Roosevelt dictatorship

This article is part of a series about Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Leading up to the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, a hypothetical Roosevelt dictatorship was proposed by some supporters of Franklin Roosevelt. Rhetorical support for the idea reached a high point from November 1932 to March 1933 during the final months of the Presidency of Herbert Hoover, when Roosevelt was President-elect. The movement dissipated shortly after Roosevelt's inauguration, however, with calls for dictatorship largely coming to an end by the spring of 1933.

Background

The 1932 United States presidential election saw Franklin Roosevelt win election as President of the United States in a lopsided and crushing victory over incumbent Republican president Herbert Hoover. Roosevelt's victory came at the height of the Great Depression and was buoyed by his use of populist appeals. Roosevelt's ascendancy occurred during an era in which the creation of totalitarian states in Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Portugal, Poland, and other countries led to its characterization as an age of dictatorship by plebiscite. At the time, the fascist government in Italy had gained some respect from certain American commentators and the concept of dictatorship, which was subsequently to acquire many extremely negative connotations, was embraced by some.

Media support

During the four months between Roosevelt's November 1932 election and his March 1933 inauguration, several influential voices in American political commentary called for him to assume extraordinary powers upon taking office. In his nationally syndicated newspaper column, Walter Lippmann wrote that "a mild species of dictatorship will help us over the roughest spots in the road ahead" while the New York Herald Tribune opined similar sentiment in an editorial titled "For Dictatorship, If Necessary". The magazine Commonweal, meanwhile, put forth the contention that Roosevelt should assume "the powers of a virtual dictatorship to reorganize the government". Business booster Roger Babson called for limitations to be imposed on the powers of Congress, including the abolition of the United States Senate, while political wit and columnist Will Rogers supported proposals to extend extraordinary powers to Roosevelt by writing that "Mussolini could take our country today and put people back to work at the rate of one million per month". Roosevelt received letters from around the nation imploring him to assume extraordinary powers.

Congressional rejection

The month prior to his March 1933 inauguration House Speaker John Nance Garner introduced legislation into the U.S. House of Representatives that would allow the presidency the unilateral authority to suspend congressional appropriations, abolish government departments, dismiss civil servants at his discretion, and reduce statutory appropriations and contractual payments, with Congress only able to check such measures with a two-thirds supermajority in both houses. Bertrand Snell – leader of the Republican Party in the House – criticized the bill which, he said, would "make an absolute dictator of Roosevelt. It would give him more power than any executive leader in the world except Mussolini". The legislation seemingly did not proceed nor come close to passing the House, with a "wild rebellion" sweeping the floor and "unalterable" Republican opposition.

Presidency and legacy

Ultimately, Roosevelt did not assume extraordinary extra-Presidential powers. By the spring of 1933, only fringe elements continued to make calls for dictatorship or semi-dictatorship. In rhetoric, Roosevelt used the language of "democratic populism", framing his administration's policies as squarely part of the classic traditions of democratic American government, and "avoided rhetorically assuming the mantle of dictator." Roosevelt's political opponents would keep alive the idea that he had ambitions to become a dictator, however. Throughout the mid to late 1930s, Americans from all political parties would regularly accuse their opponents of either desiring dictatorship, or being dupes and lackeys of foreign dictators. Dictatorship in general also lost some of its luster as Mussolini's Italy lost prestige. For example, Roosevelt was accused of dictatorship over his support of both the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937 as well as the 1940 Destroyers for Bases agreement.

See also

• Business Plot, an abortive military coup against Roosevelt
• Criticism of Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Newburgh Conspiracy, an attempt to overthrow the Continental Congress
• Gabriel Over the White House

References

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