Personally I think both FDR and Churchill were well worth while and not to forget harry Truman who told exactly as he saw it. Eisenhower wasn't bad either. These men compared to the last 40 years , contributed a great deal.
Actually, FDR was among the biggest and best bullsh!t artists in the history of politics during his presidential campaign and his first term as President. He pretended to be the savior of the working class; but he actually was an arrogant, elitist aristocrat who held the unwashed masses in disdain. (He did genuinely warm up to them later in his presidency, however.)
In 1934, FDR did everything he could to try to force New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia to fire Robert Moses, even to the extent of ordering Harold Ickes to veto any PWA (Public Works Administration) programs intended for New York City as long as Moses was in office. He even had Ickes issue an Administrative Order (No. 129, issued on December 26, 1934, in case you want to fact-check me) that was specially crafted to make sure that New York City received no PWA funds as long as Moses was in office.
Moses eventually went public with FDR's extortion attempt, and FDR's acts were universally condemned by both the press and the people. Ultimately, FDR had to back down in humiliating defeat. It was perhaps the most embarrassing moment of his presidency, and it revealed a great deal about what a conniving, ruthless bully he was.
But the reason why FDR hated Robert Moses is even more telling. FDR hated Moses because he had built parks, beaches, and roads on Long Island and in Westchester County, thus making the majestic and formerly exclusive playgrounds of super-wealthy aristocrats like himself accessible to the riff-raff. He despised Moses for that. But he still managed to convincingly play the part of champion of the working class when he ran for office.
Even most of his many social programs and labor reforms were planks carefully selected from the platforms of the SPUSA and other Left-wing parties. The combined Communist, Socialist, and Labor parties were by far the fastest-growing political segment in America in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, and there was a very good chance that American workers would go the way of the Bolsheviks if something wasn't done very quickly. FDR, the wealthy capitalist, threw them just enough bones to keep them from overthrowing capitalism entirely.
I could go on about FDR, but that would make this post Spin Zone material; and said Zone being no more, the thread would most likely be closed. Suffice it to say that FDR's greatest accomplishment may well have been how effectively he deceived the working people of the nation into believing that he gave a **** about them.
Rich
