Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes
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.
This quotation shows FDR doing something that politicians rarely do. The country was in the midst of the Great Depression and he was running for the Presidency against Herbert Hoover who as President would do little to help the destitute part of the population or improve the economy. Roosevelt did not lay out specific programs which he claimed would fix the problem. He himself really didn’t know for certain what would and what would not. However he promised bold experimentation—trying new things. When he was elected, he was able to fail with one program and just shift to another until enough were successful. But the great contrast was to Hoover who would do little.
Two of the 20th centuries greatest political leaders were Mao Tse-Tung and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In most respects, these two were polar opposites. However, they had one characteristic in common. They were both willing to try things they were not certain of. If they succeeded, make it a part of the national program. If it failed, try something else. See Mao {642795}.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1882-1945, 32nd President of the United States (Democrat, NY), Oglethorpe University Commencement Address, May 22, 1932
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Most people are surprised that this quotation was from Roosevelt who has for decades been castigated by the right wing as an advocate of large, complex government. He was an advocate for eliminating ineffective programs and trying others until there was success. See {631419}. Also, his most successful programs like Social Security were very simple and not complex. The public could understand them.
This is a noteworthy quotation because it illustrates—to a slightly exaggerated degree—a major difference between the public and private sectors. However, Conrad fails to point out that when government does try and establish several competitive programs and approaches, conservatives like him are the first say that the government officials do not know what they are doing and then they object to the “duplication” and “waste.” Further, usually, when a government entity does experiment as the private sector competitive system does, it is chastised by liberals and conservatives alike for having had attempts that failed or did not succeed well. Experimenting requires a cultural tolerance for failure or imperfection. Only very courageous executive politicians like President Franklin Delano Roosevelt have been able to initiate many programs aiming at the same objective with the society keeping the best—like Social Security and rejecting the worst like the National Recovery Administration. See {631419} for his view.
The Social Security law, most American’s favorite government program, had just been passed that year, and like the Affordable Health Care Act in the Obama administration, the Republicans were rabidly opposed to the program, and there was none of the collaboration with an objective to perfect and improve the legislative language. And like “Obama Care” and most very large new government initiatives, there were many problems that became clear once the program was started. Amazingly President Roosevelt was the first to tell the public and the press that the Social Security program will have many problems, but what does not work can be replaced by something else and the program would be improved. This was part of FDR’s basic approach to the Presidency. (See {631419}.) No politician in modern times would be able to say that or anything like it, and Mrs. Roosevelt’s quotation here, which she wrote for the entire country to see, most politicians and political scientists would agree that she was exactly right about new legislative initiative.
Two of the 20th centuries greatest political leaders were Mao Tse-Tung and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In most respects, these two were polar opposites. However, they had one characteristic in common. They were both willing to try things they were not certain of. If they succeeded, make it a part of the national program. If it failed, try something else. See FDR 52,743.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. A member of the Democratic Party, he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. As a dominant leader of his party, he built the New Deal Coalition, which defined modern liberalism in the United States throughout the middle third of the 20th century. His third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II, which ended shortly after he died in office.
