"FDR was an internationalist in an isolationist age."

[pampango]

PBS' The Roosevelt's Episode 5:

FDR at the 1936 Democratic convention:

These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Governments can err. Presidents do make mistakes. But the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales.

Better the occasional fault of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omission of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.

There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

Always interesting how history repeats itself. Once again we have economic royalists who complain "that we seek to take away their power". Once again we have an isolationist "America First" republican to run against. Once again we have extremely high income inequality and insecurity.

[FreakinDJ]

1. But where is the FDR like candidate

[pampango]

2. The closest we have is trailing in the Democratic race right now. n/t

[Nye Bevan]

3. Which candidate would have been more likely to send US troops to intervene in a war in Europe? (nt)

[pampango]

5. In 1940? Neither FDR nor Wilkie wanted to do that though FDR was more 'interventionist' in a

non boots-on-the-ground sense, largely in terms of providing military aid to Britain. Late in the 1940 campaign Wilkie portrayed FDR as a war monger who would not keep the US out of the war but that he, Wilkie, would.

FDR saw that events in Europe would require American involvement at some point but seemed to know leading to charge for something like that would transform it into "FDR's war" rather than America's war. Instead he went about 'educating' the public about events in Europe (particularly in Germany after "Kristallnacht" and German actions is Austria, Czechoslovakia and the Spanish Civil War and invasions of Poland, France, etc.) and America's role in the world - without obvious success.

Roosevelt had been surprised by the outcome of the Republican convention, having expected to oppose a conservative isolationist. ... Roosevelt felt that Willkie's nomination would remove the war issue from the campaign. ... The fact that both major-party presidential candidates favored intervention frustrated isolationists, who considered wooing Charles Lindbergh as a third party candidate.

Conservatives and isolationists had little enthusiasm for the Willkie campaign, and the moderates wanted to see stronger positions on progressive issues and foreign policy.

With polls released on October 6 showing Roosevelt well ahead, Willkie began to sound an isolationist theme, accusing Roosevelt of being a warmonger. Many of Willkie's speeches to that point had been on domestic issues, but he had been advised by Martin, Hamilton, and other advisors that the war was the issue the voters really cared about. Willkie began to argue that Roosevelt would not keep the U.S. out of war, but that he would.

The polls showed voters responding positively to this new tack, and Willkie kept on this course for the remainder of the campaign. Roosevelt reacted by scheduling five speeches for the final days, in which he proposed to rebut Willkie's "falsifications".

The endorsement of CIO head John L. Lewis probably gave Willkie Michigan, and he gained ground in the suburbs and rural areas, but Roosevelt consolidated his 1936 coalition of working-class Americans, minorities, and Southerners to take the election. On the evening of November 11, Willkie gave a nationwide radio address, urging those who had voted for him not to oppose Roosevelt on all issues, but to give support where it was called for. In late November, Willkie interrupted a Florida vacation for a speech he concluded by offering a toast "to the health and happiness of the President of the United States"; Roosevelt confided to his son James: "I'm happy I've won, but I'm sorry Wendell lost".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Willkie#General_election_campaign

Who knows if Wilkie's late switch from supporting 'intervention' in Europe to a more 'isolationist theme' was genuine or an act of political desperation since he was trailing badly in the polls a month before the election.

Charles Lindbergh was the spokesman for the isolationist "America First" organization that Trump has brought renewed attention to.

[FreakinDJ]

4. Testimony to the effect of Establishment rigging of elections

[pampango]

6. It took FDR 4 ballots to win at the 1932 convention over Al Smith, the establishment favorite.

Partly that was due to a rule that you needed 2/3 of the delegates to win back then. FDR had a majority right from the start.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1932_Democratic_National_Convention

It was not easy for FDR either.