So, faced with more opposition to New Deal from industry and the Supreme Court (thr details are up to you) FDR decides that soft authoritarianism is what America needs, and through dubiously legal and democrstic methods pass legislation like the NIRA. What would happen?
AHC/WI: FDR Dictatorship
- Thread starter El_Presidente
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FDR was going to resign the moment WWII ended. He also didn't actually want to run in 1940 and 1944, only doing so after immense pressure. Not the kind of guy to install a dictatorship...especially with the Nazis staring him in the face.
The only way to get an FDR """dictatorship""" is to have him remain alive and healthy post 1945, not have Eisenhower run in '48, '52, and '56, and having him get better approval ratings than Truman from '45 to '52. Then, you could MAYBE get him to 1960. But that's really stretching it.
The only way to get an FDR """dictatorship""" is to have him remain alive and healthy post 1945, not have Eisenhower run in '48, '52, and '56, and having him get better approval ratings than Truman from '45 to '52. Then, you could MAYBE get him to 1960. But that's really stretching it.
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Not at all, after all he tried to manipulate the Supreme Court and neither required an Amrndment nor was he impeached.
As "Dictatorship" I don't mean that he is the President for an extended period of time, ratger that he uses various illegal and alegal methods to do what he deems necessary, like a "Gabriel over 5he White House" in real life.
Pre or post the Court Packing Scheme? If the latter, no way in hell. If pre, he still won't get very far before being impeached.
I was thinking pre Packing Scheme, so he doesn't have his reputation tainted by that.
Still, I don't see why would he be impeached if done through more or less legal means. After all, AFAIK, the Court Packing was entirely legal.
The Court Packing was Constitutionally legal, yes. So was running for a 3rd and 4th term as President. However, they were violations of American political tradition. I think he wouldn't have gotten away with the latter if a world war had not been in progress at the time. And there was bipartisan opposition to the former.
I remember that, at beginning of One Hundred Days, Roosevelt declared that, if situation got worse, he would have requested to the Congress to be able to govern for decrees. So, if Great Depression is more hurting, FDR could obtain a sort of Congressional authorization to rule with decrees and great executive powers. His New Deal will save US economy as OTL and this will make him widely popular. The Comgress has a very large pro-Roosevelt majority. In 1937 objections from Supreme Court are bypassed when the Court Packing Scheme is approved by Roosevelt. He finally died in 1945 after saving World during Second World War and is succeeded by Henry Wallace, who relented FDR's extraordinary powers, before losing Congressional majority in 1946 (alternative is to be impeached in 1947) and probably the Presidency in 1948.
As I understand it fdr planned to stay in after world war 2 as he considered the second bill of rights a post-war project for him to work on politicaly.
Well, a thing that must be taken in account is that FDR was way more open to pragmatism with latin american dictatorships,
With Higinio Morinigo, pro axis dictator of Paraguay
With Vargas of Brazil
He was present in the pan american conferences and have a great deal with respect with latin american countries, a extreme oddity for american presidents at the time:
If he somehow becomes dictator, this might continue stronger than ever.
With Higinio Morinigo, pro axis dictator of Paraguay
With Vargas of Brazil
He was present in the pan american conferences and have a great deal with respect with latin american countries, a extreme oddity for american presidents at the time:
If he somehow becomes dictator, this might continue stronger than ever.
This is a pretty good summary of why that isn’t true
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_dictatorship
https://statecrafting.net/roosevelts-dictatorship-plan-7b7092c1d8b5?gi=a203af67da09
http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/pdfs/dictatorship.pdf
I know I’m necroing this thread, and I apologize for it, I’ve never done this before and probably won’t ever do it again
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Bear this in mind - FDR caved when he was told no on court packing. He would just as soon not have run in 1940. He wasn’t in the best of health. The guy just didn’t have the stomach for anything more than being President under the Constitution. It’s hard to name a single POTUS who would have wanted anything resembling dictatorial powers - even W joked about it but he didn’t have the grapes for it either.
What if in WWII he accused congress of helping Japan plan Pearl Harbor and planted evidence or something, but made arrests and used emergency powers to ensure nobody can disprove his claims.
Can that turn him into an effective dictator?
Can that turn him into an effective dictator?
There were many that felt he was running a dictatorship after he ran for a 3rd term. I had a couple friends that you knew not to bring up FDR when their parents were around even in the mid 60s. They swore he hijacked the American Political system to get us into bailing out England and that he was a fellow traveller with Stalin.
No. OTL FDR still adhered to the limits of his political capital, which is why the New Deal programs stopped coming in the late 1930s when he lost a ton of liberal congressional seats. If he did this, 1) it undercuts the whole “arsenal of democracy” idea that he was pushing to justify war spending with the general public 2) isn’t feasible 3) would be out of character for what we know about FDR.