Chapt Twenty-Two- A Monument to Wisdom

Chapter 22

A Monument to Wisdom-

 & Pragmatism

Mothers Know Best

Eleanor Roosevelt is still an American legend today, but more for what she did rather than what she said. That is a shame, because in spite of her delayed blooming, she had an amazing life and gathered a great deal of wisdom... If modern America had an official mother, it would probably be her. She wrote painfully introspective and self-deprecating auto-biographies, which when combined are almost “TMI.” But we would do well to never forget her humble yet insightful verbal offerings on the most important issues of our time. I have picked out a few of my favorites here, and provided some commentary. And to balance things, there are also some comments from other mothers for comparison.

Many of these remarks of hers are a like words on a dipstick, capturing where she and our country were at a certain point in time. Stunningly, Mrs. Roosevelt's perspectives would probably find agreement with Rose Wilder Lane and at least half of our population today... although she and we might be surprised at which half!

When we consider her personal contribution to our country, it is hard to remember that she was once a timid, pitied, dominated girl, waiting for her turn to change the world...

About Diplomacy and the UN:

Eleanor and her husband learned to listen deeply. She observed how FDR would assume the role of an ally when in conversation, showing immense interest in the visitor's point of view, and would do this with whomever he was interviewing. Admonishing his sons to learn to be listeners, my father often said, “Hear every fool on his favorite theme, and you will come away a wiser man.” Policemen often use this very tactic, to seduce their informant into more transparency. There is something to be learned from every person. Franklin Roosevelt would avoid disagreeing with a person, often asking deep questions, mining for information, then formed his opinions from the statements he heard. He was a cunning listener. 

People often left FDR's desk thinking they had convinced him of something, only to feel betrayed later, as if he had changed his mind. But this strategy of conversation made Franklin D. Roosevelt a much wiser man. He made decisions based on a variety of opinions, deciding after his “mines” were exhausted, and he avoided a lot of arguments.

But these kinds of benign and passive strategies were insufficient in themselves when Eleanor served on the International Human Rights Commission. Cultures were so different, there was very little commonality to build upon. Human Rights which would be obvious to one country might be considered disastrous to another. Compulsory education would be financially unfeasible in over-populated and underfunded places like India. Many Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia still treated women like slaves or children. Women were not allowed to drive, or vote, or even uncover their faces in public. Some Muslim communities still practiced slavery! And to them, persons of other religions were not just infidels, their religious books or paraphernalia were banned from the country, and possession of them was a crime. Human rights to one culture might be an outrage in another.

Wanting to make a difference, Eleanor was not satisfied with vague platitudes, and remained a stickler for a real agreement about real rights that would be tangible and where countries would be held accountable. A group of Muslim countries backed out, saying that her definition of religious freedom was contrary to the Koran. Eventually the Soviets and their puppets, the Saudis and the racists of South Africa abstained from the pact. In their opinions, it had gone too far. But thanks to Eleanor's and other's fearless hard work and diligence, the Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948. The “Free World” could now identify the problem countries who would not tolerate the idea of basic human rights, which most people in the world could and would agree upon. And those unenlightened lands could see in print what would now be expected of them to join the family of nations. It was an important first step.

Given the impossibility of the assignment, Eleanor proved that sometimes diplomacy required the wisdom and patience of a mother with five screaming kids in the supermarket; someone without an ego, devoted to the end and not the means, and with no status or pride to lose.

About our youth:

Eleanor was very proud of what she and her husband had done for the nation's young people. They believed that job training was the key to a healthy and self-sufficient population. And to this end FDR established the Civilian Conservation Corp, and other training programs. Eleanor later explained the strategy: They “...had a triple value: it gave the boys a chance to see the different parts of the country, and to learn to do a good day's work in the open, which benefited them physically; also it gave them a cash income, part of which went home to their families. This helped the morale both of the boys themselves and the people at home.”

