[justshutupandtakeit]

While I know it is fashionable to attack FDR as the source of evil in the 20th century it should be remembered that the radical left hated him as a reformer. They believed he saved the capitalist system from itself by trying to end the depression. Typically when both the left and right attack someone's actions they are both wrong.

It is likely that virtually any politician would act similiarly to FDR when faced with the prospect of mass starvation and an armed violent communist revolution.

Remember simplicity is mostly for simpletons.

[tacticalogic]

While I know it is fashionable to attack FDR

I do not attack FDR out of any sense of "fashion". When he re-interpreted the Commerce Clause, and replace the historical meaning of the word "regulate" with the more modern meaning "to control or have authority over" he caused a systemic shift in the balance of power in favor of the federal government. I firmly believe that it was a serious error to do this based on no more than creative semantics, and without the consent of the states through a constitutional amendment. It's legacy is an ever expanding federal bureaucracy, and a growing mistrust of the federal government. History records that he was advised at the time that his New Deal policies were unconstitutional without an enabling amendment, and that he basically resorted to blackmailing the USSC with the Court Packing Bill to get them to agree to his interpretation of the Commerce Clause. Desperate measures taken during desperate times are not immune to constitutional requirements.