FDR gets the crap he deserves

David Beito's tough new bio "FDR: A New Political Life" is reviewed by the great James Bovard in Reason.

The great James Bovard writes a review for Reason that gives FDR all the shit he deserves.

I’m reading this book and it’s excellent, mainly because it talks about all the treacherous and unsavory stuff FDR did throughout his career that we were never taught in any school or in the other hagiographic histories about how saved us from the Depression, etc.

I grew up in a mixed-political household -- my mother revered FDR and my father reviled him. I went to Catholic grade and high school and I thought FDR was the only non-catholic saint.

Turns out he was a standard political sleezeball angling his way up to the White House -- two-faced, no principles, bigoted, went after gays in the Navy, helped Wilson segregate DC, cheated on Eleanor, a total moron about economics who had no idea how moronic he was and didn’t care. He was happy to weaponize the justice department and other federal tools, willing to do whatever it took to hurt his political opponents and help his allies. Sounds kind of familiar.

Haven’t even gotten to the govt. gold grab, the Supreme Court packing scheme, the Japanese internment and placating his racist pals in Congress in the Solid South by doing things like leaving blacks out of New Deal programs.

FDR is probably the best example of how a mediocre president with the correct politics is built up, polished and protected by major media and historians and culture for 100 years.

But what do I know? I voted twice for Nixon.