Eleanor and FDR met their match however in the “American Youth Congress.” Strongly inspired by Communist influences, this aggressive organization hid its true agenda and arranged an audience with the First Lady. Eleanor was always willing to engage with American youth, and welcomed them open-heartedly, determined to reassure them that our democratic system would and could meet everyone's needs. She asked them pointedly if they were associated in any way with the Communist Party, and they denied that they were. This incident was at the very beginnings of organized Communist activities in the United States, and trusting, influential persons like Eleanor had not yet learned the main techniques of Socialism or Communism. It was yet to be learned that communists were typically “Machiavellian,” and had no compunction about using deception to achieve their goals.

The young people unfortunately had lied, and fallaciously gained her trust. With her blessing they continued to gather new members and in 1940 organized a parade in Washington D.C, where they were rained on. Eleanor had convinced Franklin to speak to their assembly on the south grounds, and the results were disastrous. The President told the rain-soaked youngsters the facts of life, and some of his comments were intended to dampen any leanings towards hard-core Communism. The rowdy radical crowd rudely booed him regardless of his gracious hospitality. They had used deception to get close to him, then turned on him when the media could make the most of it. This was a very valuable lesson, which came in handy later.

Still, even after such betrayal, Eleanor was magnanimous. Always the first to step in to defend young people, she defended this same group when they were being grilled by a Senate investigation. Like a mother hen protecting her chicks, she refused to stand by idly if she detected Gestapo-type methods being used by the Dies Committee against what she viewed as the weak or defenseless. Her mother's instincts prevailed regardless of their political orientation. Here she and Rose Wilder lane would have fought government overreach arm in arm. Ideas must win on their own merits, and never be forced on people with totalitarian tactics.

Eleanor felt obligated to explain her position, as most Americans could not understand her defense of Communist troublemakers... but it was based completely on her sense of fair play, of Freedom of Speech. “I wish to make it clear that I felt a great sympathy for these young people, even though they often annoyed me. It was impossible to ever forget the extraordinary difficulties under which they were growing up. I have never felt the slightest bitterness towards any of them. I learned from them what Communist tactics are. I discovered for myself how infiltration of an organization is accomplished. I was taught how Communists get themselves into positions of importance. I learned their methods of objection and delay, the effort to tire out the rest of the group and carry the vote when all of their opponents have gone home.”

As if brought by providence, dealing with the American Youth Congress was an essential training for Eleanor in future dealings with the Russians at the United Nations.

Parenting:

Eleanor had lived half of her life before she began to question herself and her attitudes, and decided to change... “...my one overwhelming need in those days was to be approved, to be loved, and I did whatever was required of me, hoping it would bring me nearer to the approval and love I so much wanted...” Tragically, Eleanor found herself denying her motherly instincts for the love of her husband and the approval of her mother in law.

“...My husband and my children became the center of my life and their needs were my new duty... I was still timid, still afraid of doing something wrong, of making mistakes, of not living up to the standards required by my mother in law, of failing to do what was expected of me.”

A naturally gentle and good-natured person, Eleanor confessed that in her insecurity and submission, she became too critical of her children, leaned too much on strict discipline, and not enough on love. “...I was not wise enough just to love them. Now, looking back, I think I would rather spoil a child a little and have more fun out of it.”

In her auto-biography she admitted her regrets, but she also saw wisdom in much of Franklin Roosevelt's fathering theories... which were sometimes hard for a mother to watch... These are struggles every couple experiences, as they balance fatherly toughness with motherly tenderness. Both have a place, and it takes a joint effort to provide each child with the appropriate portions of challenge and reassurance.

“Franklin had a strong feeling that our sons should be allowed to make their own decisions and their own mistakes. Occasionally some of his friends suggested that he could give the boys a little guidance, but he always said they must find things out for themselves.” Eleanor said that this steadfast restraint was because he had been nearly smothered by an outspoken and overbearing mother, who tried to mother him his whole life, and long after he was married. His sons would have none of that.

