wayweird

“My friends:

I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking — to talk with the comparatively few who understand the mechanics of banking, but more particularly with the overwhelming majority of you who use banks for the making of deposits and the drawing of checks.

I want to tell you what has been done in the last few days, and why it was done, and what the next steps are going to be…”

With these words President Franklin D Roosevelt opened his first fireside chat on 12 March 1933. The fireside chats were a series of thirty evening radio speeches given by Roosevelt 1933 and 1944. Although radio is something that we take so much for granted today, back in ‘33 he was on the cutting edge. Perhaps it might even be said that Roosevelt began a revolution in the democratic process with these broadcasts.

When our country was young, the only people that got to see or hear the nation’s chief executive were the folks from his home county or those lucky enough to be in the town square when he happened to pass through on his way to the capitol.

Even with the advent of the railroad and the telegraph only a relative handful of citizens got a first hand look at the U.S. President during whistle stops. Most had to settle for reading his words in the newspaper and seeing his picture in the same.

FDR was our first president to come directly into the American household via radio. Since that first fireside chat almost every American has had a direct experience with this nation’s leader, through radio, television or the internet.

How has this affected the democratic process? The most obvious answer is now candidates have to be pretty photogenic and charismatic to even be considered for the office. If a guy has a squeaky voice similar to George Patton’s forget about it.

The better a candidate reads a teleprompter, the better that candidate’s chances for election.

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