"If I agreed with you we'd both be wrong."

The Great FDR was President of these United States when I was a boy....an unprecedented four terms did he serve ‘n died in office...

American school children were taught that He was a demi-God of a man...almost, but not quite a King...

cuz y’see, America don’t have Kings...no royalty for us here in Fortunes Favorite Land where ‘all men are created equal’...

‘n of course, it goes without saying that we were all, all of us, young democrats becuz FDR was a Democrat...ackshully, more’n a Democrat...FDR was ‘The Democrat’ that had saved our precious country from the misguided politicians that had preceded him in office...not that they had been evil...No! They had merely been wrong. FDR was a forgiving man...a wise ‘n counseling Father to our country...a man who spent his evenings sitting by his fireside, his little dog Fala at his side, dispensing fatherly wisdom over the airwaves to his children...

Or was that Judge Hardy explaining to his son, played of course by that lovable scamp Mickey Rooney...oops! Wrong script!

Anyways, that’s what we were taught to believe...his picture hung in ev’ry classroom across the nation, his words rung in ev’ry ear that had access to a radio, ev’ry newspaper printed his speeches (modestly edited, of course) as if they were gold...He was an orator beyond compare...His ‘Day of Infamy’ speech has gone down in history, second only to Abe Lincolns Gettysburg Address...except...except...

Historians, while they do tend to color history according to their own personal likes ‘n dislikes, do still manage to look at things from a more balanced perspective than you c'n get from current events...(t'is said that time heals all wounds 'n wounds all heels)

And from a more balanced perspective, we who were propagandized during our youth have come to view FDR as....well, not quite a god, more of an astute ‘n conniving politician who wrote, directed ‘n starred in his own personal movie...’n like movies before ‘n since, the recipe calls for a dash of reality, cover liberally with bullshit ‘n pray for rain ‘n sunshine to do the rest...

If this sounds familiar, just remember that from the beginning, when Hollywood had a script that worked, they recycled it ad infinitum, ad nauseum...’n in politics as in life, there is ‘nothing new under the sun...

"How is it one careless match c'n start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?"