Roosevelt served as President of The United Sates in two terms from 1901 to 1909.
Mr. Roosevelt overall changed the way that government was run in the future by leading very strongly as a president and using all the powers at his disposal; additionally he transformed the presidential office into a more public office, he was charismatic and used the media fully to his advantage to shape the public perception of himself. He also changed the way that voting was done for the president, so people would vote more for the individual person and not the party that they represented.
• Domestic policies
o Trust Regulation
Mr. Roosevelt was often popularized as the “Trust Buster”; A man who often would bring big business down, though in actuality, all he would really do was regulate the big businesses, because he actually believed that they were necessary to a healthy society. Perhaps his most famous piece of work of this nature was his regulation of the railroad companies who people complained charged far too high rates for travel and shipping, which led to Mr. Roosevelt proposing a bill in 1906 to give the interstate commerce commission more power so that it could regulate the railroad’s rates, however, congress fought back hard and Mr. Roosevelt resorted to working with another senator in order to work the bill to a passable state. This bill now gave the ICC power to set a maximum rate, though the railroads were allowed to appeal to the ICC in order set what “reasonable”.
o Coal strike
In 1902 anthracite miners in Eastern Pennsylvania apart of the union United Mine Workers of America went on strike for higher wages and lower hours, however the employers refused to recognize the unionization and this led to a particularly nasty strike which threatened disaster. Because America at this point in time used hard coal –anthracite—to fuel their heaters, so without the heaters America was going to be in a pretty tight spot come winter. After a long battle with the executives the wages were raised and the shifts changed from ten to nine. This of course, changed the way that government interreacted with businesses, and also increased union patronage throughout America.
o Prosecuted misconduct
Roosevelt discovered corruption in three government branches, The Land Office, The Post Office, and the Indian Service. There is a general consensus among historians that thanks to the quickness of Roosevelt’s response to the corruption the investigation and subsequent prosecution went well. Once again this helped shift the way that government interacted with the world and helped shift the power away from congress and into the hands of the executive branch.
o Pure food and drug act
The public was understandably angry about the way that the food industries abused the foods and packaging, and in 1906 Roosevelt nudged congress into passing the Meat Inspection act and the Pure Drug And Food Administration Act. The PDFAA banned any food or drugs that were misleading in any way, from being made, sold, shipped. The MIA insured that the meats that were sold to the American Public were devoid of misleading labels and harmful chemicals and/or preservatives form being sold on the market.
o Conservation of Natural Resources
While the actual conservation of the lands is indeed important and changes life to this day, perhaps the most important part about these acts was the sheer amount executive orders that Mr. Roosevelt made; for comparison the previous twenty-five presidents had a cumulated total 1,262 executive orders, Roosevelt issued 1,081 by the end of his second term as president. These were issued largely to protect land throughout the US in the form of National parks, five to be specific, the 1906 antiquities act, eighteen new National Monuments among other things. The amount of acreage that Roosevelt put under protection of the US approximates 230,000,000 acres. This revolutionized the way that Presidents would go about their presidencies, causing presidents to be a bit more involved in the running of America.
• Foreign policy
o Panama Canal
The Panama canal was conceived and constructed so American navy and merchant ships could have a more direct and easier route to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific without circumnavigating the entire American landmasses. There was considerable amounts of questions concerning potential corruption in the act of getting the rights to build this, though not many of these questions were answered: The canal was built regardless, and to this day benefits life of people looking to ship goods from the Atlantic to the Pacific. A trip that once took sixty-seven days, now takes but a fraction of the time
• Conclusion
o Mr. Roosevelt caused drastic changes in the way that the government interacted with the public, and completed the shift of power from the legislative branch of government to the executive branch, and even changed the way that the president would see to his duties. This would change the way that Americans lived their lives up through the present,
1931-1960
Franklin Roosevelt
FDR was perhaps one of the most influential person in the 20th century, and historians equate him to be one of the best US presidents period, in ranks with Abraham Lincoln and George Washington: surely there is no higher praise. He would affect the nation greatly as passes a great number of liberal legislation –including social security—all part of the “New Deal” which was part of FDR’s –mostly—successful response to the Great Depression of the early 20th century.
He changed the way the government governed, and dragged the US successfully out of the worst economic crises at that time, he guided the US through most of WWII, with great success, and he also helped instigate the law that a president could only serve two terms in office.
