FDR May Be Invoked This Election, But He Won't Be Repeated

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The nation's 32nd president doesn't have a hit Broadway musical to his name. But FDR may soon be back in style.

The table is set. It goes beyond the superficial, such as Hillary Clinton's decision to announce her presidential campaign on Roosevelt Island in New York. Or the fact that Donald Trump, another New Yorker, is courting what would have once been considered the FDR constituency of working-class Americans.

Many of the themes that Franklin Delano Roosevelt grappled with as president have returned at full force in the 2016 election. And while the Squire of Hyde Park is a Democratic icon, this time around, the issues challenge leaders in both parties.

After all, this isn't the first time we've heard a loud cry from the "America First" crowd.

In Roosevelt's era, many Americans were battle weary after World War I and resisted any kind of foreign intervention. This despite the horror stories coming out of Europe in the late 1930s. If the attack on Pearl Harbor hadn't settled the matter, there is no telling how long the United States would have stayed on the sidelines -- to its great shame.

"We were so isolationist," said Jed Willard, director of the FDR Center for Global Engagement, "that we're willing to throw France -- the country that basically invented us -- under the Nazi bus."

Located at Harvard, Willard's think tank is committed to finding solutions to the problems of the 21st century.

Eight decades later, Americans are still butting heads over whether the United States should assume an isolationist stance or take an active role in global affairs. Trump flirts with the former, while Clinton embraces the latter.

Also, this election isn't the first time that the cause of working Americans has been taken up by a 1 percenter.

Roosevelt was born into wealth and privilege. While he was at Harvard as part of the class of 1904, his family paid top dollar so he could live in Westmorly Court (now Adams House), one of the most luxurious buildings at the college. While other students roughed it elsewhere with spartan accommodations, Roosevelt enjoyed what were then extravagant amenities such as electricity, central heat, prepared meals and a fireplace.

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