President Obama, Most Radical? Try FDR

Some conservative circles have turned to demagoguery in the hopes of raising the country’s ire against the chief power holder in Washington, D.C. Politically speaking, it may seem to be an effective tactic for the moment to say that Obama is the most radical or worst president ever. But is it true? And if not, does it expose a lack of leadership and honesty that does damage in the long run?

President Obama certainly does display philosophical leanings that one can comfortably label “socialist.” Yet the legislation and policies he and his allies have pursued are nothing but continuations of past policies enacted by presidents from both sides of the aisle, going all the way back to Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover.

If you want to know the root of today's perceived radicalism,  look  to President Roosevelt. Elected in 1932 after running on a limited government platform, FDR took office on March 4, 1933. From the get go, he was anything but a limited government president:

• During his inaugural speech on March 4, 1933, FDR stated that if Congress did not work with him during the Great Depression, a time of emergency, he would ask for “broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.”

• Two days after his inauguration, FDR closed all of the banks across the country, though some argue fairly that this measure was indeed necessary.

• One month after his inauguration, by Executive Order #6102 FDR confiscated all of the privately held gold of Americans, prohibiting “the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States by individuals, partnerships, associations and corporations…”

• Later that year, he enacted the Agricultural Adjustment Acts (AAA) and the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), both of which imposed severe wage, price, and regulatory controls across the country.

• It was under President Roosevelt that electricity and telephone services were intertwined with the federal government. Consider the Rural Electrification Administration of 1936 and, of course, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) created in 1933.

• In 1935, FDR pushed through the National Labor Relations Act (also known as the Wagner Act), which permanently made government a third party to nearly all contracts between employers and employees.

• When the Supreme Court struck down both AAA and NIRA, President Roosevelt threatened to pack the court. His bullying of the justices signified the end of a Supreme Court upholding a traditional understanding of limited government and the Constitution.

• In 1935, the United States embarked on an experiment in social planning under the Resettlement Administration, which moved poor and destitute Americans to resettlement villages.

• As a result of FDR's wage and price controls, the current third-party payer health care system was put in place through the tax code.

• Let’s not forget that Social Security, upon which Medicare was built, was also created during the New Deal.

No doubt, many conservative and center-right leaders are in a tough spot. Once they label President Obama’s policies as socialist or radical, the president’s defenders will respond, as many already have, that these policies are just a continuation of previous policies, particularly those of FDR.

And there's the rub: How can anyone honestly say that the intention of the current health care reform or Medicare Part D is bad, but Medicare itself is okay? How can anyone honestly say that Card Check is bad, but that government as a de facto third party to labor contracts is okay? How can anyone honestly say that subsidies and bailouts to automakers or banks are bad, but farm subsidies are okay? Yet, that’s exactly what a good deal of conservative leadership has been doing, even during the health care reform debate.

Labeling President Obama as the most radical president is a short-sighted political move. Ultimately, it will lead to further distrust of conservative leaders as Americans come to realize the hypocrisy.

Perhaps conservatives would be better off by simply laying it out to the American people straight-forwardly: You either reject the socialism on display now, and set about tearing down what FDR put in place in the New Deal, thereby reaffirming the Constitution, or you accept the policies FDR put in place as well as the increasing government intrusion in Americans’ social and economic life to which the New Deal policies naturally lead.  

For decades, we have tried to have it both ways. It can’t be done. The ability to maintain a semi-free economy with massive social welfare policies through inflation and deficit spending is likely coming to an end. Hard choices are ahead and we either rip socialism out by the roots or fully embrace it.

To learn more about FDR and the New Deal take a look at our new library topic: Great Depression 101.