Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
And this half hour, we're taking a few minutes to
talk with Mary grab who is, among other things, the
author of Debunking FDR, The Man and the Myths. And
there were I guess rumors that White House staff thinking
that Joe Biden might actually run for the White House,
and they were concerned that he'd be in a wheelchair.
(00:23):
But then they said, oh, we can say he's just
like FDR. Maybe not maybe not such a good idea
after all, if you look at the real history of
Franklin Delana Roosevelt and what he did. Of course, we
got the news this week that Joe has other concerns
(00:44):
now that we were not aware of, with the advanced
prostate cancer diagnosis. But another another one of those things
about history is that some people will claim that in
debunking FDR, are you are in fact rewriting history. For
(01:04):
some if they read a little bit, you're not rewriting history.
You're writing the history and rig hting of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
So tell me why you decided to tackle this particular topic, mary.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well, I was actually researching something else, as often happens
when you have an idea for a book, I was
researching a conservative black journalist, and I've been working on
since two thousand and eleven, George Schuyler, who switched from
being a socialist to a conservative, and it was largely
(01:47):
due to Franklin Roosevelt. And then I discovered that so
many others had done the same thing, and that was
because he was such a terrible president and he did
not help you know, number one, blacks, He did not
help the working class people. He did not help you know,
the common man, as he said he would and said
(02:10):
he was concerned about. So I started looking into him
and then noticed all these histories that you know, we're
talking about what a great president he was and how
he saved the country, and that was not the case
at all. As I discovered, well, a lot.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Of the projects that he started and initiated during the
Great Depression, actually many people would argue, extended that depression.
It did not do anything to alleviate the misery, the unemployment,
the inflation, everything else that was a part of America's
(02:46):
stock market crash and ensuing nightmare. He really didn't do
anything to help it, but actually exacerbated it.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Is that what you found, Yes, absolutely, you know, a
lot the rest of the world had recovered and we
were still one thing along of what Franklin Roosevelt should
have done A most you know, reputable economists degree is
to allow you know, the market to correct itself, which
(03:16):
is what happened after World War One. You had an
overproduction of you know, farm goods and so forth. And
after Europe recovered, then wages went down and prices went down.
But eventually, you know, they'll find their equilibrium. You know,
President Herbert Hoover, you know, did a little bit of that.
(03:38):
You know, he encouraged business leaders to raise wages, thinking
that that would raise prices and you know, lead to recovery,
and that didn't work. But Franklin Roosevelt just put that,
you know, Hoover's programs on steroids and just exacerbated the situation.
So by nineteen thirty seven we had a.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Second press, right, and we only really came out of
that due to World War two production. Is that the
way it actually worked, or.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Well, a lot of a lot of people say that,
but that was it was a little misleading because a
lot of the working age men were overseas fighting the war,
so you have very low unemployment. You know, you had
Rosie the riveter, the women working in factories, and so
that was artificial. And it took a while, you know,
(04:35):
after World War Two for the economy to come back.
So you know, there was rampant inflation after the war.
So you know, but but Roosevelt, I think did see
the war as a way to sort of help save
his presidency or his legacy, and you know, really did
(04:56):
want to get involved.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Well, he's often cast as a reluctant president, but he's
also the only president that was ever elected to four terms.
He just couldn't get enough of the White House, could he.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
That's right. I mean, you know, he knew he had
serious health problems even before he ran for the third
term in nineteen forty. But this idea that he was
a reluctant president or a reluctant politician, you know, that
was the rumor about him when he ran for the
(05:31):
New York States Senate, and it's absolutely false. When he
was an undergraduate at Harvard, he told his girlfriend or
his you know, the girl he wanted to be his girlfriend,
that he thought that he could be president and that
that was his ambition. And he said it again when
he was a young attorney. So there's plenty of evidence
(05:55):
that that was his ambition all along, and he felt
that it was his birthright to be president, and he
modeled all his actions on what cousin Theodore Roosevelt had done. Right.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
The myths that are detailed here in Debunking FDR. The
Man in the Myths, many of those were actually not
concocted by anybody else but FDR himself. Right, he made
up these stories that would make Joe Biden's cannibalized uncle blush.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, he did. There were so many. It's you know,
you think you've found all of them, and then there's
another one. You know. He you know, even when he
flew to Chicago, breaking tradition to be there to accept
the nomination and make a speech, you know, he said,
(06:54):
you know, we encountered some turbulence, but it's a good
thing I had my Navy training. He was never in
the Navy. He was an assistant secretary of the Navy.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yes, all right, hold on just a second, We'll take
a break and come back. Mary graybar as our guest.
