Speaker 1: And this half hour, we're taking a few minutes to
Speaker 1: talk with Mary grab who is, among other things, the
Speaker 1: author of Debunking FDR, The Man and the Myths. And
Speaker 1: there were I guess rumors that White House staff thinking
Speaker 1: that Joe Biden might actually run for the White House,
Speaker 1: and they were concerned that he'd be in a wheelchair.
Speaker 1: But then they said, oh, we can say he's just
Speaker 1: like FDR. Maybe not maybe not such a good idea
Speaker 1: after all, if you look at the real history of
Speaker 1: Franklin Delana Roosevelt and what he did. Of course, we
Speaker 1: got the news this week that Joe has other concerns
Speaker 1: now that we were not aware of, with the advanced
Speaker 1: prostate cancer diagnosis. But another another one of those things
Speaker 1: about history is that some people will claim that in
Speaker 1: debunking FDR, are you are in fact rewriting history. For
Speaker 1: some if they read a little bit, you're not rewriting history.
Speaker 1: You're writing the history and rig hting of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Speaker 1: So tell me why you decided to tackle this particular topic, mary.
Speaker 2: Well, I was actually researching something else, as often happens
Speaker 2: when you have an idea for a book, I was
Speaker 2: researching a conservative black journalist, and I've been working on
Speaker 2: since two thousand and eleven, George Schuyler, who switched from
Speaker 2: being a socialist to a conservative, and it was largely
Speaker 2: due to Franklin Roosevelt. And then I discovered that so
Speaker 2: many others had done the same thing, and that was
Speaker 2: because he was such a terrible president and he did
Speaker 2: not help you know, number one, blacks, He did not
Speaker 2: help the working class people. He did not help you know,
Speaker 2: the common man, as he said he would and said
Speaker 2: he was concerned about. So I started looking into him
Speaker 2: and then noticed all these histories that you know, we're
Speaker 2: talking about what a great president he was and how
Speaker 2: he saved the country, and that was not the case
Speaker 2: at all. As I discovered, well, a lot.
Speaker 1: Of the projects that he started and initiated during the
Speaker 1: Great Depression, actually many people would argue, extended that depression.
Speaker 1: It did not do anything to alleviate the misery, the unemployment,
Speaker 1: the inflation, everything else that was a part of America's
Speaker 1: stock market crash and ensuing nightmare. He really didn't do
Speaker 1: anything to help it, but actually exacerbated it.
Speaker 2: Is that what you found, Yes, absolutely, you know, a
Speaker 2: lot the rest of the world had recovered and we
Speaker 2: were still one thing along of what Franklin Roosevelt should
Speaker 2: have done A most you know, reputable economists degree is
Speaker 2: to allow you know, the market to correct itself, which
Speaker 2: is what happened after World War One. You had an
Speaker 2: overproduction of you know, farm goods and so forth. And
Speaker 2: after Europe recovered, then wages went down and prices went down.
Speaker 2: But eventually, you know, they'll find their equilibrium. You know,
Speaker 2: President Herbert Hoover, you know, did a little bit of that.
Speaker 2: You know, he encouraged business leaders to raise wages, thinking
Speaker 2: that that would raise prices and you know, lead to recovery,
Speaker 2: and that didn't work. But Franklin Roosevelt just put that,
Speaker 2: you know, Hoover's programs on steroids and just exacerbated the situation.
Speaker 2: So by nineteen thirty seven we had a.
Speaker 1: Second press, right, and we only really came out of
Speaker 1: that due to World War two production. Is that the
Speaker 1: way it actually worked, or.
Speaker 2: Well, a lot of a lot of people say that,
Speaker 2: but that was it was a little misleading because a
Speaker 2: lot of the working age men were overseas fighting the war,
Speaker 2: so you have very low unemployment. You know, you had
Speaker 2: Rosie the riveter, the women working in factories, and so
Speaker 2: that was artificial. And it took a while, you know,
Speaker 2: after World War Two for the economy to come back.
Speaker 2: So you know, there was rampant inflation after the war.
Speaker 2: So you know, but but Roosevelt, I think did see
Speaker 2: the war as a way to sort of help save
Speaker 2: his presidency or his legacy, and you know, really did
Speaker 2: want to get involved.
Speaker 1: Well, he's often cast as a reluctant president, but he's
Speaker 1: also the only president that was ever elected to four terms.
Speaker 1: He just couldn't get enough of the White House, could he.
