Governing in the spirit of Roosevelt
In his own Gettysburg address – this in 1939 – President Franklin Roosevelt said, “It seldom helps to wonder how a statesman of one generation would surmount the crisis of another. A statesman deals with concrete difficulties – with things which must be done day to day.”
Of course, FDR likely never anticipated a U.S. “statesman” as disdainful of America’s guiding principles as Donald Trump. In a span of five days last week – Friday through Tuesday – the president withdrew support from an ally at war with a larger, predator nation whose goal is the violent overthrow of an international border. In the process, the president publicly browbeat the proud warrior-leader of that ally, himself targeted, reportedly, for liquidation by the foe.
And then President Trump went up to Capitol Hill, where he addressed Congress not with an eye on uniting the nation, but with the intention of further dividing it. Like he does with nearly everything, he left Congress in shambles.
These, in MAGA-land, are what count as major achievements. For the rest of us, they are major embarrassments. More than embarrassments, they are scary portents of maybe even worse things to come.
FDR would be appalled, and not because he never employed, as a political tactic, divisive language or sharp elbows.
Niccolo Machiavelli, the great 16th century political philosopher, wrote, “In a well-ordered republic it should never be necessary to resort to extraordinary constitutional measures. For although they may for a time be beneficial, yet the precedent is pernicious, for if the practice is once established of disregarding the laws for good objects, they will in a little while be disregarded under the pretext of evil purposes.”
A modern day political theorist, the rising young scholar Luke J. Schumacher, in the September 2024 issue of the Texas Security Review, writes that “statesmanship is political leadership that combines power and prudence to realize the common good.”
Schumacher notes, “Statesmanship in a rule-bound constitutional order is the act of supplementing, skirting, bending, or breaking the rules, when required to secure the public good, without sacrificing the benefits of rules in the first place.”
Franklin Roosevelt assumed the presidency in a dark hour. On March 4, 1933, the U.S. economy was on the brink of collapse. After three years of economic reversals, with a quarter or more of Americans out of work, with hope and courage nearly gone, Roosevelt swore allegiance to the Constitution.
A great many people urged the new president to assume dictatorial powers. The noted newspaper columnist Walter Lippmann suggested it might be necessary for FDR to preside over an authoritarian regime for six months, so urgent was the need for unimpeded and immediate government action.
The atmospherics were ripe for Roosevelt to do just that. As hard as it is to imagine today, but the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, was a popular figure in the United States and throughout the world in 1933. Three weeks after Roosevelt took office, the German parliament handed over unencumbered power to Adolf Hitler. Autocrats were on the march.
FDR chose a different path – the democratic republican one. Instead of bypassing Congress and signing executive orders, he worked with lawmakers to fashion measures to restore order to the American household, beginning with a law to reform banking. During the fabled first 100 days of the Roosevelt administration, the president and Congress enacted a series of reforms and emergency laws that stemmed the tide of impending doom for both U.S. capitalism and democracy.
“Constitutional arrangements,” Schumacher writes, “forced Roosevelt to persuade when an autocrat might have simply made his ‘art a law.'”
Roosevelt himself would observe that “in a democratic nation, power must be linked with responsibility.” Leaders in a democracy are “obliged to defend and justify [themselves] within the framework of the general good,” FDR said.
It is clear that Roosevelt’s way is not Donald Trump’s way. Trump’s autocratic streak is a mile-wide. He could care less for the Constitution and its powers sharing arrangements. He could care less for Congress and its role in the constitutional order. He demonstrated his disdain for elections and the rule of law in 2020-21.
There are barriers Trump has yet to breach. May the spirit of Roosevelt be with him. More to the point, may that ultimately wise and generous spirit strengthen our collective resolve to see and respond.
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com