Was FDR a fascist?

[glockmail]

but where does this fit in?

Haven't you heard? All Republicans are racist.

[manu1959]

but where does this fit in?

it doesn't.....but lets not let fact get in the way of a good whip around.....

[Kathianne]

okay, i'll bite!

here's the definitions and some history that i have found on www.dictionary.com






Based on this, I would say that FDR was NOT a fascist..... unless you considered him a RIGHT WING authoritarian.....?

We had a Congress that instituted SS and other socialistic programs, FDR didn't do it, "we the people" had representation that either legislated or regulated or delegated the money for each one of those programs and.....

FDR did nothing at gunpoint...and yes he did round up the Japanese here in this country which is horrible but he did not torture them or kill them or rule this country at gunpoint as an opressive dictator....and a few other things involved in the free market vs a fascist market regarding businesses were not present that would make him a fascist or us having a gvt form of fascism here in the united states during the time.


soooo, I repeat, NO, FDR was not a fascist.
jd

It's often been argued in political science classes whether fascism if far right or far left, I got an A+ on a paper like 30 years ago, (and I do remember because of the profs comments), that it was where the meeting of the minds of both the far left and far right met. It's the worst of both, there is no good side.

[Hugh Lincoln]

The term is meaningless to me. Dictatorship might be more accurate in describing those European governments of the 20th Century. Mainline conservatives want to stick the term 'fascist' back onto liberals because they don't like association with the racialism of Hitler, Mussolini, etc. FDR was not a racialist that I know of. He loved the Jews and involved them in his administration, and of course WWII was a favorite war of Jews.

[Said1]

Mike Church put it simply the other day when he compared socialism to fascism. “A fascist is a socialist with a gun.” Although overly simplified, the comparison is valid.

Its fairly obvious that FDR was a socialist. He ushered in the era of Big Government. His wide reaching social programs, such as Social Security, the “alphabet agencies” such as the WPA and the CCC, the explosive growth of government, and government employment have caused millions to be dependent on the government. He raised taxes to the highest level ever seen in America, up to an individual marginal rate of 91%!

But did FDR cross the line into fascism? Did he use a “gun” to enforce his policies? If you refuse to pay your taxes, would you not be threatened with imprisonment? What about the relocation camps for Americans of Japanese, Italian, or German origin?

FDR crossed the line. He was a fascist.

After reading this twice, I'm convinced I've seen it before. To whom do you owe credit?

[actsnoblemartin]

I believe he was, he didnt give a dam that 6 million jews were being shot in the head, and burned in ovens, sometimes while still being alive, and toddlers heads smashed against trees.

He was a piece of shit president, a coward, and all those who stand by when any genocide is being committed and do nothing are just as guilty

Remember, all it takes is for a few good men to do nothing

Mike Church put it simply the other day when he compared socialism to fascism. “A fascist is a socialist with a gun.” Although overly simplified, the comparison is valid.

Its fairly obvious that FDR was a socialist. He ushered in the era of Big Government. His wide reaching social programs, such as Social Security, the “alphabet agencies” such as the WPA and the CCC, the explosive growth of government, and government employment have caused millions to be dependent on the government. He raised taxes to the highest level ever seen in America, up to an individual marginal rate of 91%!

But did FDR cross the line into fascism? Did he use a “gun” to enforce his policies? If you refuse to pay your taxes, would you not be threatened with imprisonment? What about the relocation camps for Americans of Japanese, Italian, or German origin?

FDR crossed the line. He was a fascist.

[Kathianne]

After reading this twice, I'm convinced I've seen it before. To whom do you owe credit?

Jonah Goldberg

[glockmail]

After reading this twice, I'm convinced I've seen it before. To whom do you owe credit?

My evil twin at JPP.

[glockmail]

Jonah Goldberg

I wish I had his paycheck.

[flaja]

Mike Church put it simply the other day when he compared socialism to fascism. “A fascist is a socialist with a gun.” Although overly simplified, the comparison is valid.

Its fairly obvious that FDR was a socialist. He ushered in the era of Big Government. His wide reaching social programs, such as Social Security,

The first social security system in the entire world was created in imperial Germany by Otto von Bismark, who is credited with being an arch-conservative. Bismark created his social security system because he feared that the Left would launch a socialist revolution to get it.

Bismark acted in the truest conservative fashion. Going back to Burke conservatives have been opposed to mass concentrations of both wealth and poverty. The poor shouldn’t be allowed to dominate the rich by their number and the rich shouldn’t be allowed to oppress the poor simply because they have enough wealth to do so. Society must control wealth or the poor will go on the rampage and social upheaval is the last thing conservatives want.

[flaja]

I only just recently learned of Goldberg’s book and I haven’t had a chance to read it yet. But it sounds like something that I realized about a year or so ago. I haven’t studied much about Italian Fascism, but from what little I do know I am not inclined to see Fascism and National Socialisms as the same thing. Nazi Germany was far more similar to Soviet Russia than Fascist Italy and the Left has a cow when they are informed of this fact.