• First New Deal
o Emergency Banking Act
FDR wasted no time upon entering his office, for on the second day of his first term, he declared a “bank holiday” upon which banks nationwide closed for eight days, FDR called congress together to address the banking crisis. Congress by the end of this “holiday” had passed the Emergency Banking Relief Act, which permitted the federal reserves to issue bank notes so that every bank could meet all legitimate claims. Paradoxically, this restored faith in the banking system and caused the depositing numbers to rise above the withdrawing numbers, thus ending the “bank panic
o First Hundred Days
During this time period of FDR’s presidency, a previously unheard of amount of legislation was passed; this set a standard that all of the other presidents would be judged against, affecting American expectations for years to come.
o Various Agencies
Various federal agencies were created by FDR as part of his New Deal to address the rampant poverty, these agencies not only provided jobs but also helped give the economy a jumpstart, and often provided direct relief to those in the throes of poverty. Some of these agencies include; Civilian Conservation corps, which had young men work on improvements in oftentimes rural areas, and the Public Works Administration, which oversaw major projects of a public nature i.e. dams bridges etc. Roosevelt also improved the Reconstruction Finance Corporation , which was the finance arm of the Government.
o Economic Reform
FDR sought through the creation of the National Industrial Recovery Act, to boost the capabilities and productivity of the US economy, however by a unanimous vote, the Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional, despite FDR being very vocal about his grievances. However, FDR still achieved his foals by sending federal spending upwards and thus getting the economy moving out of its stagnant state.
• Second New Deal
The Second New Deal was met with more resistance than the first had been, considering that it set its eyes upon the business community, though this resistance contributed to FDR’s re-election, as the resistance was linked to big businesses this did not sit too well with the general populace, and led to FDR’s “landslide” re-election in 1936: additionally FDR received further funding for the relief efforts that he started. FDR would defend all this as an experiment that the situation demanded.
• Foreign policy
FDR made several attempts (that ultimately became successful) to break the tradition of isolationism that had dominated American politics since at least the start of the 1930’s. He did attempt to get the Neutrality Act repealed but never was officially repealed, so instead FDR chose to simply ignore the act and sell weapons to Britain, an action not exactly contested by the people of the US. This helped lead the US into WWII which was the catalyst for the end of the great depression and also lead to the US started to meddle greatly in global affairs, without which there might not have been a Cold War; though as in many things, it is impossible to say.
• Election of 1940
There was great amount of controversy on the topic of whether or not FDR would run for a third term: which was not officially outlawed in the constitution, but was extremely discouraged thanks to George Washington’s refusal to run for a third term. FDR even went so far as to tell other democrats that he had no interest, however as WWII with the Nazi’s seemed upon the horizon, FDR became convinced that he was the only candidate with the experience to be able to lead the country through war, and additionally the leaders of the party believed that FDR was the only candidate with the potential to beat the republican candidate who appeared to be very popular, Wendell Wilkie.
• The War Years
FDR performed miraculously during WWII as long as he was alive and helped make several influential decisions, including the decision to finally ask for war after Pearl harbor –though admittedly this was more of a long foreseen reaction, than actual independent action–. He also took the advice of Albert Einstein and other scientists and started the Manhattan project, which led to the creation of the nuclear bomb which lead to both the end of WWII and also the Cold War that dominated a third of the 19th century of American life.
• Summary
FDR has influenced American life through the present day, with some welfare programs that have survived in one form or another, such as social security. Additionally he managed to help revive the American economy, and was part of the catalyst that led to the Cold War. In essence his choices have changed American lives for almost a century, a title not many can claim.
1961-1990
Ronald Reagan
Reagan was a man who left a big impression on America, as he helped to bring the US out of the Cold War, one of the greatest forces in American lives for ages: Reagan also changed the way that the economy was run and that the Government’s finances were handled, since he had radically different views from the presidents leading up to him. He also began the war on drugs that continues to this day, and responded to various other social epidemics that affected American life then and continues to affect American life today, though his programs have changed American culture significantly as we have become significantly more health cautious and wary.
• First Term
o Assassination attempt
There was an attempt on Reagan’s life, on March 10th , 1981 in which he and several of his staff were sprayed with gunfire by John Hinckley Jr. Reagan survived the attempt and was released from the hospital on April 11th that same year. He was the first serving US president to survive an assassination attempt that included a gun/ This boosted his popularity ratings to 73%.
o Reaganomics
Reagan supported great decreases in taxes across the US as his way to stimulate the economy, he would promise that the reduced taxes would cause the liveliness of the economy to grow significantly and would thus compensate for the cut in taxes: although curiously enough, after the tax cut that Reagan put into effect in 1981, in the years between 1981 and 1987 he and congress would pass some sort of tax raising bill, this caused the overall tax cut to be about 1% after his presidency was over. Reagan would also cut budgets for government programs such as Medicaid, and social security as he believed that the government shouldn’t intervene as much as it did, and he hoped that this would lower that intervention. Reagan raised the national debt from 900 million to 2.7 trillion throughout his presidency –which some experts claim is why George H. W. Bush was forced to betray one of his campaign promises and raise the taxes—. Clearly taxes and debt still play a huge role today in America’s ongoing struggle, and thus this is one of his great –though somewhat more sad—impressions Reagan left upon the US.