The book is debunking FDR. The Man and the Myths
that the Great, the heralded, Great Savior of America during
the Great depression in World War Two, maybe not so much.
(07:25):
Back to this Tuesday Morning on fifty five KRC with
Mary Graybor, the author of Debunking FDR. The champion of
the Liberal Left, the dictator, and the country squire in
the White House. He was often known as that, And
he got how did he put down all of his detractors?
(07:48):
I mean, he had to put out fires because a
lot of people just weren't going along with these plans
right at the time.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah, Well, he silenced the press. You know. He was
friends with the publisher of the New York Times, and
one reporter was a critical of him, and so he
contacted the publisher and this reporter was sent to Uruguay,
and you know, and he wrote a letter to the
(08:18):
publisher of the Yale Review because he didn't like an
article that John T. Flynn had written, and the publisher said, well, absolutely,
you know, we're never going to publish him again. And so,
you know, and John Flynn was one of his biggest critics.
He's been pretty much forgotten these days. But I go
(08:39):
into his criticisms a bit in the book and try to,
you know, revive these very legitimate criticisms. So FDR had
connections and he knew how to silence people.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
How much was Eleanor Roosevelt involved in the administration of FDR.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Well, she, you know, I mean he treated her very badly,
and I go into that in my book. Of course,
he had that famous affair. You know, the woman who
was his mistress was with him the day he died
on April twelfth, I believe, nineteen forty five. And so
they basically had a political relationship. And I don't think he,
(09:25):
you know, really could have risen as far as he
did without her help. For example, when he was governor,
they took a tour through the state and inspected state
institutions like mental hospitals and prisons, and Eleanor would be
sent out to you know, check out the facilities and
(09:45):
report back to him. She held the teas for politicians' wives.
She and her female friends, you know, shortly after women
got the vote, went out and campaigned for him. She
was his you know legs, you know, when he couldn't walk,
and you know, was very very helpful to him, and
(10:07):
of course became very wealthy in the process because she
was probably the highest paid writer in the country, although
in my opinion, not writer at all.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Right, during in my estimation, Lyndon Baines Johnson was a
terrible president. And he, you know, he extended this government
dependence through the Great Society and welfare. But he was
just taking pages from FDR's playbook, wasn't he.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yes, well, he you know, he got his start, you know,
in the youth administration of you know, the New Deal program.
He was the youngest director of a New Deal program.
So and he sidled up to Franklin Roosevelt and campaigned
on his coat tails and you know, had a picture
taken with him and used that in the campaign. So, yes,
(10:59):
he was a protege of FDR.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
And he did he did more. You know, he's always
championed as a I know we're talking about FDR, but
he's always champion in LBJ as a you know, champion
of race relations and civil rights in this country. He
did more to divide this country racially than anyone else
I can think of in the twentieth century, Am I writer?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Or what? Oh? Yeah? Absolutely, you know, and of course
with affirmative action, and you know, this is what we're fighting,
this is what President Trump is fighting, Affirmative action and
that evolved into DEI and basically struggle sessions in the
workplace and in the classroom. And it's ironic because both
(11:48):
FDR and LBJ like to use the N word. I mean,
oh yeah, yeah. So you know, they were known as
you know, racist, but in order to get the votes,
you know, they gave out favors if Franklin Roosevelt. You know,
(12:08):
in October nineteen thirty six, just days before the election,
he unveiled a new chemistry building on the campus of
Howard University thanks to American tax layers. But you know,
you know, this was promoted to the black community in
order to get the black votes.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
They've been doing that for a long time, the Democrats have,
for certain, and a lot of what our current president
has been doing in the Doze initiative and all of that,
and the try to dismantle the administrative state, that all
really began during FDR's terms as president. The administrative state
(12:52):
and a fourth more or less a fourth leg of
the federal government that is not constitutional and shouldn't be.
