FDR Goes to War

October 10, 2011
In this right-wing polemic, Folsom (New Deal or Raw Deal?) and his wife argue that FDR's achievements during WWII were merely another episode in the creeping growth of big government. Though FDR can be justifiably criticized for many things, including his refusal to integrate the military, his hesitation in welcoming Jewish refugees, and the internment of more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans, the authors go further, characterizing him as wily or devious, and damning him at every turn. Opponents of government in all its guises, they criticize emergency measures such as rationing, higher taxes, and price controls. The real heroes in their eyes are the American entrepreneurs and CEOs who enriched themselves on federal contracts. Ironically, the type of military they advocateâwhere government functions are farmed out to private firms, and corporations influence policyâis the neo-conservative vision carried out during the current War on Terror, a conflict that has cost far more civil liberties than any New Dealer could ever have imagined.