Franklin Roosevelt's mother made her own

 indelible impressions on him... which he spent

 his adulthood trying to balance

But there was probably a deeper reason, based on fatherly wisdom. The Roosevelt boys were much better off to be allowed to act, and stumble and get up again, while under their father's supervision. Good parenting is as much watching and praying as it is telling or scolding. Boys, especially when it is four brothers, don't need instruction as much as they do encouragement and redirection. FDR was patient to wait until the children had stumbled, then found those times to be the most teachable moments.

Roosevelt chose to avoid impetuous scolding or punishments, and reacting to “the moment” but always let his sons know he was expecting better in the future. Once a son brought a concern to him in his office, and he listened perfunctorily while scanning an important document at his desk. The boy thought his father was ignoring him and asked him if he had heard him. Roosevelt acknowledged that he had, and then handed him the distracting document, and asked his opinion of it. His son felt stunned, that his father would change the subject, and put the irrelevant document in front of him. But as Eleanor tried to explain to him later, this seeming distraction may well have been a brilliant answer.

By handing his son the paper, and showing him a peek at his official business, and asking his opinion, he was showing respectful confidence in him. He was treating him like a man. By allowing him to see what it said, the youth would also no doubt compare his immediate personal concern with the vastly more consequential issues which were dominating his father's concerns; a lesson in perspective and prioritization. It was a quiet way of saying, “ If you think you have problems...” It was also a roundabout way to say, “You are grown now, I trust your judgment, and you have to work these things out yourself.”

FDR was a wise father. And his method was merely “Leadership 101.” He had raised them to be trusted confidants, whether at a political convention or on an aircraft carrier in the midst of a world war. Consequently FDR was known throughout his political career to take his sons with him on important trips, and to depend on them for assistance and companionship. Only benign neglect administered by the watchful eye of a wise father could have produced strong, independent sons, who eventually worked their own way up the ladder of military hierarchy during the war.

The Roosevelt's oldest son James served with distinction as a colonel in the Marines and rose after the war to Brigadier General. Second son Elliott also rose to Brigadier General in the Army Air Corp, commanding the 325th Photographic Reconnaissance Wing, flying over 300 combat missions, and pioneering night photography techniques. He was wounded twice, and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Elliott and FDR Jr, who was an Ensign in the Navy, both accompanied their father during highly secret Atlantic Charter meetings with Winston Churchill off of the coast of Newfoundland. Franklin Jr. had completed officer training at Harvard and was eventually awarded the Silver Star and received a Purple Heart for his service in the Navy, before being given command of a destroyer escort USS Ulvert M. Moore. He later served as a U.S. Congressman, and ran for Governor of New York.

John and Elliott, both decorated soldiers in WWII

Youngest son John was reluctant about the military, but after Pearl Harbor joined the Navy, and although his father, the POTUS tried to block his assignment into “harms way,” he ended up on the aircraft carrier USS Wasp, where he earned a Bronze Star and was promoted to Lieutenant Commander.

After all of the years and the conditioning, Eleanor was a mother still. As she traveled during the war in an official capacity, she could not forget that. “I imagine every mother felt as I did when I said good-bye to the children during the war. I had a feeling that I might be saying good-bye for the last time. It was a sort of a precursor of what it would be like if your children were killed. Life had to go on and you had to do what was required of you, but something inside of you quietly died.”

Deep down, Eleanor envisioned a brighter day, and “kept praying that I might be able to prevent a repetition of the stupidity called war.”

When it was over, Eleanor was devoted to that very cause, feeling “If we do not achieve the ends for which they sacrificed- a peaceful world in which there exists freedom from fear of both aggression and want- we have failed.”

Similarly, Rose Wilder Lane also saw a great debt incumbent on all Americans after the war: “...what our boys are fighting for, America's real meaning, is going to get lost behind their backs if we who stay at home don't defend it. If we let our country be national-socialized, if we let ourselves submit to politicians' “control” of everything we do and get so used to it that we don't get rid of every one of these restrictions on personal freedom just the minute that the war is won, then this whole war will be just wasted motion and lost lives.”

