And this half hour, we're taking a few minutes to talk with Mary grab who is, among other things, the author of Debunking FDR, The Man and the Myths. And there were I guess rumors that White House staff thinking that Joe Biden might actually run for the White House, and they were concerned that he'd be in a wheelchair. But then they said, oh, we can say he's just like FDR. Maybe not maybe not such a good idea after all, if you look at the real history of
Franklin Delana Roosevelt and what he did. Of course, we got the news this week that Joe has other concerns now that we were not aware of, with the advanced prostate cancer diagnosis. But another another one of those things about history is that some people will claim that in debunking FDR, are you are in fact rewriting history. For some if they read a little bit, you're not rewriting history. You're writing the history and rig hting of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
So tell me why you decided to tackle this particular topic, mary.
Well, I was actually researching something else, as often happens when you have an idea for a book, I was researching a conservative black journalist, and I've been working on since two thousand and eleven, George Schuyler, who switched from being a socialist to a conservative, and it was largely
due to Franklin Roosevelt. And then I discovered that so many others had done the same thing, and that was because he was such a terrible president and he did not help you know, number one, blacks, He did not help the working class people. He did not help you know, the common man, as he said he would and said
he was concerned about. So I started looking into him and then noticed all these histories that you know, we're talking about what a great president he was and how he saved the country, and that was not the case at all. As I discovered, well, a lot.
Of the projects that he started and initiated during the Great Depression, actually many people would argue, extended that depression. It did not do anything to alleviate the misery, the unemployment, the inflation, everything else that was a part of America's stock market crash and ensuing nightmare. He really didn't do anything to help it, but actually exacerbated it.
Is that what you found, Yes, absolutely, you know, a lot the rest of the world had recovered and we were still one thing along of what Franklin Roosevelt should have done A most you know, reputable economists degree is to allow you know, the market to correct itself, which is what happened after World War One. You had an overproduction of you know, farm goods and so forth. And after Europe recovered, then wages went down and prices went down.
But eventually, you know, they'll find their equilibrium. You know, President Herbert Hoover, you know, did a little bit of that. You know, he encouraged business leaders to raise wages, thinking that that would raise prices and you know, lead to recovery, and that didn't work. But Franklin Roosevelt just put that, you know, Hoover's programs on steroids and just exacerbated the situation. So by nineteen thirty seven we had a.
Second press, right, and we only really came out of that due to World War two production. Is that the way it actually worked, or.
Well, a lot of a lot of people say that, but that was it was a little misleading because a lot of the working age men were overseas fighting the war, so you have very low unemployment. You know, you had Rosie the riveter, the women working in factories, and so that was artificial. And it took a while, you know, after World War Two for the economy to come back. So you know, there was rampant inflation after the war.
So you know, but but Roosevelt, I think did see the war as a way to sort of help save his presidency or his legacy, and you know, really did want to get involved.
Well, he's often cast as a reluctant president, but he's also the only president that was ever elected to four terms. He just couldn't get enough of the White House, could he.
That's right. I mean, you know, he knew he had serious health problems even before he ran for the third term in nineteen forty. But this idea that he was a reluctant president or a reluctant politician, you know, that was the rumor about him when he ran for the New York States Senate, and it's absolutely false. When he was an undergraduate at Harvard, he told his girlfriend or his you know, the girl he wanted to be his girlfriend, that he thought that he could be president and that
that was his ambition. And he said it again when he was a young attorney. So there's plenty of evidence that that was his ambition all along, and he felt that it was his birthright to be president, and he modeled all his actions on what cousin Theodore Roosevelt had done. Right.
The myths that are detailed here in Debunking FDR. The Man in the Myths, many of those were actually not concocted by anybody else but FDR himself. Right, he made up these stories that would make Joe Biden's cannibalized uncle blush.
Yeah, he did. There were so many. It's you know, you think you've found all of them, and then there's another one. You know. He you know, even when he flew to Chicago, breaking tradition to be there to accept the nomination and make a speech, you know, he said, you know, we encountered some turbulence, but it's a good thing I had my Navy training. He was never in the Navy. He was an assistant secretary of the Navy.
Yes, all right, hold on just a second, We'll take a break and come back. Mary graybar as our guest. The book is debunking FDR. The Man and the Myths that the Great, the heralded, Great Savior of America during the Great depression in World War Two, maybe not so much. Back to this Tuesday Morning on fifty five KRC with Mary Graybor, the author of Debunking FDR. The champion of the Liberal Left, the dictator, and the country squire in
the White House. He was often known as that, And he got how did he put down all of his detractors? I mean, he had to put out fires because a lot of people just weren't going along with these plans right at the time.
