#6. “Taxes, after all, are the dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.”
Paraphrasing from Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in a 1936 address in Massachusetts, Roosevelt spouts one of the most common fallacies in modern liberal thought: that there is “greatness” and “patriotism” in taxation. This belief that we must pay burdensome taxes in order to maintain any sort of modern civilization is old and tired. The American Revolution was fought due to the strong attitudes against the burdens of taxation. To legitimize taxes as some sort of minor inconvenience and trivial infringement upon liberty, which is what is truly necessary to maintain order, is downright intellectually dishonest.
#7. “Not only our future economic soundness, but the very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men.”
In this Fireside Chat from 1938, Roosevelt uses yet another liberal economic fallacy in rather dramatic fashion. Public works projects are some of the most popular government investments among the general public. However, their usefulness as a step toward economic improvement is a tenuous argument at best; the government must take more from taxpayers so that they may pay new public workers, whose jobs will provide only temporary employment. Public works were a central part of the New Deal, a program whose lack of success is well-documented. Furthermore, it is fair to say that “future economic soundness” and “our democratic institutions” depend on thousands of factors more important than inefficient government programs like public works; most notably overall liberty.
#8. “You issue an executive order here for your group of blacks, and the Poles are going to call for one, and you’re going to have this group and that group calling for one, and there’ll be no end to it. Now I’m willing to see to it that these jobs are opened up and I think that we can do that, but I can’t issue any executive order.”
As much as FDR cared for public works, such enthusiasm apparently didn’t translate when it came to disfavored groups. Roosevelt had long taken action to discourage protests by black Americans against discrimination, including Jim Crow laws in the South. He sent spies into the movement and wire-tapped their offices. When leader of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters A. Philip Randolph had his request for an end to discriminatory government policies rejected by Roosevelt, he threatened to stage a March on Washington. Wanting to prevent such action, Roosevelt was willing to negotiate. Randolph asked for an executive order guaranteeing black Americans jobs, to which Roosevelt responded with the insensitive quote above.
#9. “The only concession I might make to him (King Saud) is to give him the 6 million Jews we have in the United States.”
Roosevelt made this anti-Semitic statement during the February 1945 Yalta Conference with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Roosevelt was scheduled to meet with Arabian despot King Ibn Saud after the Conference, leading Stalin to ask Roosevelt what concessions he might make to Ibn Saud regarding the Middle East. This quote shows both Roosevelt’s ignorance and his complete disregard for the seriousness of the Holocaust (which was, after all, still occurring at the time).
#10. “I don’t care so much about the Italians, they are a lot of opera singers, but the Germans are different. They may be dangerous.”
There is so much racism and absurdity contained in this one quote. While it may at first appear as a playful joke, the context makes this quote ever more dark and sadistic. Made in response to a plan to intern Germans and Italians living in the US (as was done with Japanese Americans), Roosevelt generalizes and stereotypes millions, without any apparent regard for the implications of what he is saying.