But that all goes back to Franklin Delamo.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Roosevelt absolutely, and a lot of people think that, you know,
he instituted these New Deal programs all these alphabet agencies
because he's, you know, struggling to find a solution for
the Great Depression. But as a matter of fact, as
I go into in my book, you know, Debunking FDR,
(13:25):
I'm looking at his early career as a young state
senator in Troy, New York in nineteen twelve. He's talking
about interdependence and why should a farmer be able to
decide whether or not he's going to, you know, let
a field go follow, or whether he'll plant corn or
(13:45):
wheat or whatever. And he said, you know that the
government should be able to force him to do all that.
Now this is nineteen twelve, you know, we're we're talking,
you know, twenty years before you know he even runs
for press. So he wanted to do this all along,
and the Great Depression provided the opportunity for him. I'm
(14:07):
sure Woodrow Wilson would have wanted to do this, but
you know he didn't have the opportunity. But Franklin Roosevelt
did take advantage of it and do what he wanted
to do all.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Along, never let a crisis go to waste. Yes, yes,
the book is debunking FDR. The Man and the Myths.
The author is Mary gray Bar and our gracious host
or guest this morning. I guess I'm the host. I
don't know how gracious I've been, but I appreciate, I
appreciate your time, certainly for spending. The book is out now.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yes it is. It's available anywhere books.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
They're sold, all right, fantastic, Thank you so much. In
great success with that.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Book, Mary, thank you very much. You bet you.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
We continue on fifty five KRC, the talk station
And this half hour, we're taking a few minutes to
talk with Mary grab who is, among other things, the
author of Debunking FDR, The Man and the Myths. And
there were I guess rumors that White House staff thinking
that Joe Biden might actually run for the White House,
and they were concerned that he'd be in a wheelchair.
(00:23):
But then they said, oh, we can say he's just
like FDR. Maybe not maybe not such a good idea
after all, if you look at the real history of
Franklin Delana Roosevelt and what he did. Of course, we
got the news this week that Joe has other concerns
(00:44):
now that we were not aware of, with the advanced
prostate cancer diagnosis. But another another one of those things
about history is that some people will claim that in
debunking FDR, are you are in fact rewriting history. For
(01:04):
some if they read a little bit, you're not rewriting history.
You're writing the history and rig hting of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
So tell me why you decided to tackle this particular topic, mary.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well, I was actually researching something else, as often happens
when you have an idea for a book, I was
researching a conservative black journalist, and I've been working on
since two thousand and eleven, George Schuyler, who switched from
being a socialist to a conservative, and it was largely
(01:47):
due to Franklin Roosevelt. And then I discovered that so
many others had done the same thing, and that was
because he was such a terrible president and he did
not help you know, number one, blacks, He did not
help the working class people. He did not help you know,
the common man, as he said he would and said
(02:10):
he was concerned about. So I started looking into him
and then noticed all these histories that you know, we're
talking about what a great president he was and how
he saved the country, and that was not the case
at all. As I discovered, well, a lot.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Of the projects that he started and initiated during the
Great Depression, actually many people would argue, extended that depression.
It did not do anything to alleviate the misery, the unemployment,
the inflation, everything else that was a part of America's
(02:46):
stock market crash and ensuing nightmare. He really didn't do
anything to help it, but actually exacerbated it.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Is that what you found, Yes, absolutely, you know, a
lot the rest of the world had recovered and we
were still one thing along of what Franklin Roosevelt should
have done A most you know, reputable economists degree is
to allow you know, the market to correct itself, which
(03:16):
is what happened after World War One. You had an
overproduction of you know, farm goods and so forth. And
after Europe recovered, then wages went down and prices went down.
