FDR kept a “steel chain connection” to public sentiment
Presidential historian Talmage Boston writes that, though Joe Biden styles himself after Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, he lacks their connection to the American middle.(Michael Hogue)
In October 2020, Joe Biden spoke at Gettysburg and at Warm Springs, Ga., home of Franklin Roosevelt’s Little White House, surely hoping some of Abraham Lincoln’s and FDR’s greatness might rub off on him. After finishing, he admitted his discomfort to historian Jon Meacham because he knew, “I’m not one of those guys,” according to the book This Will Not Pass by Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.
Meacham replied, “Neither were they — until they were. You just do your best.” Seed planted.
After being sworn in and using Lincoln’s immortal words “better angels” in his inaugural address, Biden hung portraits of Honest Abe and FDR in the Oval Office. Two months later, Biden sought to learn more, so Meacham invited historians Doris Kearns Goodwin, Michael Beschloss, and Eddie Glaude Jr. to speak with him in the East Room. After the session, Goodwin told an interviewer, “The president deliberately embraced the First Hundred Days’ marker,” (made famous by Roosevelt in 1933), and his initiatives “harken back to the New Deal.” A month later, Biden quoted FDR when he spoke to Congress about his First Hundred Days.
Biden has now been president for 18 months. If he asked the East Room historians today, “How am I doing?” they’d likely respond with an initial awkward silence and would then tactfully explain why he has not led like Lincoln and Roosevelt.
Having recently analyzed Lincoln’s and FDR’s best traits for my upcoming book, How the Best Did It: Leadership Lessons From Our Top Presidents, here are my thoughts on how to explain why Biden has thus far not performed anywhere close to the presidential icons he desires to emulate.
Unlike his heroes, Biden has consistently failed to get a complete read on the country’s public sentiment and use it to identify where the big middle of American voters stand on leading issues. Because Lincoln was Roosevelt’s political role model, FDR surely knew Abe’s words of wisdom: “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.” Those words are as true in 2022, as they were in 1858 when Lincoln said them, and 1933 when FDR started applying them.
Biden became the Democratic nominee in 2020 for one reason. As the moderate among the leading candidates, had he not been chosen, socialist Bernie Sanders would have gotten the nomination. Despite the incumbent president’s high toxicity, every poll showed Trump beating Sanders.
Message to Joe Biden from those who elected him: To stay aligned with the majority of voters, prioritize the issues that resonate most strongly with them. That’s how Lincoln and FDR went about their business, and the soundness of the proposition was also established by Barry Goldwater’s landslide loss in 1964 and George McGovern’s in 1972.
The New York Times chief political analyst Nate Cohn recently recognized that since his presidency’s inception, Biden’s “decision to prioritize the goals of his party’s activist base over the issues prioritized by voters is more reminiscent of the last half century of politically unsuccessful Democratic presidents than of Roosevelt.”
Cohn’s conclusion aligns with New Deal historian Harvey Kaye’s thoughts on the subject, which he expressed in April: “Want to be like FDR? Engage and empower working people. That’s essential, and Biden hasn’t pursued it.”
Another sizable bloc of voters for whom Biden has been missing in action are Latinos. In a recent essay, political scientist Ruy Teixeira cited polls that show Republicans now lead Democrats among working-class voters by 11%, and Democrats have lost the 47% advantage they held among Hispanics only four years ago. Why the shift? His answer: The skyrocketing cost-of-living increase is more important to both groups than abortion rights, gun control, and the Jan. 6 hearings.
As a Lincoln disciple, Roosevelt knew that a president must maintain a steel chain connection to public sentiment, and, when necessary because of imprudence among the multitudes, strive to move the public opinion needle in the desired direction steadily but not too fast. During his presidency, Lincoln moved the middle of the spectrum toward the complete abolition of slavery step by step over a period of years, and FDR did the same from 1939 to 1941 in moving the country away from the majority of the people’s prevailing attitude that favored isolationism and toward joining the international effort to defeat Hitler.
The East Room historians have previously explained how the great presidents shaped public sentiment along these lines: Goodwin, in her biography No Ordinary Time:
“FDR’s success in motivating the nation rested on his uncanny ability to appraise public feeling and lead people one step at a time. This gave him a magnificent sense of timing. … He understood when to move forward and when to pull back.”
Beschloss, in his book Presidential Courage:
“Part of Franklin Roosevelt’s genius was his feline sensitivity to how far he could change people’s minds at a given time.”
Meacham in his book The Soul of America:
“Disappointed liberals lobbied Roosevelt to move quicker on issues. ‘You’ll never be a good politician,’ he told Eleanor. ‘You’re too impatient.’” FDR once told a critic, “Lincoln was a sad man because he couldn’t get it all done at once. Nobody can. You cannot, just by shouting from the housetops, get what you want all the time.”
How did FDR match Lincoln as the ultimate manager of public sentiment? Pulitzer-winning historian James MacGregor Burns answered the question: “He studied public opinion more than any prior president. Mail was analyzed, reports were collected from administrative agencies, and newspapers by the hundreds were clipped and digests compiled.” In addition, FDR gauged public sentiment by having ongoing dialogue with the many diverse political positions among the congressmen and senators of his era — regardless of whether they were progressive Republicans, independent Republicans, Southern Democrats, or Northern Democrats.
Why did Roosevelt constantly keep his finger on the pulse of the wide spectrum of public and congressional sentiment during his presidency? Because he knew, as Lincoln knew, “I can’t go faster than people will let me go.”
By taking in such a wide range of relevant perspectives, FDR became an information clearinghouse, and used his spongelike memory to retain the details of what the various factions thought, while searching constantly for the clearest picture of what to do and say that would mesh with what those between the extremes of American voters wanted.
Aspiring to lead like Lincoln and Roosevelt requires something more than speaking at their hallowed sites, stargazing at their portraits, and injecting their words into a teleprompter. To be a top presidential leader requires the heavy lifting of knowing what the many diverse factions in the political picture prioritize; acting responsively to the middle ground position of public sentiment; ignoring “shouts from the housetops” that come from those who make noise from politics’ outer ends; and never moving more than one step ahead of those in the middle. To ignore this lesson from history is a surefire recipe for failure, as the last 18 months have shown.
Talmage Boston is an attorney and presidential historian. His most recent book is Cross-Examining History: A Lawyer Gets Answers from the Experts About our Presidents. He wrote this for The Dallas Morning News.
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