposedly thought of Jews? I do not think he was elected by a Jewish Cabal time after time. He was the right person for the job at that time in our history.
In younger years, I despised FDR in just about every way, but with age comes wisdom and thoughts have changed. FDR was exactly what people here needed at the time: a charismatic, educated, well spoken leader who could reassure the masses and had enough political clout to get things done. His programs, with all their flaws, put millions to work and built the infrastructure of this country at the time. Did anyone really care what he supposedly thought of Jews? I do not think he was elected by a Jewish Cabal time after time. He was the right person for the job at that time in our history.
And apparently the voters thought so at the time. He was not a saint, and no one ever accused him of being one. He was a patrician politician with a pretty good understanding of the conditions, public pressures, and responsibilities of his job. His personal life and his disability were kept quiet as was the custom at that time. Eleanor Roosevelt was no shrinking violet and was more than capable of holding her own in a relationship that was constantly under stress with six kids and her own agenda. I don't think he can be accurately described as "holocaust enabler".
In younger years, I despised FDR in just about every way, but with age comes wisdom and thoughts have changed. FDR was exactly what people here needed at the time: a charismatic, educated, well spoken leader who could reassure the masses and had enough political clout to get things done. His programs, with all their flaws, put millions to work and built the infrastructure of this country at the time. Did anyone really care what he supposedly thought of Jews? I do not think he was elected by a Jewish Cabal time after time. He was the right person for the job at that time in our history.
You know, I think people misunderstand the times. Prior to World War II, Americans had very little interest in foreign affairs/policy. The doctrine of Isolationism had kept the USA from even joining the League of Nations following World War I. Probably until about the time France fell to the nazis in 1940, most Americans had no interest in taking sides. There was a belief that we should never have entered World War I.
Than, you add to that the fact that domestic issues in America (The Great Depression) preoccupied everyone. I mentioned earlier that as late as 1940, the official unemployment rate was still almost 10 percent. We had serious problems of our own. Worry about refugees from Europe? Maybe if we had known the outcome of the Holocaust. However, we didn't. We just knew the Germans didn't like Jews. Hindsight is always 20/20
We make mistakes. We learn from them. I cannot imagine any president handling this differently than FDR did.
Prior to World War II, Americans had very little interest in foreign affairs/policy. The doctrine of Isolationism had kept the USA from even joining the League of Nations following World War I. Probably until about the time France fell to the nazis in 1940, most Americans had no interest in taking sides. There was a belief that we should never have entered World War I.
I don't think most Americans have ever been isolationist, per se. But they were and are concerned about yielding sovereignty to any other country or to any global organization. Nobody else gets to tell us what we must do, and that includes going to war without a congressional declaration of war. And this attitude also extends to the notion that every country should have a minimum rate of income tax, and that some international body can order the US to meet their emissions standards.
So protecting national sovereignty was why joining the League of Nations was defeated. As for attitudes about the war in Europe circa 1939/1940, I suspect most Americans figured we were likely to get in, eventually, but we were not ready.
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