[Sixstrings]

I've been getting more interested in GD history lately. I watched FDR's first inaugral address, and this part caught my eye:

"In the event that the Congress shall fail [to act], in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis -- broad executive power, to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if in fact we were invaded by a foreign foe."

So history buffs, what was FDR talking about here? As commander in chief during war, the prez has unlimited power in military matters. Was FDR asking for the same power regarding the economic crisis?

Here's the video if you're interested, you can skip past the newsreel jazz for brevity: Link

EDIT: I did some googling and answered my own question -- answer is "yes."

That word -- "dictator" -- had been in the air for weeks, endorsed vaguely as a remedy for the Depression by establishment figures ranging from the owners of the New York Daily News, the nation's largest circulation newspaper, to Walter Lippmann, the eminent columnist who spoke for the American political elite. "The situation is critical, Franklin. You may have no alternative but to assume dictatorial powers," Lippmann had told FDR during a visit to Warm Springs on February 1, before the crisis escalated.

NPR (very good article)

Great Depression talk is pretty scary stuff, and if history is prologue, then the martial law talk we hear thrown around today is a very real possibility.

FDR considered options for reactivating retired veterans to enforce martial law. We hear echos of this today, with the internet rumors swirling about general mobilization of veterans.

Thoughts anyone?

[Cid_Yama]

<b>The Plot to overthow FDR</b> Link

<i>Document</i> uncovers details of a planned coup in the USA in 1933 by right-wing American businessmen.

The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell House & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.

BBC's Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy.link

[Plantagenet]

<b>The Plot to overthow FDR</b>

So what exactly did FDR mean when he said he would assume dictatorial powers?

[Cid_Yama]

Excuse me. He never said dictatorial powers.

You Fascists may consider yourselves mearly Conservatives, but your actions reveal the truth.

[Plantagenet]

Excuse me. He never said dictatorial powers.

You're excused.

What did FDR mean by "broad executive powers." Did he actually mean dictatorial powers?

[Sixstrings]

Also from the npr article that I linked above:

Even Eleanor Roosevelt, more liberal than her husband, privately suggested that a "benevolent dictator" might be what the country needed. The vague idea was not a police state but deference to a strong leader unfettered by Congress or the other inconveniences of democracy.

From what I gather, the idea of a "dictator" was in the ancient Roman sense. In times of crisis, the Roman Senate would gant all its authority, for a specified time, to a Dictator.

What history teaches us is that representative bodies of government are impotent in times of fast-moving crisis. This is what leads people to call for a Dictator.

[Cid_Yama]

The FDR Administration was threatened by a coup. Had it not been exposed, the United States would have sided with Hitler in WWII.
The Banks and Standard Oil were already supporting him.

It was very close to the end of Democracy in America. We dodged a bullet.

We are close to the same threat again. If we are not vigilant, they may succeed this time.

[Plantagenet]

The FDR Administration was threatened by a coup. Had it not been exposed, the United States would have sided with Hitler in WWII.

That sounds horrible. And you found out all about it on YouTube?

How many people were involved in the coup? How many were arrested and put on trial for plotting this horrible coup? How many imprisoned? How many executed?

[Milret2]

There was a movie that came out in 1933, I think, called Gabriel Over the White House which was produced by William Randolph Hearst and which also (it has been said) had some input from FDR during the production. The president (who was somewhat of a spoiled bumpkin), after an auto accident which should have killed him, becomes a revolutionary of sorts who takes up the cause of the "forgotten men", attacks gangsters who are busy dealing death and destruction in the cities with both incredible raids and firing squad executions, and shames/scares the world into destroying all war making machines .. and then dies;-). It is not the best movie out there but is fun to watch.

According to Jonathon Alter, who wrote The Defining Moment which is a history of the first 100 days of the FDR presidency, quite a few people were recommending that FDR assume some dictatorial powers. One was Walter Lippmann who told the president during that period when things were quite bad with banks failing and people in misery that "The situation is critical, Franklin. You may have no alternative but to assume dictatorial powers". I think that is a highly readable book and I generally care little for reading about history. FDR was a very interesting man and I have heard that President elect Obama has studied his (FDR's) presidency quite a bit.

