Word: rooseveltian
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...Democratic nomination and then the Presidency, Gary Hart must infuse his Kenedyesqsue rhetoric with Rooseveltian innovation. He must stop talking about a "new generation of leadership," and start explaining what bold, new, creative solutions he can offer. As Ronald Reagan is the philosophical descendant of Barry Goldwater, Gary Hart can be the heir of Camelot. Hart has cast himself as a progressive liberal; now he must offer--as Goldwater called it in 1964--"a choice, and not an echo...
Last month, in perhaps the clearest example of its Rooseveltian approach to trust-busting, the government decided to drop its nine-year effort to break up the three great ready-to-eat breakfast cereal manufacturers, who together control 80 percent of the market. The Federal Trade Commission had argued that there had been a "tacit understanding" between the three firms to keep prices up, but the government had been unable to prove the cereal companies had gained illegal profits, and the case remained soggy. In refraining from prosecuting successful corporations simply because they are successful--and large--the Reagan Administration...
...commemorate the 100th birthday of the man generally credited (or blamed) for creating the era of Big Government: Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Reagan likes to use such occasions to indulge his penchant for quoting Roosevelt, the hero of his youth, bending to his own purposes one of the famous Rooseveltian phrases about the forgotten man or the generation that has a rendezvous with destiny. The speakers at the F.D.R. commemoration, by contrast, generally regard Reagan as a doctrinaire conservative determined to tear apart the entire Roosevelt heritage...
...These Rooseveltian principles are under conservative attack today, and yet the traditions that began under Roosevelt are still so strong that almost every current effort to reduce Government spending on social welfare causes outcries (or occasionally hallelujahs) that ex-New Dealer Reagan is trying to dismantle the entire New Deal. Reagan denies that, but his explanation is slightly disingenuous. Though he switched parties in 1962, Reagan later explained: "I didn't desert my party. It deserted me. [Roosevelt's 1932 platform] called for a restoration of states' rights and a reduction in the national budget. You know...
Obviously, he does not think so. The old Rooseveltian compromise, in which Congress let the President meet emergencies, has broken down. Today, Congress demands an equal voice. Right now Schlesinger sees our constitutional system as a road map to frustration. "It may require an external shock to set it straight," he says. "It may be a major foreign policy setback, and then the public will insist that we have cohesion in Government. I just hope such a shock is not fatal. The 1980s will be a tune of severe peril...