“For what is the use of getting rid of Hitler, if we let our own country adopt his political philosophy? As Roosevelt says, it is the Nazi philosophy that must be got rid of. And it cannot be got rid of by believing it...”

Rose hated the socialistic programs which Roosevelt leaned on to solve America's problems. Whereas Eleanor saw peace as the ultimate answer, Rose was less naive, knowing, as Jesus warned, that there will always be wars and rumors of wars. Peace was wonderful, but it was a free society which would be the guiding light for mankind.

Eleanor soon realized that world peace and the survival of democracy were not mutually inclusive, and America needed the zeal and energy and inspiration of its young people to insure the continuance of both. But American kids, especially our young soldiers, were not being prepared for that task, in fact gravitating in the opposite direction.

“Unfortunately, we do not train our youngsters carefully enough before sending them throughout the world. They do not always remember that they are not merely soldiers but ambassadors, representing all that their country stands for and all that democracy means to the rest of the world...”

Eleanor was mortified by not only the misbehavior of our American boys overseas, but how much of the world's negative influence was embraced and brought home after the war. America was failing to adequately indoctrinate her children, who will some day shape our image to the world.

The “New Deal”:

Like many Americans, Eleanor saw her husband's famous economic scheme as the pragmatic model for Liberal solutions: “The so-called New Deal was, of course, nothing more than an effort to preserve our economic system.”

Still a government program which stimulates great debate, the “New Deal” was Franklin Delano Roosevelt's legacy. Many argue that the New Deal brought out the best in the American people, provided badly needed relief, and avoided civil unrest.

Eleanor had no doubts about it, “... fundamentally, it was that spirit of cooperation that pulled us out of the depression.” She gave credit to the Democratic Party which delegated powers to the President and passed legislation that “would never have passed except during a crisis.” It was a time of maturation for “Liberalism,” which became the great elastic Democratic answer to all ills.

Eleanor wrote that Franklin “felt the world was going to be considerably more socialistic after the war...” Roosevelt even asked Joseph Stalin if he thought it was possible for the United States and the USSR to see things in similar ways. Stalin retorted, “You have come a long way in the United States from your original concept of government and its responsibilities, and your original way of life.” Communist Russia's Stalin believed that our countries- their socialist system and our people, were slowly growing towards one another.

Rose Wilder Lane found this concept an anathema: “Socialism is the police-enforced obedience of individuals to regulations imposed on them for the 'common good'.” The question then for Americans, still being asked today, was how they might borrow socialistic policies and still withstand the tendency of drifting irreversibly into Socialism.

Handguns: “Have Gun Will Travel...”

“...I never did consent to having a Secret Service agent. After the head of the Secret Service found I was not going to allow an agent to accompany me anywhere, he went one day to Louis Howe, (basically White House Chief of Staff) plunked a revolver down on the table and said, 'Well all right, if Mrs. Roosevelt is going to drive around the country alone, at least ask her to carry this in her car.' I carried it religiously and during the summer I asked a friend, a man who had been one of Franklin's bodyguards in New York State, to give me some practice in target shooting so that if the need arose I would know how to use the gun.”

About gossip:

Haters of the Roosevelts often threw out wild conjecture in order to create confusion and multiply criticisms of the them. Things like the money supposedly paid to FDR's mother for the use of her home as a summer White House, which was complete nonsense. The masses have always enjoyed fabricating scandals about their leaders. The Media has always loved to repeat any scandals it hears. It has always been a cheap source of entertainment.

Eleanor explained her reaction to such accusations with a hard-earned defense system: “All people in public life are subject to this kind of slander. Circumstantial evidence can always be produced to make the stories that are circulated about their private lives seem probable to the people who want to believe them...”

Their political opponents, largely consisting of Republicans, missed no opportunity to discredit FDR or his first lady. They wore buttons which read “We don't want Eleanor either.” With four handsome sons coming down the pipeline, fearful Republicans no doubt sensed a Roosevelt dynasty forming. So the Roosevelt children were also fair game. If her son got a promotion in the Air Force, it was said that it was because he was the President's son. Nothing was off-limits to the hyper-critical Republicans, and every controversy helped the Media sell newspapers.

