FDR and Obama: a tale of two young presidencies

In the July 6 issue of Time magazine, Pulitzer Prize winning professor David M. Kennedy outlined some of the similarities between the problems faced by President Franklin Roosevelt and those now facing President Barack Obama.

President Roosevelt seized the Great Depression as an opportunity to change life for generations to come. If he is to be successful, President Obama must do something similar.

Crisis, in Chinese, is a combination of “danger and opportunity.” President Roosevelt clearly understood that whenever perils are presented, it opens the doors to great opportunities for progress.

In 1920, Roosevelt stated that Democrats could not come to power until and unless the Republicans led us into a “mess.” The 1930s and 1940s provided an object lesson in the relationship between economic danger and political opportunity.

Should he — or is — President Obama trying to follow this lesson?

President Roosevelt developed policies aimed at solving immediate problems, surely, but more importantly, the final objective was the potential benefit to and for future generations. If President Obama should choose to follow President Roosevelt’s successful principles, then he should direct his efforts toward developing and promoting policies and seizing every opportunity that provides the American people lasting and durable reforms.

President Roosevelt’s first 100 days included a few initiatives and psychological boosts, but his greatest achievements came much later. His New Deal reforms’ most immediate purpose was to end the current crisis of the Great Depression. In the long-term, the goal was to make America a less risky place, and lessen hazards and increase fortunes of future generations:

-- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation aimed to provide confidence to bank depositors.

-- The Securities and Exchange Commission provided more reliable information to investors.

-- The Federal Housing Administration gave protection to mortgage lenders and more options to home buyers.

-- The National Labor Relations Board brought stability in dealings between management and labor.

-- The Fair Labor Standards Act ensured more predictable wages for the most vulnerable workers.

-- Social Security offered a minimal safety net for the unemployed and elderly.

-- The Civilian Conservation Corps offered millions of jobs to the unemployed — and probably saved our great national heritage, the National Park System, and our Public Lands.

Few of these generated appreciable, immediate economic stimuli in the short-term. They were, however, the foundation for unprecedented economic growth and broadly shared prosperity during and after World War II.

President Roosevelt’s innovations completely changed the character and life trajectory into what is referred to as “The Greatest Generation.”

The most important lesson to be learned, it seems, is that only FDIC and CCC were approved in the Roosevelt’s first 100 days, and none of the others even in his first year in office (1933). If all of Roosevelt’s programs had been approved immediately and proven successful, inevitable result of “business-as-usual” would more than likely have meant “politics-as-usual” — and we would still be there.

Like President Roosevelt in that time, President Obama, the current members of Congress and the American public need to fully understand the difference between “urgent” and “important.”

President Roosevelt fully acknowledged that the Great Depression made possible the opportunity to realize his objectives, and fully acknowledged the relationship between peril and progress.

In his second inaugural address on Jan. 20, 1937, he said “… such symptoms of prosperity may become portents of disaster.” Also, his most quoted and most misunderstood lines: “I see one-third of a nation ill housed, ill clad, and ill nourished.”

The framers of the Constitution constructed our government so that political powers were based on checks and balances. Along with many virtues, checks and balances also fosters a measure of paralysis, impede swift adjustment to changing economics and slow down effective political activity.

President Obama, wanting to make possibilities out of peril, has used the current economic crisis to put into effect new regulatory rules for our banking and finance industry that Roosevelt would have championed.

Universal health care was first advocated in the platform of President Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Party in 1912. Now Congress is asking for more time?

President Richard Nixon — and every president since — has pushed a policy of energy independence that would have also helped the global warming problem.

Immigration policies need reform.

Education needs some help.

Environmental issues are a serious global problem.

Our national security and military doctrine needs effective leadership and constructive action.

President Obama will be judged not by his first 100 days, nor just by the measures taken in helping solve the economic crisis. History will determine whether he was successful in his efforts to solve all these other problems, while doing what he says is paramount, establishing successful relations with other nations.

I wish that all of us could be here to see the results.

* Davidson lives in Chatham.