Latest / Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott / Moore History - FDR

Transcript

Moore History - FDR · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's time joining us in studio for our history segment,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: a little more history, doctor Ed Moore, Good morning, How
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: are you.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: I'm pretty good.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Let's not get sidetracked on trivial chat, because you've got
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: fourteen pages of notes and we need to try to
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: get through one.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Actually, I'm only going to really focus on two pages. Okay, okay,
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I've got a lot of pages. But but you know,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: you and I even talking about this for a while,
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: talking about people that run for president and then you
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: never hear of them again.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because they lost. Interesting, but it's.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: An interesting phenomenon in the United States. You can rise
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: up so very high in the political world. Yeah, and
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: then disappeared.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Well, it's like it's no different than any other thing
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: where you come in second, Who was in the Championship
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: series of the World Series? You know what I mean?
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: It's boxing is probably the only sport where you know
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: who the guy is laying on.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: A probably so probably so.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Some of you forgot who was in the World Series
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: last year. I have no idea.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: So before we begin, what drew you to this starting
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: point that you've chosen.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: I think it's probably in the history of presidents. There's
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: four five that were really change agents that changed how
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: we went about doing things. And of course, to me,
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: this one current one is trying to be that phenomenal
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: change agent, and we'll see history wal show whether he's successful. FDR.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Probably that's the most to me, the most significant. Twelve
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: plus four months five months of being a president. He
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: got elected four times. I mean that in itself's the rarity,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: but it's so much change during that time frame as
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: to how we viewed the presidency. And you know, he
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: had four different elections where he ran against somebody, and
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: he had four different primaries where people were running against him.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: A lot of politics went in there, but most of
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: the stuff he was for I would not agree with
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: now in retrospect. But as I often say on here,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: we have to look with the eye of being there
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: then now looking back, going oh, that was just a
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: phenomenal period and of a very unique human being. Although
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: a lot of the little things about him came from
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: a wealthy New York family. Gee, who's that sound like
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: we've got one of those now, a wealthy New Yorker.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: We haven't really had New Yorkers involved in politics for
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: a while, but it was very dominant back in the twenties,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: thirties and forties. Trump now, I guess he's a Fluoridian,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: but most people perceive him to be a New Yorker.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: And so there's a lot of things in common between
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: the FDR era and the Trump error. Now, going back
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: two terms prior to this, when he was serving, a
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: lot of big changes, monumental changes in how the American
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: public views views DC, what's the role of government, and
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: the battles that went on there. I mean FDR ran
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: against Herbert Hoover, a sitting Republican president who had botched
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: things up to a degree. Coolidge, the eight years of
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Coolidge might be eight of the most successful years for
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: a president in history. And then the economies go sour. Well,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of economists will tell you that president
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: has some influence over it. But things are going to happen.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: They're going to happen, and they happened bad on Hoover.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: I mean, Hoover had been in for a year, we
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: got the Great Depression, and so his term he's battling
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: and coming up with ideas. And when you read through,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: and I encourage people to read through all this stuff,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: the people running the FDR campaign against Hoover were accusing
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Hoover of being pinkish, liberal, leaning towards communism, too much
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: big government.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Oh amazing, that's how the campaign rant.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: And then afterwards what FDR proposed in his first hundred
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: days and all those were a lot of the things
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: that he was trying to do that Hoover was trying
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: to do but couldn't get done. FDR got him done
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: even though he was pointing fingers out. I'm saying he
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: was pretty light on the Americanism. It's a weird phenomenon
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: that occurs in history.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: So we start with FDR.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and FDR got elected in thirty two R thirty
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: six forty.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Is it safe to say he got elected because of
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: the depression?
