Line #45 UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt


1	[[quoteright:345:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fdr_in_wheelchair_february_1941.jpeg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:345:FDR in one of the few pictures of him in his wheelchair. [[HandicappedBadass Doesn't make him any less awesome]].]]
3
4	->''"The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something."''
5	-->-- '''Franklin D. Roosevelt''', Oglethorpe University commencement address, 1932
6
7	Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials of FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States. The tenth president from the Democratic Party, he was also the longest-tenured president in American history, serving three full terms and being just over a month into a fourth at the time of his death. Roosevelt was president from [[TheThirties 1933]] to [[TheForties 1945]], succeeding UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover, and was followed by his Vice President, UsefulNotes/HarrySTruman, who completed FDR's fourth term after his death in office. No prior president had even won a third term, and no president since has challenged--or will be ''able'' to challenge, thanks to the 22nd Amendment--his length of service (barring the ''very'' unlikely event of said amendment being repealed). He is generally ranked as the third-greatest among all US Presidents, alongside UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington and UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln.
8
9	His early political career saw him elected to the New York State Senate, which was followed by a spell as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a position he would occupy throughout almost the entirety of the UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson administration. In 1920, he was selected as the running-mate to Democratic candidate James M. Cox at that year's presidential election, essentially just so that the Democrats could get the Roosevelt name on the ticket. However, between the unpopularity of Wilson's administration and the fact that the Republicans tended to heavily dominate the White House in this era -- Wilson had been just one of two Democrats, the other being UsefulNotes/GroverCleveland, to be elected as president in-between 1860 and 1932 -- the Cox/Roosevelt ticket lost in a [[LandslideElection landslide]]. Afterwards, Roosevelt largely kept a low profile for the rest of the decade, though kept active in New York state politics by acting as an informal advisor to Governor Al Smith. When Smith stepped aside to run for the presidency in 1928, Roosevelt was nominated to succeed him, and won the governorship by just 26,000 votes, before being re-elected much more decisively two years later. The 1932 Democratic convention saw the two former allies contesting the presidential nomination, and Smith was able to get enough support block Roosevelt's nomination until the latter brokered a deal with third-placed candidate John Nance Garner, who dropped out and supported Roosevelt, in exchange for becoming his running-mate.[[note]](This was the last Democratic convention that required a two-thirds majority for the nomination. The rule, which had often resulted in the party picking blandly inoffensive nominees who had little widespread appeal, to say nothing of farcical outcomes such as the 1924 convention requiring ''103 ballots'' to nominate John W. Davis, was dropped at Roosevelt's request for the 1936 election.)[[/note]] Roosevelt handily defeated the severely unpopular Herbert Hoover in the ensuing election.
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11	Roosevelt led the United States through both TheGreatDepression and most of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and his domestic reforms and foreign policy accomplishments have forever left their mark upon the nation. By the end of his life, the USA had become the premier world superpower, a position it maintains to this very day, and his policies--in peace ''and'' war--played no small part in ushering in that transformation. As a liberal, Roosevelt is credited with initiating a shift in American politics, with his presidency taking the Democratic Party in a more progressive left-wing direction, and thereby indirectly bringing about a polarization that eventually led to the Republican Party and the Democratic Party taking their modern-day positions.
