| September 28 |  |
Editor says, what if Franklin Delano Roosevelt had divorced his wife to marry her secretary, thus ending his political career? muses Jackie Rose. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the May 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In September 1918, Eleanor Roosevelt discovers the love letters that her husband Franklin (pictured) is writing to her secretary, Lucy Mercer.
Franklin and Lucy
written by Jackie RoseEleanor demands a divorce, and her husband is glad to agree. However, his mother Sara warns him that a divorce will ruin his political career. Ignoring her warning, he listens to his heart and marries his mistress.
He has no way of knowing that, in giving up his ambitions, he has also saved himself from a lifetime spent in a wheelchair, due to infantile paralysis. He would probably have been infected during a trip to a Boy Scout camp .. but having abandoned his political ambitions, he has no reason to go there. Instead, he spends his time in law courts, keeping socially connected criminals out of jail.
His son Elliot, however, soon starts following in his father's political footsteps. At his mother's urging, he successfully runs for Governor of New York in 1929. When the Depression strikes, he followed her advice again by launching the state's social welfare programs. As a result, he wins the presidency in 1932 and his national version of the programs he ran in New York become the New Deal.
She guides him in both peace and war, with projects including the Lend Lease act. It allows Britain to fight Hitler, until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brings America into the war. His father Franklin does contribute some memorable phrases to Elliot's famous speeches, such as "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" and "Yesterday, Dec. 7, a day that will live in infamy ... " But the president's proud father carefully remains in the background.
Eleanor cannot, however, save President Elliot Roosevelt from scandal, when he divorces his second wife to marry Faye Emerson, a glamorous TV star. His mother must have reflected bitterly that this was a very clear case of "like father, like son".
Entry posted by
Jackie Rose
© Jackie Rose, 2011-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lucy Mercer, Eleanor Roosevelt, Presidency, White House. Editor says, in reality Franklin Roosevelt took his mother's advice, which led him to become the only American president to serve four terms. However, he did not keep his promise to never see Lucy again, and she was at his side when he died in 1945. In the interim, he also had a 20-year affair with his own secretary, Missy LeHand. And, yes, Elliot really was involved in that scandal with Faye Emerson, but today he is best known as the man FDR leaned on, to hide his physical handicap.
~ This would have been interesting, to say the least...
~ But Elliott Roosevelt, at least in later years, was much more conservative than FDR, going so far as to claim (falsely, as far as any source I've been able to find indicates) that his father always intended Social Security to be a temporary measure meant only to ease things for the elderly during the Depression.
~ The only problem with this is that Elliot was 19 in 1929.
~ I must fess up to playing a part in the authoring of this post and ill-advisely suggesting the Elliot Roosevelt scenario carped herein.
~ The TL would not be much different, but did Elliott have the sort of "radio presence" that served FDR so well?
~ If Elliot went with Eleanor instead of Franklin, that could have given him a very liberal mindset. Still, a later presidency for him could've been doable, post WWII (tho a very different world without FDR in the White House). Maybe he'd run up against Eisenhower.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