Yeah, Well, he silenced the press. You know. He was friends with the publisher of the New York Times, and one reporter was a critical of him, and so he contacted the publisher and this reporter was sent to Uruguay, and you know, and he wrote a letter to the publisher of the Yale Review because he didn't like an article that John T. Flynn had written, and the publisher said, well, absolutely,
you know, we're never going to publish him again. And so, you know, and John Flynn was one of his biggest critics. He's been pretty much forgotten these days. But I go into his criticisms a bit in the book and try to, you know, revive these very legitimate criticisms. So FDR had connections and he knew how to silence people.
How much was Eleanor Roosevelt involved in the administration of FDR.
Well, she, you know, I mean he treated her very badly, and I go into that in my book. Of course, he had that famous affair. You know, the woman who was his mistress was with him the day he died on April twelfth, I believe, nineteen forty five. And so they basically had a political relationship. And I don't think he, you know, really could have risen as far as he
did without her help. For example, when he was governor, they took a tour through the state and inspected state institutions like mental hospitals and prisons, and Eleanor would be sent out to you know, check out the facilities and report back to him. She held the teas for politicians' wives. She and her female friends, you know, shortly after women
got the vote, went out and campaigned for him. She was his you know legs, you know, when he couldn't walk, and you know, was very very helpful to him, and of course became very wealthy in the process because she was probably the highest paid writer in the country, although in my opinion, not writer at all.
Right, during in my estimation, Lyndon Baines Johnson was a terrible president. And he, you know, he extended this government dependence through the Great Society and welfare. But he was just taking pages from FDR's playbook, wasn't he.
Yes, well, he you know, he got his start, you know, in the youth administration of you know, the New Deal program. He was the youngest director of a New Deal program. So and he sidled up to Franklin Roosevelt and campaigned on his coat tails and you know, had a picture taken with him and used that in the campaign. So, yes, he was a protege of FDR.
And he did he did more. You know, he's always championed as a I know we're talking about FDR, but he's always champion in LBJ as a you know, champion of race relations and civil rights in this country. He did more to divide this country racially than anyone else I can think of in the twentieth century, Am I writer?
Or what? Oh? Yeah? Absolutely, you know, and of course with affirmative action, and you know, this is what we're fighting, this is what President Trump is fighting, Affirmative action and that evolved into DEI and basically struggle sessions in the workplace and in the classroom. And it's ironic because both FDR and LBJ like to use the N word. I mean, oh yeah, yeah. So you know, they were known as you know, racist, but in order to get the votes,
you know, they gave out favors if Franklin Roosevelt. You know, in October nineteen thirty six, just days before the election, he unveiled a new chemistry building on the campus of Howard University thanks to American tax layers. But you know, you know, this was promoted to the black community in order to get the black votes.
They've been doing that for a long time, the Democrats have, for certain, and a lot of what our current president has been doing in the Doze initiative and all of that, and the try to dismantle the administrative state, that all really began during FDR's terms as president. The administrative state and a fourth more or less a fourth leg of the federal government that is not constitutional and shouldn't be. But that all goes back to Franklin Delamo.
Roosevelt absolutely, and a lot of people think that, you know, he instituted these New Deal programs all these alphabet agencies because he's, you know, struggling to find a solution for the Great Depression. But as a matter of fact, as I go into in my book, you know, Debunking FDR, I'm looking at his early career as a young state
senator in Troy, New York in nineteen twelve. He's talking about interdependence and why should a farmer be able to decide whether or not he's going to, you know, let a field go follow, or whether he'll plant corn or wheat or whatever. And he said, you know that the government should be able to force him to do all that. Now this is nineteen twelve, you know, we're we're talking, you know, twenty years before you know he even runs for press. So he wanted to do this all along,
and the Great Depression provided the opportunity for him. I'm sure Woodrow Wilson would have wanted to do this, but you know he didn't have the opportunity. But Franklin Roosevelt did take advantage of it and do what he wanted to do all.
Along, never let a crisis go to waste. Yes, yes, the book is debunking FDR. The Man and the Myths. The author is Mary gray Bar and our gracious host or guest this morning. I guess I'm the host. I don't know how gracious I've been, but I appreciate, I appreciate your time, certainly for spending. The book is out now.
Yes it is. It's available anywhere books.
They're sold, all right, fantastic, Thank you so much. In great success with that.
Book, Mary, thank you very much. You bet you.
We continue on fifty five KRC, the talk station