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I sometimes wonder if Franklin Roosevelt didn't do more damage to the US than any other president. In some ways he was a proto-Trump. He saw problems, and rather than try to fix the system, bulldozed through it and made up justifications, then the rest of the government had to rationalize things post-hoc to maintain the veneer of a Republic.
I am very much of the opinion that FDR was the worst president we ever had. I won't say it's impossible to persuade me otherwise, but it would be a tall order. FDR was just that bad. A ton of the problems we face today can be traced right back to FDR treating the Constitution like toilet paper and setting the norm that the President can do whatever he wants.
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I broadly agree. FDR is the man who created the executive branch Trump is wielding today, and he's why we have to deal with such high stakes every 4 years. It was under his rule that the federal government became the largest US employer. But he's remembered fondly, because expanding the federal government enormously remains quite popular.
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