I think FDR - maybe better than any president since - really “understood the assignment” in regards to the POTUS being the manager of international capitalism in the post-war world. Part of that is understanding that the working class, in times of crisis, need to be pacified with carrots because sticks only heighten contradictions in the long run (even if he didn’t see or understand it that way nexessarily). FDR understood that capitalism is a global system and thus requires global coordination. He saw what happened between the wars where the bourgeoisie of each nation turned inward and disregarded this global nature of capitalism. Recently it seems the bourgeoisie are forgetting this lesson.
FDR genuinely was very competent at maintaining capitalism and facilitating the basis of imperialist expansion in a way no president before or since has managed to reach.
I think FDR - maybe better than any president since - really “understood the assignment” in regards to the POTUS being the manager of international capitalism in the post-war world. Part of that is understanding that the working class, in times of crisis, need to be pacified with carrots because sticks only heighten contradictions in the long run (even if he didn’t see or understand it that way nexessarily). FDR understood that capitalism is a global system and thus requires global coordination. He saw what happened between the wars where the bourgeoisie of each nation turned inward and disregarded this global nature of capitalism. Recently it seems the bourgeoisie are forgetting this lesson.
FDR genuinely was very competent at maintaining capitalism and facilitating the basis of imperialist expansion in a way no president before or since has managed to reach.