# If FDR were alive today **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 21, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-fdr-were-alive-today/561397 "2010-11-21T02:22:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-fdr-were-alive-today/561397/21 "2010-11-24T12:41:50Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > By Beria, you’ve forgotten that all these people you speak of were college educated (George W Bush at Yale)? He wasn’t at Yale, he yust got out before the election. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-fdr-were-alive-today/561397/22 "2010-11-24T15:22:11Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’m also sure that if a paraplegic ran for president we’d be treated to many months of annoying questions about whether Americans were “ready” to elect such a person, the same way we heard those questions about black people during the 2008 campaign. Rush Limbaugh would be complaining that FDR is not disabled enough. A lot of Americans would say that he’s using a terrorist wheelchair. Even more would be shouting for proof that he was born disabled. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-fdr-were-alive-today/561397/23 "2010-11-24T15:32:21Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > “disability pride” I have to admit I’ve never understood “\* pride” (where “\*” is the descriptor of your choice - black, gay, disability, etc.). In one of Groening’s “Life In Hell” strips, a character once claimed “masturbation is nothing to be ashamed of, but it’s nothing to be particularly proud of, either.” I tend to feel the same way about most of these “pride” movements. One ought not be ashamed of the circumstances (good or bad) fate has assigned to them (blackness, homosexuality, disability, etc.), but why should anyone be _proud_ of something that is not an accomplishment? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-fdr-were-alive-today/561397/24 "2010-11-24T15:35:55Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Even more would be shouting for proof that he was born disabled. I’d have to concede that one. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-fdr-were-alive-today/561397/25 "2010-11-24T16:22:43Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > That logic seems a little circular. It’s like arguing that the reason there were no black Senators in 1940 was because no black candidates ran for the Senate. It was because a lot of black people were disenfranchised and racism was pervasive. I understand your point and I wouldn’t be surprised if some disabled people don’t run for office because they don’t think they would be elected. You wrote that Americans “apparently don’t choose to vote for [disabled people].” You’re right that there are few disabled people in higher office. I think we’d have a more meaningful answer if we knew how many opportunities Americans have had to vote for disabled people, and how many they’ve elected. Then we’d have some idea how willing people are to vote for a disabled candidate, and how willing disabled people are to run or how willing the parties are to support them as candidates. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-fdr-were-alive-today/561397/26 "2010-11-24T17:12:14Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > According to the 2000 Census, 19% of the people in the United States have a physical disability - 12% have a serious disability. There are 585 senators, representatives, and governors in the country. Ten percent of that number would be fifty eight disabled elected officials. How are they defining “disability” and “serious disability” here? If nearly 1 in 5 people have a physical disability, then it strikes me that the definition is so broad that there may well be more than 3 of that 585 who qualify. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-fdr-were-alive-today/561397/27 "2010-11-24T17:20:58Z")
Don’t forget President Bartlett, who had Multiple Sclerosis. Well he was real _to me_. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-fdr-were-alive-today/561397/28 "2010-11-24T17:23:05Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > How are they defining “disability” and “serious disability” here? If nearly 1 in 5 people have a physical disability, then it strikes me that the definition is so broad that there may well be more than 3 of that 585 who qualify. Exactly - is that just people who get SSDI? Probably there are plenty of elected officials who’d be getting that for various reasons if they weren’t doing the job they do. Many, for example, are elderly and surely hard of hearing. Additionally, most elected officials don’t tend to be working in jobs that disable you. Not many coal miners or factory workers or what have you run for Congress, so all the people who become disabled from work just aren’t running for whole other reasons besides that they’re disabled. ---
**Author:** ![WreckingCrew](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wreckingcrew/32/4080_2.png) [@WreckingCrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WreckingCrew)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-fdr-were-alive-today/561397/29 "2010-11-24T18:46:05Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > According to the 2000 Census, 19% of the people in the United States have a physical disability - 12% have a serious disability. There are 585 senators, representatives, and governors in the country. Ten percent of that number would be fifty eight disabled elected officials. > > But outside of two disabled veterans, there is apparently only one disabled person in that group - and that’s NY Governor David Paterson, who was not elected to the Governor’s office. My Congressman is disabled, paralyzed from the waist down. Sometimes I wonder about the neck up. But he is not a war vet - stupid gun accident when he was a Police Explorer. > **[James Langevin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Langevin)** > > James R. Langevin (/ˈlændʒəˌvɪn/ LANN-jə-vinn; born April 22, 1964) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Rhode Island's 2nd congressional district from 2001 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the first quadriplegic to serve in Congress; Langevin was appointed to be the first quadriplegic speaker pro tempore of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2019. Langevin did not seek reelection in 2022. > Langevin was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to Richar... ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-fdr-were-alive-today/561397/30 "2010-11-25T11:51:18Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > You win the best (joke) answer to this thread 🙂 Can’t agree, \*\*Markxxx. Johnny LA \*\*wins by a huge margin. Best wishes, hh ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-fdr-were-alive-today/561397/31 "2010-11-25T14:58:19Z")
I heard some blather in 2008 about how McCain couldn’t use a computer. I doubt it was meant in good faith. James Stockdale ran for VP, and missed one of the questions in the VP debate because he had his hearing aid turned off. He said so during a rather contentious exchange between Gore and Quayle and, while it got a laugh from the audience, it did rather show that he might not be up to the tasks of being VP. I doubt being in a wheelchair is the same thing - most of the President’s job can be done sitting down. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-fdr-were-alive-today/561397/32 "2010-11-25T15:45:47Z")
I would say FDR’s multiple terms in office pretty much prove the entire job can be done from a wheelchair… and that back before the ADA was passed. The obstacle is between the ears of the population at large, not the inability to walk. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-fdr-were-alive-today/561397.md?page=1)