I have posted this “plan” on several other boards and only a few people have recognized it for what it is: The basic socio-economic blueprint for Nazi Germany (based on William Shirer’s book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, with dollar amounts adjusted for inflation). Quite a few people said it was a communist plan and there was one person who wanted to know which Democrat presidential candidate it came from.

Government:
1. The government levies heavy taxes.
2. The government prints money whenever necessary to avoid deficit spending or borrowing.
3. The government subsidizes things like factory construction and maintenance.
4. The government determines what a farm will produce.
5. The government determines the prices at which a farmer may sell what he produces (the prices are automatically set above what the market would otherwise dictate so farmers have a certain amount of guaranteed income).
6. The government determines what goods and services businesses can produce, how much they will produce and the price at which the produced goods and services will be sold.
7. The government, at the direction of business owners, determines the wages and salaries of all employees.
8. The government provides health insurance, unemployment insurance, disability insurance and a retirement pension to employees.
9. The government operates an organization that provides low-cost recreational and cultural activities- things like luxury cruise vacations for less than 2 weeks’ pay.
10. The government conscripts labor for public works projects in order to relieve massive, chronic or long-term unemployment.

Farmers:
1. Family farms may not be mortgaged or seized by creditors.
2. Family farms may not be sold.
3. Family farms must be inherited by the farmer’s oldest son or the nearest male relative and the heir is responsible for providing a living for the deceased farmer’s surviving spouse and minor children.

Business owners:
1. All corporations worth less than $500,000 must be sold to a larger corporation or closed.
2. No new corporation worth less than $2.8 million may be established.
3. No more than 6% of a corporation’s profits may be distributed as dividends. The remaining 94% must be either re-invested in the corporation or be used to purchase government bonds (which the government is not obligated to ever pay back).
4. Employers may demand greater output from employees without increasing wages or benefits.
5. Large business must either form cartels or join already existing cartels pertaining to whatever industry the business is associated with.
6. No business may fire an employee or lay off an employee without the government’s permission.

Labor:
1. Labor unions are illegal.
2. Employees may not strike.
3. No employee may leave his employer without the employer’s permission.
4. An employee must pay anywhere from 15 to 35 per cent of his pay in taxes and charitable donations mandated by the government.

[gabosaurus]

FDR was actually elected four times. He died shortly after beginning his fourth term.

Don't know if FDR was a "fascist" in the technical sense of the word. He certainly was not an isolationist. FDR approved of massive lend-lease programs for England, then moved up to send them military aid outright.
There are claims that the Americans had broken the Japanese code and knew of the planned attack on Pearl Harbor. The claims state that FDR allowed them to proceed as a way of galvanizing American support for entering World War II.

[diuretic]

Goldberg again - Newspeak and doublethink again.

No, FDR wasn't a fascist. Fascists tried to remove him:

The Business Plot, the Plot Against FDR, or the White House Putsch, was a political conspiracy involving several wealthy businessmen to overthrow the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.

Details of the matter came to light when retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler testified before a Congressional committee that a group of men had attempted to recruit him to serve as the leader of a plot and to assume and wield power once the coup was successful. Butler testified before the McCormack-Dickstein Committee in 1934.[1] In his testimony, Butler claimed that a group of several men had approached him as part of a plot to overthrow Roosevelt in a military coup. One of the alleged plotters, Gerald MacGuire, vehemently denied any such plot. In their final report, the Congressional committee supported Butler's allegations on the existence of the plot,[2] but no prosecutions or further investigations followed, and the matter was mostly forgotten.

Major General Butler claimed that the American Liberty League was the primary means of funding the plot. The main backers were the Du Pont family, as well as leaders of U.S. Steel, General Motors, Standard Oil, Chase National Bank, and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. A BBC documentary about the plot alleges that Prescott Bush, father and grandfather to the 41st and 43rd US Presidents respectively, was also connected.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot - more at link.

The US dodged fascism. Interestingly enough the UK also flirted with fascism in the time leading up to WWII and while many of the British aristocracy - and it's suggested the King (Edward VIII - later the Duke of Windsor) was sympathetic. In my own country there was an active fascist grouping - http://www.abc.net.au/gnt/history/Tr...s/s1202889.htm.

[glockmail]

The first social security system in the entire world was created in imperial Germany by Otto von Bismark, who is credited with being an arch-conservative. Bismark created his social security system because he feared that the Left would launch a socialist revolution to get it.

Bismark acted in the truest conservative fashion. Going back to Burke conservatives have been opposed to mass concentrations of both wealth and poverty. The poor shouldn’t be allowed to dominate the rich by their number and the rich shouldn’t be allowed to oppress the poor simply because they have enough wealth to do so. Society must control wealth or the poor will go on the rampage and social upheaval is the last thing conservatives want.

What does this have to do with FDR?

[glockmail]

....

No, FDR wasn't a fascist. Fascists tried to remove him:.....

So what? He attacked them.