[Cid_Yama]

The Business Plot (also the Plot Against FDR and the White House Putsch) was a political conspiracy in 1933 wherein wealthy businessmen and corporations plotted a coup d’etat to overthrow United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1934, the Business Plot was publicly revealed by retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler testifying to the McCormack-Dickstein Congressional Committee. [1] In his testimony, Butler claimed that a group of 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 of the existence of the plot,[2] but no prosecutions or further investigations followed, and the matter was mostly forgotten.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot

And <b>No, I didn't find out about it on youtube.</b>

These reasons were proposed to explain why the Business Plot did not become a cause celebre:

The story embarrassed politically influential business people, who felt it best to deflect attention from themselves.

In 1934, newspapers were controlled by an elite — according to then-Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes, 82 per cent of daily newspapers monopolised their communities; the media down-played Gen. Butler's testimony to protect the interests of advertisers and their owners.

Some of President Roosevelt's advisors were plotters, and downplayed the matter, avoiding exposure.

In the BBC Radio Document program, The Whitehouse Coup, John Buchanan suggests President Roosevelt stopped the investigation for a political deal: "The investigations mysteriously turned to vapor when it comes time to call them to testify. FDR's main interest was getting the New Deal passed, and so he struck a deal in which it was agreed that the plotters would walk free if Wall Street would back off of their opposition to the New Deal and let FDR do what he wanted". [44]

[Plantagenet]

Some of President Roosevelt's advisors were plotters, and downplayed the matter, avoiding exposure.

You are claiming Roosevelt had traitors for advisors?

[Cloud9]

Roosevelt did not take office until March 1933. The country was in dire straights. Fear of social and political collapse was rampant. In this climate of fear Congress abdicated its power to the president and we had the first 100 days. Roosevelt controlled two thirds of the government. This was for all practical purposes a dictatorship. The Supreme Court was the only branch that remained aloof. When the Court failed to back the New Deal programs they were threatened with reorganization under the Court Packing Plan. Congress did not allow the reorganization, but the threat was real enough to subdue the Court. Roosevelt had absolute power during the second new deal.

This is why in my opinion Roosevelt qualifies as America’s second great dictator. He was given extraordinary power in extraordinary times.

[Cid_Yama]

The article suggested it, not I.

[wisconsin_cur]

This is why in my opinion Roosevelt qualifies as America’s second great dictator. He was given extraordinary power in extraordinary times.

Who was the first? Lincoln?

Did we effectively prevent a third (or help prevent a third) with the 22nd Amendment?

[PrestonSturges]

Dictators gain power by ratcheting up imaginary threats.

Hitler gained power by promising to save Germany from domination by Jews, pacifists, atheists, trade unions, people who don't support the troops, and the liberal media. Sound familiar? Maybe now it's gays, pacifists, atheists, trade unions, people who don't support the troops, and the liberal media.

Mein Kampf is a manual on propaganda that has been adopted nearly word for word by the Republican party.

So of course the GOP will promise to save us from the democratic dictatorship, the same way Hitler promised to save the Germans from a Jewish dictatorship.

That's why you have newt talking about "gay fascists," it's a primitive "Hey look over there!" distraction.

[Plantagenet]

FDR wasn't a dictator just because the Congress voted his program through Congress in the first 100 days. It was a desperate time and the Congress supported FDR's program.

Of course FDR's program didn't end the depression and may've even made it worse, but thats another issue.

[NoahsDove]

FDR did much to perpetuate Depression. He had absolutely no understanding of economic theories. Of course, much of economic ideas are modern and he didn't have much to go on. I'm afraid Obama is just as clueless. He's going to perpetuate nothing but endless cycles of depressions and recessions. It only gets worst.

[mackina1]

So you are saying that just letting the economy go down the drains, dragging with it all it's participants is the right course of action? For the reason that the system is flawed and thus needs to be cured about three times a decade? Having a reccesion solely because of lack of circulation of capital?

Sorry, I kinda would like to have a bit control over my own life. At least I like to have an illusion of it.

Exactly which theories are you speaking of? Something new, that're just a new iteration of Adam Smiths works?

[eastbay]

FDR did much to perpetuate Depression. He had absolutely no understanding of economic theories. Of course, much of economic ideas are modern and he didn't have much to go on. I'm afraid Obama is just as clueless. He's going to perpetuate nothing but endless cycles of depressions and recessions. It only gets worst.

And no matter how bad the economy gets during his presidency he'll get a pass because fingers will point at Bush as the cause of it all which, of course, is partially true.