I see I am being downvoted for making this comment and I would like to clarify a few things.

For me, personally FDR is, much like the New Deal, a mixed bag. I don't agree with everything he did, in fact, I despise much of it, but I also do agree with the intent at least with a large chunk of his actions.

First of all, I am vehemently opposed to how FDR locked up over 100,000 Americans without due process because they happened to have Japanese or German ancestry. This also seems to be swept under the rug for one reason or the other. I know it wasn't emphasized during my education and for all the talk of remissions you often hear from progressives, I do not feel the families who endured such tragedy were anywhere nearly compensated close enough.

A second huge knock for me was the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, which I frankly never see discussed (and here is being downvoted rather than discussed). I admittedly haven't done a full research paper or anything like that on this topic, but my gut instinct from my prior research is subsidizing farmers to not grow and actively destroy their food goods is a tragic policy to have at a time people are struggling to put food on the table. It screams to me as a policy whose aim is to serve by and large the industrial farmers/food processors who would benefit from the subsidies and increase in the prices of their goods.

A third knock for me was the massive price controlling efforts that were undertaken by the NRA. Mass cartelization under threat of government enforcement and imprisonment (though that rarely happened) looks an awful lot like fascism. Literally.

Now, in terms of things I think he did remarkably well, I think his approach to calming the nation, namely his radio presence and banking holiday, deserve more credit than I think they receive for helping ease the initial depression.

I am less familiar with his WWII work (aside from imprisoning Americans), but my understanding is he was a great leader in that department beyond the typical American fetishism.

Additionally, though I think many of the welfare programs he instituted are not adequately efficient at addressing the very real concerns of poverty, I will at least applaud his effort here and steering the national discussion in probably the right direction.

So yeah, in my eyes, he's severely overrated, but I think he is also massively underrated by conservatives/libertarians. Certainly not the 2nd worst president of all time and far from the worst president of the past century (Wilson/Nixon anyone?). He's not making my list of favorites anytime soon, though.

Beyond that, any thoughts on the AAA in general anyone?