If Roosevelt’s Marriage Proposal Had Not Been Rejected, He Would Never Have Become Such a Great President

If one were to choose the three greatest presidents of American history, Washington, Lincoln and Roosevelt would probably have the greatest chances of being named. The majority of Chinese people are familiar with America’s former presidents Washington and Lincoln. Washington was one of America’s founding fathers and helped liberate America from England’s colonial power, and Lincoln freed the slaves and fought to keep the Union intact. Both had outstanding achievements, but when speaking of Roosevelt many people are in the dark. How is it possible that we aren’t aware of his valiant record, heroic deeds and tremendous achievements?

Leading America’s economy out of the Great Depression and winning World War II are his most memorable achievements, but in fact he contributed so much more. In Paul Krugman’s book, “The Conscience of a Liberal,” Krugman, a Nobel Prize laureate in Economic Sciences, writes of his great esteem for Roosevelt. He writes that in America during the 1930s before the “New Deal,” there was a gap between the rich and poor, and the economy was full of inequalities. Afterwards the situation started to change, the rich and the poor were allowed equal opportunities and this caused the middle class to grow and develop. At first there really wasn’t a mature economy, but slowly, with time, it matured. This government intervention was called the “New Deal.”

As Krugman points out in his book, under Roosevelt the government put three new policies in place. The first was a heavy tax on the rich, the second was to support and expand the unions and the third was to use the wartime wage to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. These measures helped to reverse the inequalities in the economy. In his book he states that the rightists said, “Such a radical policy for equality will destroy incentives and then destroy the economy. By heavily taxing profits it will cause enterprises to collapse; by heavily taxing high income earners it will cause the atrophy of the entrepreneurial spirit and individual entrepreneurship. Powerful unions will require exorbitant salaries and will hinder productivity.”* Ultimately, the “New Deal” succeeded in equalizing society for many years, more than 30, and that era was the most prosperous period in American history. Roosevelt was an outstanding political leader who rewrote the history of the United States. He took America and turned it into a land of equality.

Maybe people don’t know that Roosevelt was from a privileged background. One could say that after he became president he betrayed his own elitist class. How was it that he was able to understand and sympathize with the suffering of the masses?

The major reason was his wife. Just last week our column touched upon a recently released film, “Hyde Park on Hudson.” The movie portrayed Eleanor as having a desire to excel and being stubborn and unyielding, almost to a fault. Eleanor was an extremely strong woman and the first high profile first lady of the United States. When she was young she was extremely interested in politics and public welfare, and she was a passionate volunteer. She even influenced her boyfriend to become more like herself, to be passionate and full of idealism. Late at night when she was done with volunteering she purposefully had the young Roosevelt pick her up in the neighborhoods she worked in so that he could see for himself the conditions of the underprivileged.

Eleanor took great delight in illustrating things. There was one situation in which Roosevelt was helping Eleanor bring a sick child back home. During those times the cheaply made buildings did not have elevators, only stairs, but the pampered Roosevelt did not mind walking up floors and floors of stairs. When he finally reached the door to the young child’s home he discovered the horrible stench emanating from the home and was surprised to see an entire family living inside. The sight caused Roosevelt to turn pale, and he disbelievingly said, “My god! I cannot believe that human beings live that way!”** Eleanor later recalled, “I wished he could see the way people lived, and my hopes transpired. From that day on he carried that scene with him.”

Roosevelt grew and changed from a young playboy into a politician with high ideals who cared for the weak. Eleanor’s influence cannot be ignored. If Roosevelt had never pursued and married this woman what would the history of America in the 20th century look like?

Some people will say, “That’s nonsense! History does not have ‘ifs.’” Are there really no ifs in history?

Recently in America an interesting book was published: “What If?” The title pretty much explains the content; a bunch of historians got together to co-write the book. They used varied historical knowledge and combined that with creative imagination to hypothesize about what would happen if some details were changed during critical historical events. There was so much enthusiasm for this book that they wrote a second edition, “What If? 2.” One of the interesting sections of the book, written by historian Geoffrey Ward, discussed seven different “ifs” regarding Roosevelt. While on the path to presidency, if seven different situations had unfolded, how would history have been different? Those ifs include: What if in 1921, when Roosevelt’s political opponent was using his scandal to knock him down, he hadn’t suffered from polio and temporarily retreated from the political world, and his political opponent hadn’t let him go? Would his political career have just ended there? If, in February of 1933, while Roosevelt was campaigning for the presidency in an open air meeting, he had not refused a reporter’s request to stand up and take pictures, and the assassin’s bullets hadn’t flown past him, would he have lived to be president? The most interesting question, which relates to this article’s title, is, if entrancing, beautiful women had not refused Roosevelt’s proposals, which eventually led him to Eleanor — his “replacement love” — would he have remained just a cynical and disrespectful playboy?

History isn’t as absolute as we think it is. It has many possibilities.

* Editor’s Note: This quote, while accurately translated, could not be verified.

** Editor’s Note: This quote, and the following in this paragraph, while accurately translated, could not be verified.