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Initially? Yeah, I mean, Hoover's numbers were terrible. Was FDR
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: got ended up even as bad as it was shows
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: you that we've been essentially a two party system for
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: a long time. FDR got fifty seven percent of the vote,
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: fifty seven point four percent of the vote. Hoover got
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: thirty nine point six percent of the vote. Now that's
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: kind of a landslide by modern standard, sure is, But
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: it was still Hoover got a respectable amount of the vote,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: and it was his party they put him in there.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: FDR had been governor of New York in twenty four
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: I think twenty four and twenty eight. I think it
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: was twenty one. FDR got diagnosed with polio. He's thirty
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: nine years old, ended up coming to Warmstrings Georgia. Bought
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: all that there and donated it and battled polio. Came
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: back in the twenty four which was only three years later,
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: and gave a nominating speech for Al Smith, the Democrat.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Most people don't know who. Al Smith ran for president
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: twice and you know, lost both times. But and then
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: in twenty eight he nominated him again. And Roosevelt won
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: as governor of New York in nineteen twenty eight. So
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: by nineteen thirty two he had been governor of what
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: was then the largest population state and had a record
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: to run on, and as governor of New York he
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: got more liberal. Prior to that, he was a businessman.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: He was had, you know, very kind of pragmatic, and
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: even later on he was pragmatic, but circumstances drove him
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: further left. He did all kinds of things that he
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: was in there that I found fascinating. I mean, we
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: hear about packing the court. You know, there's an old
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: adage of a switch in time save nine. Because he
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: was losing all his new deal stuff as one hundred
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: days stuff. Supreme Court was knocking it all down. They
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: didn't like it. They thought it was unconstitutional social security.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: They thought so security was unconstitutional.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: It probably is.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: And they flipped two votes, just two votes on the
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: court instead of packing the court. Interesting idea. To pack
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: the court. What he wanted to do is every Supreme
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Court judge over seventy if they didn't resign, you would
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: appoint sort of a Supreme Court justice in waiting that
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: would have full voting power and all that, but not
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: really be a full It was really weird deal. Congress,
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: everybody thought it was horrible idea. I mean, it was
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: his first major loss other than losing those court cases.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: But by bullying and badgering his way similar to what
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: we tend to see now. I think if he went back,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: probably Trump probably read a lot of fdor bios and
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: stuff to figure out how to do these things. How
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: do you push them real hard to get them to
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: do what you want to do? Court flipped put all
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: kinds of things in But when he ran in thirty
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: two as as the governor of New York, he ran
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: in a Democratic primary against people Al Smith, who knew
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: of you'd heard of, but John Nance Garner. Most people
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: really haven't heard of John Nance Garner. He ended up
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: being Roosevelt's vice president for two full terms. He was
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: a big politician from Texas. Now, when else in our
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: history have you seen a Northeastern Democrat deciding to run
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: for president and picking a Texas semi conservative Democrat to
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: run on a ticket. So I'm familiar, Kennedy Johnson, same
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: kind of deal. That's how all this politics used to work.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: It was the same thing over and over. John Nance
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Garner ran for president and then got picked as vice president.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: He got eight percent of the vote in the primaries.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: That was it. Al Smith got fourteen. Hamilton Lewis you
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: ever hear of Jay Hamilton Lewis never heard of? Nineteen percent.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: FDR got forty nine point four percent, didn't get a majority.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: We got enough to run and then he beat as
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: I said earlier, he beat Hoover fifty seven to forty basically,
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: so a lot of turnover. Then in thirty six, the
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: primary FDR and the primaries got ninety three percent of
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: the vote. So he co left and brought everybody together
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: and the next term to run for his first reelection,
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: he got ninety three percent of the vote in the primaries.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: There's always somebody run against him. Upton Sinclair. You ever
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: read Upton Sinclair, a famous muckraking journalist from that era,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: wrote what was about the meat packing industry?
