In the introduction to their compendium FDR's Fireside Chats, Buhite and Levy say that the founding fathers would hardly recognize the office of the presidency as it functions today. The change has occurred due to the actions of certain powerful and charismatic presidents who used tough times and powerful politics to give them the power they felt was appropriate (x). But no president did more to use the media to persuade the public to identify with him than FDR. In his famous fireside chats he fought several enemies with recurring underlying mantra, "whoever is against me and my policies is really against you, the people".
The founding Fathers envisioned that Congress would be the body that generally set policy for the country. The president was to be an administrator charged with appointing judges and acting as a balance for the occasionally illogical whims of the representative congress (Buhite and Levy ix-x). In "Outlining of the New Deal Plan", FDR assures the American people that nothing has changed in this regard. Congress has simply charged agencies with carrying out the economic plans that will bring revival. The fact that the president originated those plans, or that the agencies fall under his control, or that the judiciary has not yet had time to question their constitutionality, is beside the point. It is still the same old constitution being used in a very different way.
Yet to many established economists and business people, it looked as if the government was suddenly taking a much larger role in the economy, both in spending and in power. Not everyone was pleased, and FDR quickly labeled these people as public enemies. In his speech "On Economic Conditions", FDR sums up very pointedly the arguments against government spending to create jobs.
Democracy has disappeared in several other great nations -- disappeared not because the people of those nations disliked democracy, but because they had ...