esrosedotblog

FDR

I grew up in a house that kept a plaster bust of Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the desk. There was a small American flag in a little hole on its base. It was the early Forties; WWII. My parents had married in 1929. They believed that FDR had led the country out of the great depression and that he would lead the USA and its Allies to victory in the war. He was not worshiped; he was respected and revered.

There are two results for me. I believe in the institution of the Presidency very deeply and I am a lifelong Democrat. I have often left the fold weaving to the left or the right. I have actually voted for Republicans! But I have never, ever, lost my fundamental belief in the power of the President to lead and embody the American spirit and ideals.

The Reagan reminiscences have awakened all this. Because of FDR and Harry Truman, my standards for who shall fill the office are hard and firm. Not all who have come after have been able to do it. Eisenhower came close. Kennedy did not have the time but got most of it. Some people did have JFK busts at home. Since then, only Clinton has approached the charismatic leadership that I long for today.

It is so agonizing to watch the swinishness with which the current occupants of the office conduct themselves. I know it will pass. And soon. It is time for a restoration. It will take a very long time. Or perhaps it will not. The magic of the system and the office is that transformations can occur in very short bursts of time. We will see. In the meantime, I remember FDR.

John and I visited the summer home Campobello on the border between Maine and Canada. The place was totally, convincingly left as though the family had just stepped out for awhile. There was the wheelchair. There were the papers on the table. We went around a corner and the radio was on. It had a tape loop of the man himself. The one inappropriate thing in the time machine; but perfectly appropriate. He would not have been listening to himself. It was magical.