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: He wrote, I'll take your word for it, Upton.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Now that sounds that's just not a name that calls
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: out to the public like this is a great guy,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: mister Upton, Saint Clair, Henry Breckinridge. Breckenridge kind of a
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: well known Western name. Politics in those days in the
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: United States were east of the Mississippi, mainly. Herbert Hoover
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: was the first president from west to the Mississippi. He
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: was the very first one prior to that. Whatever happened
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: predominantly in the northeast and then the South would have
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: their own way of things after the Civil War and
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: right up until nineteen sixty five or so. But you
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: had these people like this FDR. Then in that general
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: election beat a guy named alf alf Landon not half
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: the pub Yeah, and beat him sixty one thirty six percent.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: So he was very very st all politically nationally. By
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: nineteen thirty.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Six, joining us doctor Ed Moore, and we're talking I
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: thought I knew what we were talking about.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Well, I always go off on these squirrel I get
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: down the different rabbit ball in my mind starts going
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: in a different direction.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: We're talking about doctor Moore.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Well, just off the air, we were just talking about
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: similarities between then and now and how we get into
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: world wars and the person that's we don't. We tend
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: to elect presidents generally on domestic issues, and the people
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: running against them generally they all have their little flag
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: there carrying on some particular domestic issue, when in reality,
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: what affects us the most, and increasingly so will be
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: the international issues and trade relations. You're doing terrifts now.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: Roosevelt was huge on Terra's smooth Harley terrorfact put us.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: It basically drove us into a depression. It was a
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: tariff war with all the countries we traded with. We're
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: doing it again, but nobody paying attention what happened when
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: we did this the last time? How you know? They
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: just now we're going to do it a minute ago.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Off the air. We're talking about alliances and how alliance
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: has changed. When Roosevelt came in later in his term,
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: the big alliance was between the United States and Russia
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: that then became the Soviet Union, and England played a
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: major role. You know, right now the three largest countries
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: in the world population wise are India, China, and then US.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Way down smaller than those two big countries.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: But ironically China has a population problem.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well they're not replacing themselves, but neither is
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: the West. I mean, we can do a whole show
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: on demographics, but the Western world's so called Western World,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: the United States isn't replacing as China's is worse. They're
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: down to one point two per couple, but most of
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: the West is under two per couple. That's why immigration
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: becomes an issue that we're not talking about. We talk
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: about the politics of immigration, but not the reality of
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: immigration and who do we need and why do we
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: need them? So hopefully we'll move to there. The world's
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: largest economies now are US, China, Germany, Japan, and India. Okay,
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: economics are going to drive the future. When Roosevelt was
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: in there, why I picked him as a center point
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: that will move from that to people that run against
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: him and lose and behand. The primaries is it was
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: a major transition for the United States from an largely
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: agricultural company country benefiting from the Industrial Revolution. I mean,
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: we started to have wheels and motion rather than horses
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: and all of that. But World War One, which maybe
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: down the road we'll talk to some about how one occurt.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: There were horses in the battlefield. Yeah, there were carts
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: and running guns around the world hadn't advanced that much
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: in the teens, but by the time Roosevelt came in
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: in the thirties forties, the world had changed completely. He
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: grasped that. He understood that and the alliances that were
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: formed the rebuild after World War Two. Roosevelt was dead
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: by then, but a lot of the stuff was put
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: in place. I'm sounding like a Roosevelt fan. I don't
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: like his politics. I didn't like his philosophies on a
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: lot of things, but when you look at the things
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: he put in place during his twelve years in there,
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: not twelve, but during the timeframe he was in there,
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: it made for a modern America. When he came in,
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: we were not ready for that. We were largely rural
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: country and the states were doing all kinds of different things.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: He's cemented the modern version of what our country would be.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: And the people that ran against him ran against him
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: as being too liberal to conservative. I mean, it was
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: all over the place. Next time we'll talk about those
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: people and what they had to say and then where
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: they disappeared to.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah. If you talk to people that were parents during
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: the depression, like my grandparents, Roosevelt was a hero in
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: every way, shape and form.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they because they saw how bad it could
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: be and how bad it had been in the late twenties,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: early thirties. It was really bad. We lament our economy
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: now when we have little dips in recessions, nothing like
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: nineteen thirty to thirty two.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: America. Thanks for coming in. It goes too quick, it
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: always does. Doctor Ed Moore with us this morning on
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: the Morning Show with Preston Scott