But eventually, you know, they'll find their equilibrium. You know,
President Herbert Hoover, you know, did a little bit of that.
(03:38):
You know, he encouraged business leaders to raise wages, thinking
that that would raise prices and you know, lead to recovery,
and that didn't work. But Franklin Roosevelt just put that,
you know, Hoover's programs on steroids and just exacerbated the situation.
So by nineteen thirty seven we had a.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Second press, right, and we only really came out of
that due to World War two production. Is that the
way it actually worked, or.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Well, a lot of a lot of people say that,
but that was it was a little misleading because a
lot of the working age men were overseas fighting the war,
so you have very low unemployment. You know, you had
Rosie the riveter, the women working in factories, and so
that was artificial. And it took a while, you know,
(04:35):
after World War Two for the economy to come back.
So you know, there was rampant inflation after the war.
So you know, but but Roosevelt, I think did see
the war as a way to sort of help save
his presidency or his legacy, and you know, really did
(04:56):
want to get involved.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Well, he's often cast as a reluctant president, but he's
also the only president that was ever elected to four terms.
He just couldn't get enough of the White House, could he.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
That's right. I mean, you know, he knew he had
serious health problems even before he ran for the third
term in nineteen forty. But this idea that he was
a reluctant president or a reluctant politician, you know, that
was the rumor about him when he ran for the
(05:31):
New York States Senate, and it's absolutely false. When he
was an undergraduate at Harvard, he told his girlfriend or
his you know, the girl he wanted to be his girlfriend,
that he thought that he could be president and that
that was his ambition. And he said it again when
he was a young attorney. So there's plenty of evidence
(05:55):
that that was his ambition all along, and he felt
that it was his birthright to be president, and he
modeled all his actions on what cousin Theodore Roosevelt had done. Right.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
The myths that are detailed here in Debunking FDR. The
Man in the Myths, many of those were actually not
concocted by anybody else but FDR himself. Right, he made
up these stories that would make Joe Biden's cannibalized uncle blush.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, he did. There were so many. It's you know,
you think you've found all of them, and then there's
another one. You know. He you know, even when he
flew to Chicago, breaking tradition to be there to accept
the nomination and make a speech, you know, he said,
(06:54):
you know, we encountered some turbulence, but it's a good
thing I had my Navy training. He was never in
the Navy. He was an assistant secretary of the Navy.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yes, all right, hold on just a second, We'll take
a break and come back. Mary graybar as our guest.
The book is debunking FDR. The Man and the Myths
that the Great, the heralded, Great Savior of America during
the Great depression in World War Two, maybe not so much.
(07:25):
Back to this Tuesday Morning on fifty five KRC with
Mary Graybor, the author of Debunking FDR. The champion of
the Liberal Left, the dictator, and the country squire in
the White House. He was often known as that, And
he got how did he put down all of his detractors?
(07:48):
I mean, he had to put out fires because a
lot of people just weren't going along with these plans
right at the time.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah, Well, he silenced the press. You know. He was
friends with the publisher of the New York Times, and
one reporter was a critical of him, and so he
contacted the publisher and this reporter was sent to Uruguay,
and you know, and he wrote a letter to the
(08:18):
publisher of the Yale Review because he didn't like an
article that John T. Flynn had written, and the publisher said, well, absolutely,
you know, we're never going to publish him again. And so,
you know, and John Flynn was one of his biggest critics.
He's been pretty much forgotten these days. But I go
(08:39):
into his criticisms a bit in the book and try to,
you know, revive these very legitimate criticisms. So FDR had
connections and he knew how to silence people.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
How much was Eleanor Roosevelt involved in the administration of FDR.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Well, she, you know, I mean he treated her very badly,
and I go into that in my book. Of course,
he had that famous affair. You know, the woman who
was his mistress was with him the day he died
on April twelfth, I believe, nineteen forty five. And so
they basically had a political relationship. And I don't think he,
(09:25):
you know, really could have risen as far as he
did without her help. For example, when he was governor,
they took a tour through the state and inspected state
institutions like mental hospitals and prisons, and Eleanor would be
sent out to you know, check out the facilities and
(09:45):
report back to him. She held the teas for politicians' wives.
