Less than a week before election day, 2020, Time Magazine was one of many publications that ran articles comparing FDR and Joe Biden. In an article titled “How Joe Biden Is Positioning Himself as a Modern FDR,” Charlotte Alter detailed the striking similarity of circumstance the two men faced at the time of their presidential campaigns. In a nutshell, both faced a nation in political and social turmoil, both faced a shattered economy and record high unemployment, and both asked to be burdened with the task of pulling the country out of an unprecedented situation while paving the way forward.
The similarities do not end there. Alter goes on to detail how both men were considered unimpressive politicians in their early careers and neither were particularly outstanding students or lawyers. While those are certainly not flattering characteristics to share, they each managed to use charisma as their main tool to succeed in Washington.
Though published before the election, the article hit on one striking aspect of the two mens’ similarities: Their policies while in office elicit accusations of socialism. As Alter put it, “Biden seems to share Roosevelt’s belief that the federal government should be relied upon to help ordinary Americans in times of need.” FDR’s New Deal brought about a vast expansion of the federal government under the guise of helping the struggling population and providing much needed employment. Biden’s Build Back Better plan aims to do the same.
On the campaign trail, FDR and the media colluded to hide his disability. The Secret Service even went so far as to destroy photographs journalists had taken of Roosevelt in his wheelchair. Biden didn’t campaign much at all, insulated by the pandemic, so his obvious cognitive decline was well concealed by short virtual interviews and prerecorded clips for much of the lead up to election night. Even now, the media is happy to play along with the White House and refrain from asking the question on everyone’s mind: what is wrong with Joe?
The comparison is not lost on the Biden administration. In fact, when Joe redecorated the oval office, he had a large portrait of FDR hung above the mantle opposite his desk. It is flanked by smaller portraits of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. During Trump’s time in the White House, a larger portrait of George Washington wearing his blue military uniform was centered above the fireplace, flanked by the very same Jefferson and Hamilton portraits Biden has now.
Biden followed through on the previous administration’s promise to leave Afghanistan, albeit in a horrifically inept way, only to begin funding a different war in a different theater. According to Statista.com, the Biden Administration has sent over $54.5 billion dollars to Ukraine in military, financial, and humanitarian aid since the Russian offensive began in January. Another $400 million has been earmarked as of just this past week. This informal involvement is strikingly similar to FDR’s ‘Lend-Lease’ Act which allowed the United States to finance and supply weaponry for the war against Nazi Germany without sending troops. In July of 1940, only 8% of the American population supported entering the war in Europe. Roosevelt faced a difficult situation. Having run as a pacifist but secretly anticipating the need for the United States to send troops overseas, he had to work on shifting popular opinion. As he prepped the public through speeches, he was able to get funding granted to expand the armed forces. Through the aid sent to the British and the expansion of military power, he ensured that when the United States inevitably entered the war it would already have a “substantial weapons industry.”
In the current era, Biden’s funding of the Ukraine war has had a similar effect on our weapons industry. Roosevelt still faced a large portion of the population that was staunchly opposed to involvement in the war, but coverage by the media like CBS foreign correspondent Ed Murrow served to encourage the public’s sympathy for the plight of the British. This tactic should seem familiar to the modern American public considering the mainstream media’s crafting of the Ukrainian war narrative from the outset of the conflict, complete with star reporters visiting cancer wards of children’s hospitals in a war zone.
One of the most bizarre aspects of these eerie similarities is a group that calls themselves “The Descendants.” As the name implies, it is comprised of people whose ancestors served in FDR’s cabinet. If the mere existence of this bloodline club isn’t odd enough, their stated purpose is to help Biden be just like their beloved FDR. These people are not politicians and yet they have not only recreated the long dead president’s cabinet, they hope to help Biden recreate his radically progressive political accomplishments. Pardon the sound of aluminum foil, my hat needs another layer.
This is all just a very brief overview and introduction to the strange parallels being drawn between these two men. In fact hundreds of articles have been written by mainstream sources over the past few years, so more information is out there if anyone has the stomach for it.
The lingering question on many minds should be: what can we expect from our modern impaired progressive president if he is to live up to his predecessor? If history repeats, the answer is pretty simple. We will likely see a vast expansion of the federal government, specifically in economic, industrial, and social programs cloaked in the guise of positive social change. There will be much fanfare around the signing of new acts and bills, despite the high likelihood that they will negatively impact our rights for generations to come. As if that isn’t bad enough on its own, in the case that we are truly unlucky, there’s a chance we will be drawn into a war in Europe.
It’s impossible to know for certain what will happen over the last two years of Biden’s term, but considering his eagerness to sign unconstitutional Executive Orders, for anyone who truly understands the principles on which this country was founded and just how grotesquely bloated the federal government has become, the idea that we have a president with a desire to be like FDR should be met with dread and trepidation.
Once government wields power it does not relinquish it. It seems each year our freedoms as individuals align more and more with the Chinese people’s.