Here's Why President Biden Is On Track To Be The Next FDR

     Franklin D. Roosevelt's story is bigger than World War II, just as President Biden's story is far different from that of the second Roosevelt, a cousin of the bold TR and a member of one of New York's wealthiest and most powerful families. FDR served in various positions, including the 1920 Democratic nominee for VP and the assistant secretary of the navy, but he earned his fame for his bold response to the Great Depression as governor of New York. Biden, on the other hand, has served in politics since 1971, as a county councilman who quickly rose to become a high-ranking senator and serve as second-in-command under President Obama. However, the two have some similarities, including making it to the nation's highest office in spite of debilitating medical conditions. The two wives were and are both educated women, with Eleanor Roosevelt famously giving birth to modern human rights and Jill Biden being a PhD college educator who was the first second lady and first first lady to keep her day job. 

     The similarities don't stop there. Both had some pretty draconian policies to repeal in their early days in the White House. FDR repealed Prohibition in 1933. President Biden was given a laundry list of repeals to achieve, including a ban on transgender people serving in the military, a ban on Muslims entering the United States, and the attempted construction of a wall with Mexico.

     Both came into the White House with major crises. President Roosevelt's executive orders declaring a bank holiday followed by major reform legislation ended the Great Depression. President Biden's ARPA legislation and executive actions have to create 10 million jobs (four million have already been created) and end the deadliest crisis in American history this year.

     Both made or are on track to make big moves at international conventions in their first year. President Roosevelt signed the Montevideo Convention, which served as the basis of international law. President Biden re-joined the Paris Climate Agreement, and, with the rest of the world, is facing pressure to pledge to carbon neutrality by 2050 with the goal of averting the existential threat of climate change.

     Both have had to withdraw from decades-long conflicts handed to them by predecessors. President Roosevelt had to withdraw from Latin America and the Caribbean and renounce American intervention in the region; Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson began the affairs by deploying troops to Panama, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti, and Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover each made only moderate progress at withdrawing these forces, leaving the job to FDR. President Biden must now do the same in Afghanistan and the Middle East.

     Both ramped up anti-trust enforcement. FDR ramped it ump by eight times to bring in federal income and stop businesses from hoarding profits amid the recession, and President Biden appears to be trying to do the same with his July executive order covering every major industry.

     Both care(d) deeply about protecting the environment. Roosevelt (who protected New York's forests as governor) had a favorite "New Deal" project: the Civilian Conservation Corps. This body helped restore America's national parks to the point that attendance quadrupled in just a decade while giving millions of people jobs. He also created millions of acres of new national parks, including some of the most famous. Aside from the aforementioned Glasgow Conference this November, President Biden has secured $100 billion for electric vehicles and transit and hundreds of billions more dollars in the upcoming budget resolution to help create a Civilian Climate Corps (quite literally a second CCC), which will give hundreds of thousands of people jobs fully restoring America's forests, capping abandoned oil wells, cleaning up coal mines, and more.

     Both had/have a judicial focus. President Roosevelt tried to reform the Supreme Court without success before being able to appoint more justices than any president in American history. President Biden established a commission to study reforms to the Supreme Court and intends to appoint the first black woman to the Supreme Court should he get the chance. He has also nominated more federal judges than any president at this point in their term, and, if all are confirmed, he will succeed in securing professional and personal diversity to the federal bench. 

     Finally, both had/are on track to have some major legislative victories. President Roosevelt created Social Security, abolished child labor, created the minimum wage, and granted Americans collective bargaining rights. The upcoming budget reconciliation bill would include universal paid leave, sick leave, free community and technical college, free Pre-K for three- and four-year-olds, a major expansion of both Obamacare and Medicare/Medicaid, and much more. 

     If we can make it through this year successfully, we can say that we have built back better, and the certainty that President Biden will be the next FDR will only grow.