Speaker 2: That's right. I mean, you know, he knew he had
Speaker 2: serious health problems even before he ran for the third
Speaker 2: term in nineteen forty. But this idea that he was
Speaker 2: a reluctant president or a reluctant politician, you know, that
Speaker 2: was the rumor about him when he ran for the
Speaker 2: New York States Senate, and it's absolutely false. When he
Speaker 2: was an undergraduate at Harvard, he told his girlfriend or
Speaker 2: his you know, the girl he wanted to be his girlfriend,
Speaker 2: that he thought that he could be president and that
Speaker 2: that was his ambition. And he said it again when
Speaker 2: he was a young attorney. So there's plenty of evidence
Speaker 2: that that was his ambition all along, and he felt
Speaker 2: that it was his birthright to be president, and he
Speaker 2: modeled all his actions on what cousin Theodore Roosevelt had done. Right.
Speaker 1: The myths that are detailed here in Debunking FDR. The
Speaker 1: Man in the Myths, many of those were actually not
Speaker 1: concocted by anybody else but FDR himself. Right, he made
Speaker 1: up these stories that would make Joe Biden's cannibalized uncle blush.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he did. There were so many. It's you know,
Speaker 2: you think you've found all of them, and then there's
Speaker 2: another one. You know. He you know, even when he
Speaker 2: flew to Chicago, breaking tradition to be there to accept
Speaker 2: the nomination and make a speech, you know, he said,
Speaker 2: you know, we encountered some turbulence, but it's a good
Speaker 2: thing I had my Navy training. He was never in
Speaker 2: the Navy. He was an assistant secretary of the Navy.
Speaker 1: Yes, all right, hold on just a second, We'll take
Speaker 1: a break and come back. Mary graybar as our guest.
Speaker 1: The book is debunking FDR. The Man and the Myths
Speaker 1: that the Great, the heralded, Great Savior of America during
Speaker 1: the Great depression in World War Two, maybe not so much.
Speaker 1: Back to this Tuesday Morning on fifty five KRC with
Speaker 1: Mary Graybor, the author of Debunking FDR. The champion of
Speaker 1: the Liberal Left, the dictator, and the country squire in
Speaker 1: the White House. He was often known as that, And
Speaker 1: he got how did he put down all of his detractors?
Speaker 1: I mean, he had to put out fires because a
Speaker 1: lot of people just weren't going along with these plans
Speaker 1: right at the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, he silenced the press. You know. He was
Speaker 2: friends with the publisher of the New York Times, and
Speaker 2: one reporter was a critical of him, and so he
Speaker 2: contacted the publisher and this reporter was sent to Uruguay,
Speaker 2: and you know, and he wrote a letter to the
Speaker 2: publisher of the Yale Review because he didn't like an
Speaker 2: article that John T. Flynn had written, and the publisher said, well, absolutely,
Speaker 2: you know, we're never going to publish him again. And so,
Speaker 2: you know, and John Flynn was one of his biggest critics.
Speaker 2: He's been pretty much forgotten these days. But I go
Speaker 2: into his criticisms a bit in the book and try to,
Speaker 2: you know, revive these very legitimate criticisms. So FDR had
Speaker 2: connections and he knew how to silence people.
Speaker 1: How much was Eleanor Roosevelt involved in the administration of FDR.
Speaker 2: Well, she, you know, I mean he treated her very badly,
Speaker 2: and I go into that in my book. Of course,
Speaker 2: he had that famous affair. You know, the woman who
Speaker 2: was his mistress was with him the day he died
Speaker 2: on April twelfth, I believe, nineteen forty five. And so
Speaker 2: they basically had a political relationship. And I don't think he,
Speaker 2: you know, really could have risen as far as he
Speaker 2: did without her help. For example, when he was governor,
Speaker 2: they took a tour through the state and inspected state
Speaker 2: institutions like mental hospitals and prisons, and Eleanor would be
Speaker 2: sent out to you know, check out the facilities and
Speaker 2: report back to him. She held the teas for politicians' wives.
Speaker 2: She and her female friends, you know, shortly after women
Speaker 2: got the vote, went out and campaigned for him. She
Speaker 2: was his you know legs, you know, when he couldn't walk,
Speaker 2: and you know, was very very helpful to him, and
Speaker 2: of course became very wealthy in the process because she
Speaker 2: was probably the highest paid writer in the country, although
Speaker 2: in my opinion, not writer at all.
