Has anyone watched the Ken Burns film on the Roosevelts? First of all, it is great Burns put all these pictures, films and first hand accounts in a film. It is clear that Ken Burns is very supportive of FDR and governments wide and far reaching role, and even today is urging the government do more (see attached video), but this is another good addition to his others (e.g., the Civil War, baseball, jazz). I was only able to watch the parts on FDR and Eleanor (ER). Anyone who paid attention in school, probably didnt learn a lot about the FDR when it came to his big picture accomplishments. How he saved freedom in the West, that he was a great speaker when the nation needed him the most, and how ER had a big heart and she was the first First Lady that had an active role. I did learn two things that got past my 5th grade text books. First, Eleanor Roosevelt was a socialist. Every time Burns shined the light on her (and that was often in the 3 parts I watched 1933 to 1962), ER was advocating the government fix this or the government fix that. Ever advocating a bigger role for government until she died. If Burns account was accurate, ER was one of the founding fathers of socialism in our nation. What early socialists like ER didnt realize was (and people like Burns still don’t see today), is those initiatives may have had benefits in small doses at the beginning, but ER didnt foresee how far those socialistic ideas and programs would be taken by liberals in government that followed (like Lyndon Johnson in his Great Society), and how harmful that has been in the long run to our country and economy. Our country is slowly sinking under the weight of a too large of government, and will eventually collapse, and those seeds were planted by do-gooders like Eleanor Roosevelt. I didnt call her that, some of her contemporaries did according to Burns. Mine is a tough criticism (but shared by many), but if you disagree, take time to watch the film. By the way, ER felt the New Deal didn’t go far enough and was one of the first three US delegates to the United Nations. Second, while Burns doesnt come out and say it, it seems FDR had multiple long-term relationships with other women throughout their marriage. Reading the accounts of others, they say the same thing. From the Burns film, you can tell ER and FDR had a strictly platonic relationship and he was spending too much time with two or three women. None of them were his wife. FDR and ER both put their political ambitions first (he to be President and she to be an active First Lady), and their marriage vows were way on down the list for both of them. Additionally, they both played a major role in tricking the public about it. FDR and evidently ER too, were just fine with creating the impression they had a good marriage because the public would have never tolerated the truth. Burns gives them both a free pass on this one too. He did say ER was mad when she learned FDR had his mistress at his side when he spent 10 days at Spring Valley in GA, and he died there. Pleeeze, 10 days FDR is on vacation in failing health and his wife isnt there one day? These two were political partners who held up their marriage to the public because it worked for them politically. It reminded me of the Clintons. ER was probably less willing than Hillary Clinton, but ER did make comments in letters she wrote like the reality is what it is, and I have to make the best of it. Very good film and FDR and ER did some great things, but I did learn a couple things that wasn’t written in the history books. youtube/watch?v=mWjDMLNOkJc
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 12:22:04 +0000
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