Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR, was this country’s longest serving president. He led the country during times of economic hardship and war. Perhaps his popularity and repeated re-election was due to his successful innovative policies. However just having good policy ideas isn’t enough, they must also be effectively communicated and Americans must buy into them and support them.
So how did FDR do it? One of the not so secret secrets to his success was his outreach directly to the American people through radio broadcasting. Most notably through his famous Fireside Chats. Between 1933 - 1944 he delivered at least 27 such chats. He delivered carefully crafted speeches that spoke in an informal comfortable manner to average Americans. He explained concepts and policy to them in a way that made them feel like valued equals. (https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/FiresideChats.pdf)
These fireside chats and other utterances have been preserved and digitized by the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum and can be found here https://www.fdrlibrary.org/utterancesfdr. These materials are presented in a factual manner but as it is FDR’s presidential library they may well be presented in a slightly more favorable light than a library and museum not affiliated with him. His speaking style is persuasive and one of his speeches in this collection caught my attention. It is a 1932 campaign speech that I thought was a great example of an effective method of outreach where he used religion, something that was of core importance to many Americans at that time and therefore something to which many could relate, to help his position resonate.
The speech I would like you to listen to is the one titled Detroit, MI - "The Philosophy of Social Justice through Social Action" recorded 10/02/1932. FDR encourages Americans to support policies that promote and move forward social justice issues such as unemployment insurance, healthcare and the like. He speaks against the idea of trickle down economics and staying in one place. He discusses how religion, Protestant, Catholic, and Judaism, supports this "radical" position. “Radical? Yes. And I show you just how radical it is” (minute 8:35) and proceeds to list their supporting positions.
Today we have the Affordable Care Act that is still in place for now albeit with subsidies currently stripped making it not so “affordable”. It’s good public policy but it was a fight to get it in place. It may have had a more successful journey had there been less media - if people had given their time to just listening to a well reasoned clear explanation. There is so much shouting and rhetoric that it is difficult for the American people to have a chance to hear all of the facts. Having the space to be permitted to clearly explain a position without interruption does not always guarantee agreement or that the idea is a good one - FDR failed to convince people that the Supreme Court should be expanded and World War II internment camps were obviously wrong. I will note that today we are still having discussions regarding the composition of the Supreme Court and are currently placing immigrants into camps - these are some things that may not have been handled correctly in FDRs time and arguably need to be addressed now.
I really liked your point about how FDR’s success wasn’t just about having strong policies but about knowing how to speak to people in a way they could actually hear. Listening to the Detroit speech, I was struck by how naturally he blended policy with shared moral language, especially through religion, to make his ideas feel familiar instead of threatening. Your comparison to today’s media environment also resonated with me, there’s so much noise now that it’s hard for any leader to communicate with the same clarity or trust FDR managed to build.
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