Speaker 1: Right, during in my estimation, Lyndon Baines Johnson was a
Speaker 1: terrible president. And he, you know, he extended this government
Speaker 1: dependence through the Great Society and welfare. But he was
Speaker 1: just taking pages from FDR's playbook, wasn't he.
Speaker 2: Yes, well, he you know, he got his start, you know,
Speaker 2: in the youth administration of you know, the New Deal program.
Speaker 2: He was the youngest director of a New Deal program.
Speaker 2: So and he sidled up to Franklin Roosevelt and campaigned
Speaker 2: on his coat tails and you know, had a picture
Speaker 2: taken with him and used that in the campaign. So, yes,
Speaker 2: he was a protege of FDR.
Speaker 1: And he did he did more. You know, he's always
Speaker 1: championed as a I know we're talking about FDR, but
Speaker 1: he's always champion in LBJ as a you know, champion
Speaker 1: of race relations and civil rights in this country. He
Speaker 1: did more to divide this country racially than anyone else
Speaker 1: I can think of in the twentieth century, Am I writer?
Speaker 2: Or what? Oh? Yeah? Absolutely, you know, and of course
Speaker 2: with affirmative action, and you know, this is what we're fighting,
Speaker 2: this is what President Trump is fighting, Affirmative action and
Speaker 2: that evolved into DEI and basically struggle sessions in the
Speaker 2: workplace and in the classroom. And it's ironic because both
Speaker 2: FDR and LBJ like to use the N word. I mean,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, yeah. So you know, they were known as
Speaker 2: you know, racist, but in order to get the votes,
Speaker 2: you know, they gave out favors if Franklin Roosevelt. You know,
Speaker 2: in October nineteen thirty six, just days before the election,
Speaker 2: he unveiled a new chemistry building on the campus of
Speaker 2: Howard University thanks to American tax layers. But you know,
Speaker 2: you know, this was promoted to the black community in
Speaker 2: order to get the black votes.
Speaker 1: They've been doing that for a long time, the Democrats have,
Speaker 1: for certain, and a lot of what our current president
Speaker 1: has been doing in the Doze initiative and all of that,
Speaker 1: and the try to dismantle the administrative state, that all
Speaker 1: really began during FDR's terms as president. The administrative state
Speaker 1: and a fourth more or less a fourth leg of
Speaker 1: the federal government that is not constitutional and shouldn't be.
Speaker 1: But that all goes back to Franklin Delamo.
Speaker 2: Roosevelt absolutely, and a lot of people think that, you know,
Speaker 2: he instituted these New Deal programs all these alphabet agencies
Speaker 2: because he's, you know, struggling to find a solution for
Speaker 2: the Great Depression. But as a matter of fact, as
Speaker 2: I go into in my book, you know, Debunking FDR,
Speaker 2: I'm looking at his early career as a young state
Speaker 2: senator in Troy, New York in nineteen twelve. He's talking
Speaker 2: about interdependence and why should a farmer be able to
Speaker 2: decide whether or not he's going to, you know, let
Speaker 2: a field go follow, or whether he'll plant corn or
Speaker 2: wheat or whatever. And he said, you know that the
Speaker 2: government should be able to force him to do all that.
Speaker 2: Now this is nineteen twelve, you know, we're we're talking,
Speaker 2: you know, twenty years before you know he even runs
Speaker 2: for press. So he wanted to do this all along,
Speaker 2: and the Great Depression provided the opportunity for him. I'm
Speaker 2: sure Woodrow Wilson would have wanted to do this, but
Speaker 2: you know he didn't have the opportunity. But Franklin Roosevelt
Speaker 2: did take advantage of it and do what he wanted
Speaker 2: to do all.
Speaker 1: Along, never let a crisis go to waste. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: the book is debunking FDR. The Man and the Myths.
Speaker 1: The author is Mary gray Bar and our gracious host
Speaker 1: or guest this morning. I guess I'm the host. I
Speaker 1: don't know how gracious I've been, but I appreciate, I
Speaker 1: appreciate your time, certainly for spending. The book is out now.
Speaker 2: Yes it is. It's available anywhere books.
Speaker 1: They're sold, all right, fantastic, Thank you so much. In
Speaker 1: great success with that.
Speaker 2: Book, Mary, thank you very much. You bet you.
Speaker 1: We continue on fifty five KRC, the talk station