She explained her hurts further and the way she dealt with them, “I resented criticisms of this kind deeply for him and for our other children, but it is useless to resent anything; one must learn to look on whatever happens as part of one's education and make it serve a good purpose.”

About Faith:

Here Eleanor quoted her husband, the master wordsmith, who may well have influenced Sagan: “I think it is unwise to say you do not believe in anything when you can't prove that it is either true or untrue. There is so much in the world which is always new in the way of discoveries that it is wiser to say that there may be spiritual things which we are simply unable to fathom...”

About Communism:

Eleanor took note of Communist tactics from her personal experience, and recorded them for posterity. The Communists did their homework. They had researchers who dug relentlessly into American current events and history to find inconsistencies or contradictions to the UN delegate's policies and goals. The idea was not to be fair, but to win at any cost. Twisting the facts or downright lies were a matter of course- always using distortion to support their own propaganda. Race persecution was one of their favorite accusations.

Of course they had annihilated whole communities, in the cause of the Party, but they had never claimed to be concerned for anything but the interests of their state. They were authentic. But Americans were “phonies”... It was not really the “land of the free” if they could prove examples of racism or injustice.

Eleanor saw a ray of hope, especially in Yugoslavia. Everything had been nationalized there after WWII, in communistic zeal, and a great deal of private property had been confiscated by the Soviet-supervised government. There she met with Marshal Tito, a virtual dictator, and was surprisingly treated like royalty. Tito offered that they in Yugoslavia had been disappointed initially by the Yugoslavian worker's reluctance to share his surpluses with the general population, a communist essential. She finally mustered the question: Was Yugoslavia actually practicing Communism?

“Communism exists nowhere, least of all in the Soviet Union,” Tito confessed. “Communism is an ideal that can be achieved only when people cease to be selfish and greedy and when everyone receives according to his needs from communal production.” And then he added that these circumstances were a long way off.

Tito further excused his and his country's watered down Communism and explained that he considered himself a “Social Democrat,” and called his brand of Soviet Communism in Yugoslavia a new term: Social Democracy. But this term, as nice as compromises are, is really an oxymoron. Democracy is freedom of the individual... and the power thereof. True Socialism is incompatible with this.

The Russians saw after millions of their people had been removed that it would take more than mass executions or wholesale banishment of dissidents to form a cooperative society. Dr. Ivan Pavlov had invented techniques which prescribed a concerted Soviet effort to produce a contented, homogeneous society. Eleanor witnessed firsthand the results of Pavlov's theories, as she saw them “turning the masses in Russia into completely disciplined and amenable people.”

Pavlov had fathered a system of lifelong communist conditioning, successfully producing “...well trained people; not a happy people, perhaps, but not likely to rise up against their rulers,” as Mrs. Roosevelt perceived.

Eleanor looked upon the Russians with a sensitive eye, as a lover of humanity, and saw a hospitable, hard working people, but humorless, with nary a smile to share, living under oppressive strain and exhaustion. The Soviet system was a scientifically instituted human threshing machine, which was squeezing every drop of energy out of the population. She acknowledged that this kind control enabled the Russian government to extract a society of compliance and cooperation not possible in a free society.

There was a glut of doctors, and free medical care was a proud achievement. And therefore there were plenty of medical researchers to improve the government's Pavlovian controls of the population. The iron hand would only tighten its grip over time.

The Russian masses had been indoctrinated with many fears, most importantly that the United States was planning another world war to take over their country. This fear kept the Soviet populace focused on a foreign enemy, and grateful for protection. The Communists had by maddening repetition imposed unmitigated Communist philosophy to complete each citizen's training. And in that unchallenged dogma was the over-arching threat that the United States was an imperialistic, racist, materialistic enemy. Mrs. Roosevelt tried in vain to counteract the indelible impressions made by the Russian propaganda which was generally accepted as fact, but she found everyday Russians distrusting and evasive of her explanations.

