"President Barack Obama has often evoked FDR as one of his inspirations, as have many other Democrats but also Republicans (notably Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich and others). What they admire is his ability to connect his belief and passion to actual political outcomes."
-Personal Interview with Lynn Weiner, Roosevelt University Historian
Roosevelt's legacy has lived on through the numerous leaders inspired by his leadership, Democrats and Republicans alike. He is often evoked in politics today.
President Lyndon B. Johnson
"President Roosevelt was President Johnson’s hero, and historians trace the inspiration for LBJ’s ambitious Great Society to FDR’s historic New Deal legislation."
-Terry Babcock-Lumish and Joanne Vellardita, City University of New York
-Terry Babcock-Lumish and Joanne Vellardita, City University of New York
"Today’s America is his America more than it is the work of any man . . . He had the gardener’s touch. In some mysterious way, he could reach out, and where there was fear, came hope; where there was resignation, came excitement; where there was indifference, came compassion. And perhaps we can remember him most, not for what he did, but for what he made us want to do. We are trying to do it still. And I suppose we always will . . ." |
President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
"[FDR's Fireside Chats] made an indelible mark on me during the Depression." ”As governor of California later, [Republican] Reagan had to deal with a Democratic legislature. 'It occurred to me that I had an opportunity to go over their heads.' How? He used radio and television to communicate directly with the people of California, a tactic he traced back to FDR’s Fireside Chats . . ."
-K. Alan Snyder |
Newt Gingrich
President Barack Obama
"President Barack Obama has really embraced elements of FDR’s presidency. Some of his critics in fact have said he's very much like FDR and is trying to increase the power of the presidency but he's trying to do that I think out of good intentions, to try to expand our democracy, embrace working class Americans, and to try to get through some regulation and legislation that’s much needed to address economic and social inequality in this country." ". . . certainly, when Franklin Roosevelt took office at a time of some 15 millions unemployed, almost all the banks in the country closed, there was a sense of crisis to which [Roosevelt] eluded that Obama was clearly making reference to without spelling that out in his inaugural address." |
"On Thursday, February 14th at 4:50 p.m. EST, President Obama will sit down with Americans from all across the country for a 'Fireside Hangout' – our 21st century take on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fireside chats. The President will join a live, completely virtual interview from nowhere other than the Roosevelt Room in the White House . . ." |