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13	Roosevelt is, to date, the only physically-disabled President.[[note]](though UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy was nearly there, having a hormonal disorder called Addison's disease, likely caused by an underlying lifelong autoimmune disorder, that left him weak, and a debilitating back injury that he got playing football in college and then exacerbated in the Navy). While FDR was susceptible to a lot of illnesses, likely including his paralytic one, due to being an isolated only child, ''pre''-paralysis he was far healthier than JFK, who'd had numerous hospitalizations and brushes with death by about the same age. Kennedy also took scrupulous care to hide his medical issues from the public, projecting an image of health and "vigor". The "bad back" was about all he admitted.[[/note]] In the summer of 1921, he became gravely ill a few weeks after he took his sons to the annual Boy Scout jamboree. After a day spent outside with his kids, he began to feel unwell late in the afternoon. He told his family he was headed to bed without supper and was never the same again. At the time he was diagnosed with polio, but he is now believed to have had [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt%27s_paralytic_illness Guillain–Barré syndrome]], due to his symptoms and the circumstances in which he got them. It took him until the end of the year to recover from the illness, and he remained permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He did his best to keep the extent of his malady secret from the public, insisting on being photographed from the waist up (to hide his wheelchair), standing with the surreptitious assistance of aides at public functions, and utilizing his truly impressive upper-body strength to hold himself upright at podiums. He was even able to walk short distances, through the use of leg braces and canes.[[note]]He'd also occasionally stand between aides and use them and his own strength to hold himself up while swinging his hips to move his legs and give the impression that he was walking under his own power.[[/note]] In spite of FeigningHealthiness, much of the public knew of his struggles. In the 1932 campaign it greatly helped humanize him to the public, seeing his suffering with paralysis as akin to their own suffering in the Depression.
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15	He was also a fierce SlaveToPR, taking good care on how he presented himself to the public, and cultivating friendships with the press corps (who, whether on account of CodeOfHonor or because they bought into his platform, refrained from making his disability into an issue). Nonetheless, the fact that he was wheelchair bound was [[http://ideas.time.com/2013/07/12/the-myth-of-fdrs-secret-disability/ more or less an]] OpenSecret, with more than a few leaks to the public, and yet either because of the scale of TheGreatDepression, the lack of 24/7 News coverage in the pre-television era or his personal popularity, this never quite mattered to either him, the public or his political opponents. In fact, his partial debilitation had silver linings: he was facing serious political scandal about undercover Military Police agents entrapping homosexuals in the Navy through oral sex and no one wanted to then press too hard to a person so seriously ill. More importantly, Franklin developed considerable empathy for people enduring misfortune through no fault of their own (albeit with occasional blindspots[[note]]Such as not supporting Federal anti-lynching bills because he felt there was not enough political support when he had to get broader legislation passed, giving in to wartime racist hysteria and setting up internment for Japanese-Americans and not doing nearly enough to specifically interfere with UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust[[/note]]), a quality which would be sorely needed during the global hardships he would face as president. The fact that his wife, UsefulNotes/{{Eleanor\|Roosevelt}}, was a staunch activist for the underdog proved a major influence on him as well, even if his continual philandering with other women was an irritant that permanently cooled their marriage. (Both Roosevelts, by the way, were related to earlier, Republican US president UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt; Eleanor as his niece, Franklin as his fifth cousin.)
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17	To further his goals, Roosevelt revolutionized the office's communication with the public with the aid of technology. Most famously, instead of the typical bellowing speeches given to a mass audience before microphones, he would have a series of more conversational radio addresses that he called "Fireside Chats". With that relatively soft-spoken approach, Roosevelt proved capable of winning over many to his policies, such as his first one that persuaded much of the public to take money they were hoarding under their mattresses after the wave of bank failures to put it back into those financial institutions after the national "banking holiday" which banks were closed for days to allow for sufficient funds and organizational reforms to be put in place to restore confidence in them.
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19	Roosevelt is often considered one of the greatest American presidents, usually ranked right up there with UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington and UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, though he's criticized for his internment of Japanese Americans (yes, American citizens) and his attempt to pack the Supreme Court. It also helps that he served twice as long as other presidents, ensuring that when WWII rolled around and finally ended the Great Depression, he would get plenty of credit, and also that despite his unprecedented winning streak with the Electoral College he intended to retire at the end of the war, before that "[[HeadacheOfDoom terrific pain in the back of [his] head]]" forced him out about a month earlier than he had planned. He remains not only the only sitting US president to die of {{retirony}}, but also the only sitting president other than Lincoln to become an indirect casualty of war; as the ''United News'' newsreel "Japan Surrenders" put it later that year, "Years of brave responsibility took their toll. A grateful world honors him today."
