Plausibility Check: Fascist FDR?

[Crying]

As is said in this post, could an FDR who "had his future thrown away" by the Democrats rejecting the New Deal become something of a Mosley analogue? Also, would it be necessary for him to not be crippled or was that just so he'd be a better fit for Mosley?


The idea of JFK as a Mosley analogue is interesting too, but that would be a thread all of its own.

 

[Spens1]

Wasn't it basically said when he was elected something along the lines of 'expect to be a dictator'. Especially since that's the way the world was going (Franco, Mussolini, Hitler).

Given the economy, i wouldn't have been surprised if he ended up as one, if at least until WW2 ends. I think people would have tolerated it in the drastic times if it yielded proper results.

Maybe the business plot (in all its drunken glory) goes ahead and some general high up takes it on, but it fails. This may be enough for FDR to declare martial law.

 

[Colonel Zoidberg]

Roosevelt was a pragmatist, first and foremost. If he decided that fascism - or implementing principles associated with fascism - was the way to go, he'd do it. He may have to sell it to Congress, but with enough people friendly to him in Congress, he could do it.

That said, Congress wasn't afraid to push back. FDR wasn't able to pack the Supreme Court, so there would be things he probably couldn't do if for no other reason than Congress wouldn't allow it.

 

[creighton]

It's hard to be a fascist in the US because you have, at that time, 48 governors that may have something to say about that.

Perhaps you could argue FDR would be sympathetic to the controlling means of production side of things, but he didn't go as far as he could have on that front, so I'm skeptical. Nothing else about him really seems that facist-y. Also, his Uber worship of Teddy Roosevelt shows a pretty deep respect for liberal democracy. Even when he tried to pack the court and then stood down, he wasn't resorting to violence or anything, which would have been step 2 in the facist's playbook.

 

[BaronVonDouchebag]

If you listen to his first inaugural speech, Roosevelt talks about, in a worst case scenario regarding the depression, of Congress giving him broad executive powers to combat the crisis as though we were at war with a foreign power. If Roosevelt did morph into some sort of dictator, I don't see it as being in power just for the glory of power and would step down or return to government as normal once the national emergency passed.

 

[Colonel Zoidberg]

If you listen to his first inaugural speech, Roosevelt talks about, in a worst case scenario regarding the depression, of Congress giving him broad executive powers to combat the crisis as though we were at war with a foreign power. If Roosevelt did morph into some sort of dictator, I don't see it as being in power just for the glory of power and would step down or return to government as normal once the national emergency passed.

The Roman idea of a "dictator" - an established time limit on power and a return to normal when the crisis is over.

 

[thorr97]

Could FDR "become" Fascist?

Hmm...

Let's see now...

He tried turning the nation's Supreme Court into a rubber stamp for his policies...

He seized all the gold in private hands and declared it illegal for private citizens to own gold thereafter...

He put over 100,000 Americans into concentration camps after seizing their property and detaining them without trial...

So, what is this part about the possibility that FDR might "become" a Fascist dictator?