Franklin D Roosevelt's Separation Of Power

"If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it." (Julius Caesar). Franklin Roosevelt broke the laws of the constitution in order to seize power. One of the great gifts from America's founding fathers was the inclusion of separation of power in the United States Constitution. However, Franklin Roosevelt did not follow this basic constitutional principle. He misused his power in many ways as no other president had done before. Roosevelt used a system of gaining power called court packing, packing the court with people who shared his economic views. He also ignored separation of power by making decisions before congress approved them. Roosevelt also went against the tradition that presidents only serve two terms,

Roosevelt hurt our country because of his power- hungry presidency. He changed the court system so that it would be in his favor, by changing the Constitution and adding court justices. This was unfair to all presidents before Roosevelt because they had to work with courts that may not have been on their side. As far as I know, however, other presidents knew that that was the way the court ran. That the court was not always in one's favor. However, these justices were in his favor and helped him get exactly what he wanted. Roosevelt also used his power to change the way the executive branch was used. He used it to make country-wide decisions before they were approved by Congress. This was actually illegal and untrue to his position as president. However, because he was the president the rest of the government let it slide. His thirst for power got the best of him. He was so power hungry he even ran for a third and fourth term as president. This was something no other president had ever done, and for good reason. Roosevelt was disloyal to the tradition Washington had put in place and served four terms instead of only two. This was unfair to the past presidents and exceptionally unfair to the country. He put aside any opinion that were against his own. This caused the country to begin to go into a terrible state. Roosevelt also decided to enforce the New Deal Act, but this only caused the country to go into more debt. The New Deal also only helped about fourteen percent of the people in America and was ultimately not worth the debt it put America into. Roosevelt put America into a fragile state that was beginning to fall apart due to his ignorance to the laws and presidential rules. In the end, Roosevelt consolidated much too much power. He claimed