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21	----
22	%%!! Tropes as portrayed in fiction:
23
24	!!FDR in fiction:
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27	[[folder:Comic Books]]
28	* FDR was {{retcon}}ned to be the founder of the ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica, and his fictional super-powered great-grandson, "Lance" Reid, was a member in pre-Comicbook/{{Flashpoint}} continuity.
29	** FDR also was responsible for the creation of the wartime-only ComicBook/AllStarSquadron, which included as members by default the JSA.
30	* The SuperSoldier Serum taken by ComicBook/CaptainAmerica was, according to some comics, supposed to go to FDR after it had been tested (however, the inventor was killed after using it on Captain America, and the project had NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup). This would cure the effects of the polio and let him walk on his own again. Cap himself had a bit of hero-worship going on for Roosevelt, and the ''Sentinel of Liberty'' miniseries shows that Steve was employed as a mural painter by the [=WPA=]. Considering that FDR personally presented him with his indestructible round shield, you can understand the good feeling. The miniseries ''Man Out of Time'' expanded on Steve initially waking up in the present after being frozen, and while he initially assumed that he was just dreaming, he realises that this is reality when he learns that FDR died just before the official end of the war, reasoning that he could never have imagined something so unfair.
31	** He also appears in the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe, in ''ComicBook/UltimateOrigins''. He explained Rogers that the US had the NuclearOption to end World War II, but he would prefer him to win the war in a more conventional way before using such a deadly weapon.
32	* In ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'', outgoing Commissioner James Gordon relates his experiences during the war to incoming Commissioner Ellen Yindel, appointed by the mayor on her anti-Batman stance. He specifically stated that he refused to ever consider if Roosevelt knew about Pearl Harbour, stating that the whole thing was "too big" to comprehend, making an analogy to Batman's importance as a symbol. After failing to capture Batman multiple times, Yindel finally concedes to Gordon's point.
33	* In ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' #141 (April 1961), a flashback to Superman's debut as ComicBook/{{Superboy}} has the Boy of Steel meeting Roosevelt. Superboy saves FDR from an assassination attempt, plus does several favors for the President. [[MediaNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks Bronze Age]] stories (and DC's institution of a [[ComicBookTime floating timeline]]) eventually retconned the President Superboy met to [[UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower Eisenhower]]. As such, a 1980s Superboy story (where the hero's accidentally thrown back in time from TheSixties to TheThirties and across dimensional boundaries to [[Franchise/TheDCU Earth-2]]) has Clark see a Smallville newspaper headline mention Roosevelt. (We also later see Earth-2's Pa Kent express support of Roosevelt.) The post-Crisis storyline ''ComicBook/TimeAndTimeAgain'' sees Superman travel back to 1941 during his time-travel experience, which leads to him saving Roosevelt from a potential assassin during a visit to Metropolis of this time, the two men shaking hands and affirming that it's an honor to meet even while Superman wonders if he could have done anything to save Roosevelt's life if he gave the president warning about his health.
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36	[[folder:Films – Animated]]
37	* In "When I See an Elephant Fly" from Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'', one of the puns is "I heard a fireside chat", a then-contemporary reference to Roosevelt's radio addresses.
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40	[[folder:Films – Live-Action]]
41	* The play (and subsequent film) ''Film/SunriseAtCampobello'' feature Creator/RalphBellamy as a young FDR and chronicle his early struggles with polio.
42	** Bellamy would later play FDR as President in the TV miniseries ''[[Literature/TheWindsOfWarAndWarAndRemembrance The Winds of War]]'' and ''[[Literature/TheWindsOfWarAndWarAndRemembrance War and Remembrance]]''.
43	* Played by Creator/JonVoight in the film ''Film/PearlHarbor''.
44	* Played by Creator/KennethBranagh in ''Film/WarmSprings''.
45	* Roosevelt appears (as TheFaceless) in the FramingStory of ''Film/YankeeDoodleDandy''.
