Who Was Franklin Delano Roosevelt One Of The Greatest President?

It is difficult to argue that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of the greatest, if not the greatest President the United States of America has ever had. Roosevelt was elected President four times, held office for twelve years, led America out of the Great Depression, started many programs, such as social security, which are still in place today. He led America through World War II and the tragedies that came with it and was America’s first disabled President. Eleven years before he was elected President, Roosevelt was out boating with his family and fell overboard leaving him paralyzed. After a series of physician’s visits he was diagnosed with infantile paralysis, or polio. Despite his physical challenges, Roosevelt was elected to an
In the letter, Roosevelt writes about having infantile paralysis but he notes that he is not as much concerned with preventative measures for the disease and rather the after care for the disease itself. This is a proven fact as Roosevelt did do much work with Warm Springs Rehabilitation Center where he often attended treatment himself, beginning in 1924 where he later died of a stroke . While this does present Roosevelt as an advocate for the disabled community, it also feeds into the fact that what he did for the disabled community was only done if it could help him as well. While Roosevelt could have used his power and prestige to try and prevent Polio altogether and prevent others from going through his suffering by trying to get money into scientific studied for polio cures, he focused on aftercare as that is what would affect him. This is because Roosevelt did not associate himself as being a part of the disabled community. Roosevelt does care about the treatment of the disease, but he cannot be an advocate for the disabled community if his work is based on selfish aims, where he only cares about certain aspects of the
He wonders, “just how many members of the Congress of the United States know what is being done by their own state governments or by the federal government in taking care of the mentally and physically crippled.” This questioning of government allows one to wonder if he could have done more for this group of people during this time. Considering this, if the legislative branch did not know about what was being done for the disabled, upon his election, President Roosevelt could have requested immediate action to promote the independence and full citizenship for people with disabilities or for more funding for research. Throughout the speech similar instances occur where Roosevelt’s rhetoric is clearly generalized, straying away from any personal anecdotes in order to make himself seem like more of a politician. Roosevelt’s speech about the mentally and physically handicapped gave evidence that he had removed himself from the disabled community by not seeming relatable and solely using political tactics to gain support from people in this