Roosevelt dictatorship

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This article is part of a series about Franklin D. Roosevelt
Early life Family Paralysis State Senator Secretary of the Navy 1920 Smith–Roosevelt campaign 44th Governor of New York Governorship 32nd President of the United States First & second terms, 1933–1941 Third & fourth terms, 1941–1945 Timeline Transition Inaugurations first second third fourth First term First 100 days New Deal Glass-Steagall Act WPA Social Security SEC Fireside Chats Second term Supreme Court Packing National Recovery Act 1937 recession March of Dimes Pre-war foreign policy Third term World War II Attack on Pearl Harbor Infamy Speech Atlantic Charter Japanese Internment Tehran Conference United Nations D-Day Second Bill of Rights G.I. Bill Fourth term Yalta Conference Declining health Death and state funeral Presidential campaigns 1932 primaries convention campaign election 1936 primaries convention campaign election 1940 primaries convention campaign election 1944 primaries convention campaign election Electoral history Legacy Criticism Foreign policy New Deal critics Civil rights record Proposed dictatorship Presidential Library Memorial Depictions
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Leading up to the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, a hypothetical Roosevelt dictatorship was proposed by some^{[weasel words]} supporters of Franklin Roosevelt.^{[citation needed]} If it had happened, the President of the United States might have assumed extraordinary powers.^{[citation needed]} Rhetorical support^{[citation needed]} for such a "benevolent autocracy"^{[citation needed]} reached a zenith^{[weasel words]} from November 1932 to March 1933 during the final months of President Herbert Hoover, when the country was at its most desperate and ready to pin its hopes upon the President-Elect.^{[citation needed]} The loose movement^{[citation needed][weasel words]} passed shortly after Roosevelt's inauguration, however, with calls^{[weasel words]} for dictatorship^{[citation needed]} 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.^[1] Roosevelt's victory came at the height of the Great Depression and was buoyed by his use of populist appeals.^[1][2] Roosevelt's ascendancy occurred during an era in which the creation of totalitarian states in Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Poland, and other countries led to its characterization as an age of plebiscitary dictatorship.^[3] At the time, the fascist government in Italy had gained some respect from American commentators and the concept of dictatorship itself was relatively popular; "dictator" lacked many negative connotations it would later acquire.^[4][5]

Public support[]

During the four months between his November 1932 election and his March 1933 inauguration, several influential voices in American political commentary called for Roosevelt 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".^[6] The magazine Commonweal, meanwhile, put forth the contention that Roosevelt should assume "the powers of a virtual dictatorship to reorganize the government".^[6] Roger Babson called for limitations to be imposed on the powers of Congress, including the abolition of the United States Senate, while 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".^[7] Roosevelt received letters from around the nation imploring him to assume extraordinary powers.^[6]

The month prior to his March 1933 inauguration, 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.^[8] 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".^[9] The legislation seemingly did not proceed nor come close to passing the House, with a "wild rebellion" sweeping the floor and "unalterable" Republican opposition.^[10]

See also[]

• Business Plot, an abortive military coup against Roosevelt
• Criticism of Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Gabriel Over the White House

References[]