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The Spectacle Blog
Quin Hillyer’s latest salvo against Newt Gingrich concerns his long standing admiration for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. To be precise, he is miffed that Newt called FDR “the greatest President of the 20th Century.”
Ah yes, let’s place Newt under arrest right away for expressing such heretical thoughts.
Yet I seem to recall that one Ronald Wilson Reagan voted for FDR not once, not twice, not thrice but four times. That’s right. Four times!!!
Reagan’s admiration for FDR hardly dimmed even as he became America’s preeminent conservative voice. At a White House tribute in honor of FDR in 1982, Reagan hailed the 32nd President as “one of history’s truly monumental figures,” “an American giant, a leader who shaped, inspired, and led our people through perilous times.”
Somehow I don’t think the Gipper would have faulted Newt for his admiration of FDR.
View all comments (18) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/12/14/reagan-admired-fdr-too
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Bumr50| 12.14.11 @ 7:39PM
Thank you for providing a spirited defense.
What's up with taking Gingrich soundbites out of context?
If it were a Lefty rag doing this, we'd all be screaming 'Alinsky!'
All American American| 12.14.11 @ 7:44PM
Reagan was pres when he said those things. He was a dimwitted Dem when he voted for FDR. Even if he meant the things he said, it just proves the old adage that nobody's perfect.
FDR was a pinko-commie, big gubmint, socialist moron of a president who almost single-handidly ushered in the era of entitlements and welfare and subsidies etc etc etc.
That's why it makes me puke when folks talk about that generations as "America's greatest." Good grief. They voted for this commie FOUR TIMES. That doesn't make the the greatest---it makes them the DUMBEST.
Jack in Wi.| 12.14.11 @ 8:41PM
Neuter loves big government types, Lincoln, Wilson, and FDR. Lincoln gave us the draft, income tax and put thousands of Nothern dissidents in prison. He also closed up hundreds of opposition newspapers. Wilson did the same. He got the 16th Amendment passed, gave us the Federal Reserve and abused the rights of and imprisoned tens of thousands of dissidents. Roosevelt violated many thousands of peoples civil rights, lied us into war, and raised income taxes tyo a top rates in the 90% range. Neut is a threat to every American who wants smaller less burdensome government. He is an extreme liberal trying to fit in sheeps clothing.
Dai Alanye | 12.14.11 @ 11:19PM
If I remember correctly, Lincoln also kept the nation unified, and overcame slavery. We know, of course, that had Ron Paul been elected in 1860 the US would be a minor country, and we would have had to depend on Jeff Davis to free the slaves.
Red Phillips | 12.14.11 @ 11:35PM
"kept the nation unified"
Keeping the nation unified by force is not a laudable outcome.
"the US would be a minor country"
Ahh ... there we have it now don't we? We couldn't have the US be a "minor" country now could we? Because how is a minor country supposed to fulfill our global destiny and police the world? You folks are so transparent its pathetic.
Part of what is behind neocon admiration of FDR is they believe he essentially modernized the American state making it suitable for governing a modern 20th Century (at the time) country. Yet these are the "conservatives" and Ron Paul is the crank. Absurd. Simply absurd.
Clint| 12.15.11 @ 12:13AM
Do Your Homework, Israel Firster Dial Job.
Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, Washington, D.C., March 4, 1861
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it."
The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here And In Iowa.
Quartermaster| 12.14.11 @ 9:05PM
Reagan made his bones railing against much of the New Deal.
The point also needs to be made that just because he was a popular president does not mean Ronnie Raygun was infallible. His admiration of FDR was misplaced as is Gingrich's.
Bob K.| 12.14.11 @ 9:18PM
Don't forget that Reagan said that he did not leave the Democratic Party. He said that it left him.
Red Phillips | 12.14.11 @ 9:48PM
Aaron, the problem with praising the President who trampled the Constitution and destroyed the Old Republic the second most of any President in history should be obvious. You could praise aspects of FDR, but not his whole political legacy. Newt's praise of FDR is unqualified. It's embarrassing.
Jake| 12.14.11 @ 9:54PM
Reagan was 33 when he last voted for FDR .
WW II was still blazing in 1944 and although he served stateside , no doubt CPT Reagan felt a fealty to his CINC .
Newt was in his 60s when he made his laudatory comments about FDR.
Aaron Goldstein| 12.14.11 @ 11:35PM
Reagan was still praising FDR in his 70s when he was President.
WL| 12.15.11 @ 12:51AM
Mr. G.,
I have been critical of your writing at times...but here lately I must say that I have agreed with you on more than one occasion...
This is another one of those occasions. There is something different about FDR that is easy to admire for all of us (rightly or wrongly)...
You hit the mark on this one.
AND...I am glad I am not the only one who notices the ...."...salvos..."
From your pal over there...
You know who...
MITTS BOY HILLYER
Red Phillips | 12.14.11 @ 10:41PM
Peter Schiff understands why praising FDR is such a problem.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/pol.....t-and-fdr/
Aaron, this is a no brainer.
Larry| 12.15.11 @ 2:04AM
One always has to give the devil his due. I am second to no man in my admiration of how FDR led the country during WWII. And I certainly have to give him credit for being able to know how to gauge the political mood of the country and win elections by putting together coalitions and buying votes with Federal dollars (especially like he did in 1936, see Amity Shlaes's "The Forgotten Man" for a description of that).
That is always how I've understood Gingrich's take on the man. It doesn't mean he loves him or wants to emulate his policy decisions. Reagan was, of course, a union leader and a New Deal man way back when, and he realized the direction that modern Democrats were taking the so-called New Deal welfare state philosophy, and wanted it stopped. So everybody get off this kick. The whole idea here is to try to find a way to get the country turned around from the attitude of dependency upon the Federal government. It's not going to happen overnight.
aware| 12.15.11 @ 6:31AM
The week our "elected" leaders are going to bury due process with the "National Defense Authorization Act", we have the spectacle of the "right" wing defending the memory of FDR by evoking the sacred talisman of Reagan. This to protect the election chances of a statist technocrat proclaimed to be the smartest man on the stage.
To top it off, the bill is pushed by the man who would have been king(McCain) had the same Republican overlords had their way in '08. And in the "aye" column we have many of the "defenders" of the constitutional order as proclaimed by "conservatives" such as many of the writers and posters here like Paul Ryan, Allen West, and Tom Price, among others who stood arm in arm with Pelosi, Sanchez, And Shelia Jackson-Lee.
A fine picture of a country descending into the abyss of the Police State, so afraid of boogeymen and "threats" that it rushes to surrender liberties for the illusion of "security". Hardly a peep out of the "conservative" mainstream media to boot.
Dan| 12.15.11 @ 6:37AM
Aaron, ----------------------- seems that you're getting the sense that some have gone off the deep end in their criticism, and some have become unhinged as they're desperately thrashing about trying to stem Gingrich's surge.
KDW| 12.15.11 @ 8:46AM
Reagan also vigorously and publicly campaigned
for Harry Truman in 1948. I have , on You Tube, heard a radio blurb from 1948, where Reagan even decried 'Trickle-Down Economics'.
Clearly Reagan was unfit to be President.
Mark in LA| 12.15.11 @ 7:41PM
The problem with people like you is that you give so much more weight to what somebody does rather than what he says.