46	* Creator/BillMurray played FDR in ''Film/HydeParkOnHudson'', which depicts his affair with his distant cousin, Margaret Stuckley, with the focus being an important weekend where he had [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor King George VI and Queen Elizabeth]] visit.
47	* ''FDR: American Badass!'' is an... unusual spoof of the man's life. He is infected with polio after being bitten by a Nazi werewolf, and discovers that werewolves are in control of the Axis countries and plotting to take over the world with werewolf blood-infested alcohol. Yep.
48	* A speech of his opens ''Film/DarkHarvest''.
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51	[[folder:Literature]]
52	* Creator/SinclairLewis' dystopian 1935 novel ''Literature/ItCantHappenHere'' has FDR losing the 1936 Democratic nomination to demagogic senator Berzelius Windrip, who goes on to win the election and establish a fascist dictatorship in the US.
53	* A still-living nonagenarian FDR is also portrayed as a high-ranking secret society member in the ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}!'' trilogy by Creator/RobertAntonWilson and RobertShea.
54	* Appears several times in AlternateHistory works by Creator/HarryTurtledove.
55	** In ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'' he dies early, in 1944, due to the extra stress of having to manage a war against alien invaders and constantly being moved around the country. Henry Wallace was still his Vice President, but he had already been killed in an attack on Seattle and so Secretary of State Cordell Hull succeeded FDR as President.
56	** In ''[[Literature/{{Timeline191}} TL-191]]'' his analogue, known as "Franklin Roosevelt" rather than by his acronym, is the Secretary for Defence under President Charlie La Follette of the Socialist Party. As this is a less high-profile position, he is open about being disabled.
57	*** The ghastly number of men returning from both the First and Second Great Wars with missing limbs or other disabilities has made the USA in this timeline more accepting of the disabled (along with earlier acceptance of women's rights (although even that varies by state) and at least ''some'' moves toward racial equality, this is one of the few ''good'' outcomes of the CrapsackWorld that is Timeline 191).
58	* The ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' series imply that he was a son of the Big Three; Hades, Poseidon or Zeus. Its Wiki reveals that he is the son of Zeus. Additionally, Percy and his questing partners realize Bianca di Angelo and her brother, Nico, are from the 1940s when Bianca says that Roosevelt was the president before the current one.
59	* In Creator/PhilipRoth's AlternateHistory novel ''Literature/ThePlotAgainstAmerica'', he was defeated by Charles Lindbergh in the 1940 election, who keeps the US out of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. [[spoiler: He gets reelected in an emergency election in 1942 after Lindbergh goes missing and his Vice-President Burton Wheeler tries to use the resulting chaos to [[ThePurge purge the Jews]], leading to his removal by Congress.]]
60	* In the AlternateHistory novel ''Literature/JoeSteele'', where Stalin was born in America instead of the Russian Empire, Roosevelt is killed in a hotel fire during the 1932 Democratic National Convention (being unable to escape in his wheelchair), allowing Steele to win the nomination. It's all but outright said that Steele had his cronies set the fire.
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63	[[folder:Live-Action Television]]
64	* Creator/EdwardHerrmann portrayed him in the made-for-TV biopics ''Eleanor and Franklin'' and ''Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years''. Herrmann became so closely associated with the role that he cameo'd in the film version of ''Theatre/{{Annie}}'' as Roosevelt, and even narrated some Creator/TheHistoryChannel documentaries about or featuring Roosevelt.
65	* ''Series/TheKingOfQueens''. Doug's father-in-law is still sensitive to the topic of FDR's polio.
66	* A character on ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' is referred to as "FDR", which is then explained to stand for "Franklin Delano Romanowski", a disgruntled hotdog vendor who lives in Jerry and Kramer's building.
67	* In the ''Series/AllInTheFamily'' episode "Cousin Maude's Visit", Maude is shown to love Roosevelt, calling him "a saint". Archie's "secret weapon" against her is insulting FDR.
