FDR And Lbj: Changing The Folds Of American Culture

FDR and LBJ: Changing the Folds of American Culture

When taking office, each president elect strives to be better than the last. Through debates and campaigns, each successor makes promises to the people; but how many fulfill those promises? When being inaugurated, each man takes on the role of being the figurehead of the Federal government, swearing to have the ability to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. Although all may do it, a few have done it with proficiency, and a few have not. With this, many presidents have found it difficult to find ways to speak directly to the people. In the age of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt bypassed the media and spoke directly to the people over the radio. Thirty years later, President Lyndon Baines Johnson used the newly-invented television to broadcast his ideas across the country. Despite serving the country three decades apart from each other, the standards set by FDR were the guidelines used by LBJ

With the economy in the worst depression since America’s conception, Roosevelt had to find a way to delete the middleman, being the newspapers, and communicate his ideas directly to his constituents. FDR decided that in order to do so, he had to go over the radio himself and dictate exactly what he was doing to his people. Through his radio segments, also known as Fireside Chats, President Roosevelt found his way into the homes of Americans and helped regain their trust. He helped strengthen the economy, and rehabilitated the American Dream that recently rallied the people. He posed his New Deal programs began to restore America’s economy, something his predecessor, Herbert Hoover failed to do. Nevertheless, Roosevelt did not completely restore America’s economy because the conflicts arising in Europe and the Pacific became the new point of interest for