And no wonder, as Russians were the unwitting victims of deliberate language manipulation. Rose Wilder Lane explained: “...Lenin's instruction, (founder of Communist Russia) 'First confuse the vocabulary,'” She explained his genius: “Thinking can be done only in words. Accurate thinking requires words of precise meaning. Communication between human beings is impossible without words whose precise meaning is generally understood.

Confuse the vocabulary, and people do not know what is happening; They cannot communicate an alarm; They cannot achieve any common purpose. Confuse the vocabulary, and millions are helpless against a small, disciplined number who know what they mean when they speak. Lenin had brains.”

Rose was keen to societal manipulations possible by the mere dropping of some words and the redefinition of others. Always know that when any group begins to object to a word, or modify its connotation, they are in the process of dictating the thoughts of society. These modifications may appear to be a campaign of enlightenment, but they can just as easily become the doorway for a shift in philosophy or morality.

Boldly, perhaps naively, Mrs Roosevelt met with Nikita Krushchev, who respectfully explained the Russian Revolution and the social justice achieved by it. To him, Communism was the answer to class warfare and needless poverty. It had been scientifically designed by the combined genius of Karl Marx, Engels and Lenin. And He bragged confidently that “Communism will win in the whole world.” Krushchev reassured Mrs. Roosevelt that Russia did not need and therefore was against the use of military force to spread Socialism or Communism. That every culture, every society is terminally discontented, and yearns for social justice. And every one will eventually experiment with trusting government to impose it by redistribution of wealth. Eventually Eleanor began to worry that his prediction was correct, that Krushchev knew the American people, their vulnerability and narcissism, better than they knew themselves.

Amazingly, as gentile and accommodating as Eleanor Roosevelt was, she left Russia with the impression that there was no possibility of them agreeing on a single point, other than she and Krushchev agreed that relations might get better with time if confidence could be established by broader exchanges between the two countries.

About the Russians:

During the creation of the International Bill of Rights, which the Russians ultimately refused to support, they never missed an opportunity to, as Eleanor had learned to anticipate, object and delay, and do everything in their power to derail the process of finding International consensus about what Human Rights actually meant, and then codifying it. After several visits to Russia and many of her satellites, even long- suffering Eleanor got her fill of the Soviets.

Dr. Pavlov, nephew of the famous scientist with the dog, insisted upon every point which the Russians might have agreed, to add the sentence “This shall be enforced by the state.” The Russians left nothing to chance or mere general agreement. You backed everything up with enforcement. This particular line was never adopted, because many countries knew better than to sign on to idle promises which they could not back up, but these desired additions by the Soviets revealed the main difference in our countries; Free men living in cooperation, or all men subservient to a state of marshal law.

To the Soviets, “human rights” were an economic concern. They wanted to twist Human Rights to equate labor negotiations; Worker's rights; Income equality. In their world, everyone was a worker, individual Russians had no rights. Only the State had rights, which it exercised for the benefit of all. The State could establish social and labor standards, in order to make life the same... just and fair... for everyone. To them Human Rights meant worker's benefits.

Mrs Roosevelt observed: “The Soviet children have little or no desire for freedom. Their conditioning and training has been carefully thought out to prevent deviation of any kind, on any level, from birth to death.” Never before had anyone witnessed such a large scale conditioning; considered by others as mass-brainwashing of human beings.

The down side of the Soviet system of education was that a graduate became a pawn in the grand schemes of the State. Educated persons were shipped away to wherever the State thought they might be most useful. A young doctor might be sent to the far reaches of Siberia, for life, a farmer to a distant corner of Asia to bolster State agricultural goals. Russians were not free, but they were fed and educated and they were too busy, and sometimes to far away to complain.

And there was harsh treatment for dissidents. Eleanor observed that there was an ingrained fear in the Russian citizens. The country “existed under a system of surveillance that must cause anxiety and the power over them still seemed to me a hand of steel... I think I should die if I had to live in Soviet Russia.”