She and her female friends, you know, shortly after women
got the vote, went out and campaigned for him. She
was his you know legs, you know, when he couldn't walk,
and you know, was very very helpful to him, and
(10:07):
of course became very wealthy in the process because she
was probably the highest paid writer in the country, although
in my opinion, not writer at all.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Right, during in my estimation, Lyndon Baines Johnson was a
terrible president. And he, you know, he extended this government
dependence through the Great Society and welfare. But he was
just taking pages from FDR's playbook, wasn't he.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yes, well, he you know, he got his start, you know,
in the youth administration of you know, the New Deal program.
He was the youngest director of a New Deal program.
So and he sidled up to Franklin Roosevelt and campaigned
on his coat tails and you know, had a picture
taken with him and used that in the campaign. So, yes,
(10:59):
he was a protege of FDR.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
And he did he did more. You know, he's always
championed as a I know we're talking about FDR, but
he's always champion in LBJ as a you know, champion
of race relations and civil rights in this country. He
did more to divide this country racially than anyone else
I can think of in the twentieth century, Am I writer?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Or what? Oh? Yeah? Absolutely, you know, and of course
with affirmative action, and you know, this is what we're fighting,
this is what President Trump is fighting, Affirmative action and
that evolved into DEI and basically struggle sessions in the
workplace and in the classroom. And it's ironic because both
(11:48):
FDR and LBJ like to use the N word. I mean,
oh yeah, yeah. So you know, they were known as
you know, racist, but in order to get the votes,
you know, they gave out favors if Franklin Roosevelt. You know,
(12:08):
in October nineteen thirty six, just days before the election,
he unveiled a new chemistry building on the campus of
Howard University thanks to American tax layers. But you know,
you know, this was promoted to the black community in
order to get the black votes.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
They've been doing that for a long time, the Democrats have,
for certain, and a lot of what our current president
has been doing in the Doze initiative and all of that,
and the try to dismantle the administrative state, that all
really began during FDR's terms as president. The administrative state
(12:52):
and a fourth more or less a fourth leg of
the federal government that is not constitutional and shouldn't be.
But that all goes back to Franklin Delamo.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Roosevelt absolutely, and a lot of people think that, you know,
he instituted these New Deal programs all these alphabet agencies
because he's, you know, struggling to find a solution for
the Great Depression. But as a matter of fact, as
I go into in my book, you know, Debunking FDR,
(13:25):
I'm looking at his early career as a young state
senator in Troy, New York in nineteen twelve. He's talking
about interdependence and why should a farmer be able to
decide whether or not he's going to, you know, let
a field go follow, or whether he'll plant corn or
(13:45):
wheat or whatever. And he said, you know that the
government should be able to force him to do all that.
Now this is nineteen twelve, you know, we're we're talking,
you know, twenty years before you know he even runs
for press. So he wanted to do this all along,
and the Great Depression provided the opportunity for him. I'm
(14:07):
sure Woodrow Wilson would have wanted to do this, but
you know he didn't have the opportunity. But Franklin Roosevelt
did take advantage of it and do what he wanted
to do all.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Along, never let a crisis go to waste. Yes, yes,
the book is debunking FDR. The Man and the Myths.
The author is Mary gray Bar and our gracious host
or guest this morning. I guess I'm the host. I
don't know how gracious I've been, but I appreciate, I
appreciate your time, certainly for spending. The book is out now.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yes it is. It's available anywhere books.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
They're sold, all right, fantastic, Thank you so much. In
great success with that.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Book, Mary, thank you very much. You bet you.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
We continue on fifty five KRC, the talk station
Brian Thomas News
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