While I emphasized F.D.R.’s rapport with the American people, I failed to make a basic point. It is that the American people picked up on Roosevelt’s attitude. They may not have understood much about the host of new agencies created, but they did understand that their president cared, that he was concerned for them.
How F.D.R. managed to convey this feeling I do not know. But later, I learned firsthand from my grandmother Eleanor Roosevelt that “Pa’s great strength” lay in what was behind his thinking — his caring, a genuine sense of starting programs that addressed the places and issues where Americans were hurting. (And in the process saving capitalism for this country.)
That F.D.R. could have assumed dictatorial powers, but didn’t, illustrates the point.
