Charles E. Coughlin Quotes
Roosevelt or Ruin
Coughlin was an early and valued supporter of FDR, but after Roosevelt’s election the priest became dissatisfied that Roosevelt was not radical enough. FDR also wanted to distance himself from many of the Fascist and Socialist ideas of Coughlin and especially his racism and anti-Semitism. Coughlin then flip-flopped and became a vicious Roosevelt Critic. Few realize that he ever supported Roosevelt.
Charles E. Coughlin, 1891-1979, Catholic Priest, Union Party Co-founder, Slogan for the Election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1932
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Roosevelt’s New Deal would have been impossible without the support of the Southern segregationists.
At that time, all the racist segregationists of the South were Democrats, unlike in the latter part of the 20th century where, after the Democratic President Lyndon Johnson, pushed through the Civil Rights Act, the segregationists accepted an invitation to switch to the Republican Party. In the 1930s, FDR’s Congressional majority depended on these segregationists. This is why, even though the New Deal liberalized most of American life, FDR did very little about racial equality and Civil Rights. In the 21st century, Republican Administrations could not do much about the remaining equality and civil rights issues. The racists of America, although far fewer in number, voted for the Republicans and were an important part of their base, just as they had been for FDR during the New Deal.
FDR was terribly affable and was at the opposite end of the spectrum from the ideologues. Therefore he never offered specific programs. He was this grossly underestimated by many of the pundits of the day as being shallow with few or no ideas. Actually, he implemented more new ideas and programs than any other President in history but was very pragmatic about them and not really wedded to any of them. If one thing did not work, he tried another. The people and the Congress grew to trust him as no other president in our history although he always had his right wing enemies.
After JFK’s assassination, many of his appointees who were liberal Democrats, were concerned that LBJ was a Southern conservative and might not want to serve in a conservative administration. Johnson satisfied Heller and all of the other Kennedy appointees who he asked to stay on. Actually, Johnson was more liberal than JFK, and proved it during his Presidency.
Charles Edward Coughlin, commonly known as Father Coughlin or the radio priest, was a Canadian-American Roman Catholic priest who was based in the United States near Detroit. He was the founding priest of the National Shrine of the Little Flower church. He was one of the first political leaders to use radio to reach a mass audience: during the 1930s, an estimated 30 million listeners tuned to his weekly broadcasts. He was forced off the air after his rhetoric became anti-Semitic and fascistic.