68	* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': In Season 7, the SHIELD team [[TerminatorTwosome travel back in time to prevent the Chronicoms from altering history]]. The first episode sees them end up in 1931, where clues lead them to a party that Roosevelt (then the Governor of New York) is attending as a fundraiser for his presidential bid the following year. His presence leads to the team concluding that he's the Chronicoms' target [[spoiler: though this turns out not to be the case]]. Coulson and Mack in particular are both [[AscendedFanboy thrilled to be in the same room as him]].
69	* ''Series/TheFirstLady'': Creator/KieferSutherland portrays him in the series.
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72	[[folder:Podcasts]]
73	* Dan Carlin discusses him as part of his ''Supernova of the East'' series from his ''Podcast/HardcoreHistory'' podcast, in particular the intense feelings (both positive and negative) he inspired in his own day. Also worth noting, part of his "Day of Infamy" speech is also a part of the show's intro.
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76	[[folder:Theatre]]
77	* Along with the aforementioned ''Theatre/SunriseAtCampobello'', he appears in the musical ''Theatre/{{Annie}}''.
78	** Ironically, Harold Gray was a staunchly conservative opponent of the New Deal and was not shy about using ''ComicStrip/LittleOrphanAnnie'' as a political platform. FDR and the New Deal are, of course, portrayed positively in the musical, which was written after Gray's death.
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81	[[folder:Video Games]]
82	* Like most other politicians (and some that aren't even politicians) of the time-period, Roosevelt is a possible (and indeed, the default) Head of State for the USA in ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIronII'' and ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIronIII''.
83	* Roosevelt is a choice for leader of America in ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} 4'', along with George Washington and UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln. Roosevelt is Industrious and Organized, which gives a boon to production and efficiency.
84	* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' gives him a little bit of a HistoricalVillainUpgrade, playing off the real life controversies like the Japanese Internment and his court-packing scheme, and implies that he used a Piece of Eden to navigate the country through the Great Depression. He was also apparently one of four Knights Templar in charge of the world's major superpowers, and helped to orchestrate UsefulNotes/WorldWarII as a way of creating a OneWorldOrder. The other three? [[spoiler: Churchill, Stalin, and ''Hitler''.]]
85	* ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}}'' has FDR appear in a passing mention as having been defeated in the 1940 Election by [[PresidentEvil Noah Grace]].
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88	[[folder:Web Comics]]
89	* It turns out that a still-living FDR is an employee at [[BizarroEpisode McAwesome's Parasailing and Chocolate Bakery]] in the world of ''Webcomic/{{Shortpacked}}'', just as "UsefulNotes/{{Ron\|aldReagan}}nie" works for the nearby toy store.
90	* Shows up as America's boss in ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers''...although his face is hardly seen.
91	[[/folder]]
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93	[[folder:Western Animation]]
94	* Even ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' thinks it's too soon to make a ''lamer than FDR's legs'' joke.
95	* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'': The ghost of Abraham Lincoln confesses that FDR was one of his favorite Presidents. "I loved to watch him sleep. Fate of the world on his polio-ridden shoulders....''that'' was a clear conscience."
96	* One episode of WesternAnimation/{{Histeria}} has FDR, Churchill, Stalin, and one of the kids from the show team up as the Freedom League against the Axis, represented by Mussolini, Tojo, and Satan Hitler.
97	* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'''s Season 5 shows that FDR still lives under the White House... as a human-spider hybrid thing (the result of the polio vaccine and genetic experiments meant to let him walk again). Morty burns him to death while making a pun on the "Fireside Chats".
98	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E12TheMansionFamily The Mansion Family]]", Mr. Burns is filling out paperwork in a doctor's office and lists his social security number as 000-00-02, then says "damned Roosevelt!" implying that FDR got 000-00-001.[[note]]He did not. It went to one John D. Sweeney Jr. of New York who happened to have his application processed first out of a stack of thousands.[[/note]]
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Context UsefulNotes / FranklinDRoosevelt