About Herbert Hoover:

Eleanor was surprisingly charitable towards her husband's predecessor, whom much of the country blamed for the Great Depression. She knew better, and graciously gave the former president his due. “He was a victim of circumstances and of economic and political beliefs that could be changed only by a complete crisis and courageous new actions. He had served the country well during WWI, and there is no question but that during his term of office he wanted to do what was best for the country. He has since those unhappy days, rendered service to his country and to the world on numerous occasions. ”

This objective appraisal of a notorious Republican president proves that Eleanor bore no ill-will towards her or her husband's political adversaries, and in fact she respected Herbert Hoover's stellar service to our country. This was the proper, gracious, and fair-minded stance most Americans used to take before partisan politics poisoned the dialog between parties, and made hatred, distrust and congressional gridlock the only possible result.

Richard Nixon and JFK

To Mrs. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon was a tired recycle of the Eisenhower years, a boring Republican and a bureaucrat with no innovative solutions, and a love of power. But she was not a Kennedy fan either. He had shown a certain spinelessness when questioned about his views on McCarthyism, ( a ruthless movement to expunge any suspected Communists from the political scene) and he had ducked the issue to avoid offending the rabid anti-communists, who might support him. When Kennedy asked for her endorsement during his bid for vice-president, she would not give it. Eleanor hated Communism, but she also believed in America as the free market of ideas, and fiercely defended every man's right to believe and say what he thinks, without persecution.

McCarthyism was anathema to our Bill of Rights, and as great a threat as Communism was, our violating or suspending our Constitutionally guaranteed Rights was worse. Kennedy's lust for power had deafened his ears of Freedom and Justice and the American Way. Finally when push came to shove, she supported Kennedy in his run in 1960 for the White House, probably because she had no use for Nixon and her sons had been working in the Kennedy camp.

Afterwards she suggested that John Kennedy was a better choice, because she saw in him a fire able to educate the masses and inspire public confidence, which she thought to be essential. “...he has the power to engender the sense of identification with him which is so important. If a man has this quality, he can call out the best that is in people. Today the United States needs to be reminded of its greatness, and the greatness of a nation can never be more than the greatness of its people.”

Eleanor would probably have conceded that every generation of Americans must be reminded of their potential for greatness... and the pitfalls of denying it.

Kennedy was unfairly discredited and attacked for his Roman Catholic faith, which should never have been an issue. Nixon, his opponent saw the country as the peak of achievement, prosperous and envy of the world. He did not see the Civil Rights Movement at our doorstep. Eleanor's experiences at the UN and elsewhere made her ashamed of our country's race reputation, and knew nobody but Republicans were satisfied with the status quo. When Kennedy made overtures to Blacks about their civil rights, he turned American politics on its head.

Republicans often were the arm of American business interests, and they often nominated businessmen to represent them. To Eleanor, it was a mistake to mix business with government. To the Republicans, what mattered most was the “bottom line.” Sometimes, as illustrated best by her husband's presidency, what Mrs. Roosevelt and Liberals thought was needed was a visionary solution that might not make sense to those overly concerned about balanced budgets or feasibility. Leaders were persons who rose above tradition and charts and graphs- and who had the courage to act with creativity and compassion.

Late in her life, Eleanor was asked on a television talk show, as the recognized leader of the Liberal movement, to define Liberalism, since it had become the flavor of the day, and why it had become her banner. She replied that a Liberal was “a person who kept an open mind, was willing to meet new questions with new solutions, and felt that you could move forward- you didn't have to always look backwards and be afraid of moving forward.” Today most Americans would argue that they try to live up to all of these attributes, and therefore would qualify as “Liberals.” Of course, the definition of Liberal has changed greatly since then, far beyond open-mindedness, or “forward thinking,” and shares a great deal more in common with those ideals she opposed all of her life.

Mrs. Roosevelt may have been a little hard on American businessmen, who invented and fed our economy, but she represented a new demographic in the electorate which had to be respected: American Women. And they were fed up with political infighting and government ineptitude- and its excuses.