o Unionization
In 1981 there was strike that involved the union of Federal air traffic controllers which violated federal law –this law being essentially that government workers could not go on strike–: Reagan responded immediately as he determined this to be an emergency and gave the employees an ultimatum, they had forty-eight hours to report to work or they would all be terminated. None returned and on August 5, of the same year Reagan fired 11,345 of the employees who had ignored his order. This would lessen the power that Unions had which was largely maintained by fear, displaying to those who worked in the private sector that Unions did not have to be feared.
o Civil Rights
Reagan and his administration is often criticized for not properly enforcing civil rights, there are even those who might say that he was deliberately undermining said efforts. He was forced to extend the Voting Rights Act for 25 years after much of the populace lobbied for this, even though his original plans had been to ease on the enforcement of this law. Additionally in 1988 he attempted to veto the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which stated that those who received government funds must follow the civil rights laws of the area; Congress overrode Reagan however, despite his protests that it infringed upon the rights of churches and business owners.
o Cold War
Reagan helped to move the Cold War along, especially in developing countries, he would enforce a policy known as “Reagan Doctrine” where he would use both overt and latent means to push back the pro-communist movements in said countries by aiding those who resisted such mandates. He would use the CIA to do so: however his most impressive and useful action would be his announcement of developing the Strategic Defense Initiative, this was supposed to be a defense against nuclear attack. Scientists of the day would hail this as nothing more than mere fantasy, it still put fear into the minds of those in charge of the Soviet Union and historians claim that this is what might’ve led to the speedy conclusion of the Cold War.
o 1984 Election
While most of what occurred was of little impact to American history itself, it is interesting to note that Reagan won the election by 16.9 million of the popular vote, a feat only defeated by Richard Nixon. Also interesting to note is that he is the oldest person to ever be sworn into office at the age of 73, once again not of great effect upon the nation, but interesting to note.
• Second Term
o War on Drugs
This is another one of Reagan’s longest reaching effects, influencing American culture even today. While he was not the first to put forth this idea –that title belonged to Nixon—he was much active in his fight against the “crack epidemic” that plagued the American society at that point in time, he put 1.7 million funds towards this effort, though this was widely questioned as it did hardly anything to reduce use of the drugs on the street, even if it limited use in school as and public places, there was argument from the supporters of this as they claimed that the use of drugs by adolescents had declined. In addition the funds that were allocated to this First Lady Nancy reign started the “Just Say No” campaign which still greatly affects the way that people live their lives. After all this this idea that drugs should not be used recreationally has spread even farther leading to the ongoing war against drugs.
o AIDS epidemic
Most actually say that Reagan did not contribute enough to the ADS epidemic that was spreading through the US yet others point out that Reagan did by the end of his presidency allocate more than 6 million dollars to this nation-wide problem. Reagan didn’t actually turn his crosshairs to Aids until relatively late into his presidency, at six years into his residency, and admittedly he didn’t devote to much effort upon this.
o Immigration
Reagan chose to make it illegal to knowingly hire illegal immigrants in what he hoped would be able to help make the economy run smoother by eliminating this drain on the nation’s economy: he hoped that this would slow down and/or stop aliens from crossing the border by taking away the incentive to do so, the jobs that were here.
o Cold War Conclusion
Previously the US’s main strategy for dealing with the Soviet Union had been intimidation through superior arms, however by the 1980’s this superiority was lessening as the soviets focused their time and resources upon advancing their military might, the war began to become more worrying for those in the US: they were not as worried as Gorbachev, the current Soviet leader, was about the SDI technology that Regan was attempting to develop, which historians agree is what ultimately led to Gorbachev’s willingness to enter into peace talks. Reagan and Gorbachev held four of these summits in the years between ’65 and ’88, and the two ultimately came to an agreement to lessen their nuclear capacities and ended the decades long rivalry that had changed America even costing lives and wars, but which also urged technological development onward. This is perhaps one of the greatest feats that Reagan accomplished during his presidency, and that which changed the lives of Americans the most, changing the way that history would be written thereafter
• Summary
Reagan’s was one of the most influential presidencies of the late 20th century, second only to FDR, and he has influenced lives throughout the present day, changing the way that public viewed itself and was able to go about their lives. He eased tensions that had plagued the US for decades and had influenced life for so long that it had changed American culture by ending the tensions between the Soviets and the US.