Daily Inspiration Quote by John T. Flynn

Flynn’s sentence is a small machine built to turn complexity into culpability. The phrase “as we shall see” isn’t a polite signpost; it’s a prosecutor’s promise. He’s pre-loading the reader to treat whatever comes next as evidence in a case already decided. Then comes the melodramatic metaphor: “fell deeper and deeper into the toils.” “Toils” suggests nets, traps, and predators - politics as a snare, not a negotiation. It flatters the reader with the feeling of seeing through the con: Roosevelt isn’t steering; he’s being worked.

The key move is how Flynn assigns motive. He denies ideology (“not because he was interested in revolution”) and replaces it with something baser and legible (“because he was interested in votes”). That’s not just critique; it’s a reclassification. If Roosevelt is merely transactional, then the New Deal becomes less a response to economic catastrophe than a cynical bargain with “revolutionary operators,” a phrase that smears both left reformers and labor agitators without having to specify who they are. “Operators” implies backstage fixers, men with angles, not citizens with arguments.

Context matters: Flynn started as a progressive-leaning journalist and later became a prominent critic of FDR, especially as the New Deal coalition expanded and the state grew more muscular. This line captures a common anti-New Deal anxiety of the era: that mass democracy, under pressure, turns leaders into vote-chasing opportunists who empower radicals by accident. It’s effective because it’s not simply anti-Roosevelt; it’s anti-politics - a warning that electoral incentives themselves are the trap.