A focused reappraisal emphasizes that Franklin D. Roosevelt actively backed wartime speech suppression (Sedition and Espionage Acts), used communications regulation (FCC licensing, telegram retention) for political advantage, and accepted segregationist bargains—the book reframes FDR as an institutional consolidator of state communicative and racial controls rather than only a liberal icon. This shifts evaluations of New Deal state power from mainly economic to constitutional and civic terms.
— If accepted, this reframing changes how policymakers and the public weigh appeals to FDR as precedent in debates over national security, media regulation, and race‑based coalition politics.
Steve Sailer
2025.12.03
72% relevant
The piece directly engages the same terrain as that existing idea: it contests the modern trend that foregrounds FDR’s civil‑liberties failings (Japanese internment, refugee policy, redlining) and argues the Left has revised its attitude toward a once‑canonical hero. Sailer’s claim is a cultural‑memory reframing that maps onto the existing argument about reappraising FDR’s record and how that shapes institutional narratives.
Steve Sailer
2025.12.03
92% relevant
This piece is a direct rejoinder to the thesis captured by that existing idea: it defends FDR against contemporary critics who foreground his civil‑liberties harms (Japanese‑American internment, restrictive refugee policy, redlining). The author explicitly engages the same claims and reframes Roosevelt’s wartime leadership and political skill as overriding or contextualizing those transgressions.
Tyler Cowen
2025.11.30
100% relevant
Excerpt citing FDR’s congratulatory letter to a prosecutor enforcing the Espionage Act, his support for telegram retention rules, and use of FCC licensing to favor political allies.