FDR ordered men in to have sex with sailors in order to entrap and expose the sailors and arrest them for homosexual behaviors and ruin their lives while he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He slowly changed his mind about homosexuality through his years in office but only because he has personal experience with it with Eleanor. It’s almost impossible for anyone of that time to be a progressive as we are today. They would be considered staunch conservatives today.
Bringing up his actions in a different job doesn’t really seem to have bearing on comparing administrations. Biden has a pretty bad history prior to his presidency as well.
But also, and more importantly, judging progressiveness just by final results, without referent to the era, is not useful. By this logic, the Biden administration could literally be rolling back progress, and as long as they don’t go too far, we’d still have to call them “more progressive than FDR”. The only useful way to judge progressiveness is as progress made - or at least progress worked for - from the starting baseline.
I think it’s reasonable to say Biden has had the most progressive administration since LBJ. I was really surprised by how good he’s been, relative to my expectations.
FDR ordered men in to have sex with sailors in order to entrap and expose the sailors and arrest them for homosexual behaviors and ruin their lives while he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He slowly changed his mind about homosexuality through his years in office but only because he has personal experience with it with Eleanor. It’s almost impossible for anyone of that time to be a progressive as we are today. They would be considered staunch conservatives today.
Bringing up his actions in a different job doesn’t really seem to have bearing on comparing administrations. Biden has a pretty bad history prior to his presidency as well.
But also, and more importantly, judging progressiveness just by final results, without referent to the era, is not useful. By this logic, the Biden administration could literally be rolling back progress, and as long as they don’t go too far, we’d still have to call them “more progressive than FDR”. The only useful way to judge progressiveness is as progress made - or at least progress worked for - from the starting baseline.
I think it’s reasonable to say Biden has had the most progressive administration since LBJ. I was really surprised by how good he’s been, relative to my expectations.