“The broad-ranging powers granted to Roosevelt by Congress, before that body went into recess, were unprecedented in times of peace. Through this “delegation of powers,” Congress had, in effect, temporarily done away with itself as the legislative branch of government. The only remaining check on the executive was the Supreme Court. In Germany, a similar process allowed Hitler to assume legislative power after the Reichstag burned down in a suspected case of arson on February 28, 1933. (p. 18).
The Nazi press enthusiastically hailed the early New Deal measures: America, like the Reich, had decisively broken with the “uninhibited frenzy of market speculation.” The Nazi Party newspaper, the Vlkischer Beobachter, “stressed ‘Roosevelt’s adoption of National Socialist strains of thought in his economic and social policies,’ praising the president’s style of leadership as being compatible with Hitler’s own dictatorial Fuhrerprinzip” (p. 190).8
– Wanted to create an “extra-constitutional private army” out of the American Legion. In a radio address FDR told them he wanted to be “A new commander-in-chief under the oath to which you are still boundI reserve to myself the right to command you in any phase of the situation which now confronts us.“1
– American Legion considered itself an “American Fascisti” for a time, under FDR’s influence, it was a turned into a quasi branch of the FBI used for spying.1
– FDR used the FBI and other federal government agencies to spy on his critics at home.1
– He build a 2.5 million young man Civilian Conservation Corps, work program very similar to those set up in Germany and Italy, all used similar arguments for why they were needed.1
Barack Obama wanted to do something similar but more paramilitary. He never seemed to pursue it after becoming President. During his first campaign he said:
“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”
– “The National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA) was a:
US labor law and consumer law passed by the US Congress to authorize the President to regulate industry for fair wages and prices that would stimulate economic recovery.
It also established a national public works program known as the Public Works Administration.
The National Recovery Administration (NRA) portion was widely hailed in 1933, but by 1934 business’ opinion of the act had soured. By March 1934 the “NRA was engaged chiefly in drawing up these industrial codes for all industries to adopt.”9
The NRA was established to administer NIRA and was led by retired Army General Hugh S. Johnson, an ardent disciple of Fascism. “As head of the NRA, he distributed copies of the Corporate State by Raffaello Viglione-an unapologetic fascist tract by one of Mussolini’s favorite economists.”
The program gave unions considerable power, which they used to block black Americans out of the workforce. Some black journalists called the NRA names like Negro Run Around, Negro Removal Act and Negroes Robbed Again.”1
The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) was declared unconstitutional in May 1935 when the Supreme Court issued its unanimous decision in the case Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States.1
– FDR tried to stack the SCOTUS when they shut down his policies. FDR effectively intimidated them into submission.
Was this President Obama’s intent during his state of the union speech where he directly challenged the SCOTUS?
– FDR broke with tradition since George Washington, and ran for a third term. Had he not died, would he have kept going?
– Finally, and perhaps most appallingly, FDR put over 100,000 American Citizens into internment camps.
