Politics & Power Quote by John T. Flynn

Flynn’s line is a trapdoor for Roosevelt admirers who want it both ways: to cheer the New Deal as a heroic rescue while also claiming it was merely a tune-up that returned America to some pre-crisis “normal.” The sentence is built like a prosecutor’s closing argument. “But” signals that the sentimental story is about to be disqualified. “No one can praise” isn’t polite disagreement; it’s a gatekeeping move, narrowing the range of acceptable claims. If you applaud the intervention, Flynn argues, you’ve already conceded the intervention was transformative.

The subtext is an accusation of ideological laundering. “Traditional political and economic systems” isn’t nostalgia in neutral language; it’s a contested baseline. Flynn implies there was an older order - limited federal power, market primacy, local control - and that Roosevelt didn’t revive it, he rewrote it. The jab at “former vitality” matters too: it frames pre-New Deal America as a living organism with a natural energy, and casts Roosevelt’s reforms as something other than restoration, closer to replacement or permanent dependency.

Context sharpens the intent. Flynn was a prominent New Deal-era critic who moved through progressive and later anti-interventionist circles, suspicious of centralized planning and executive expansion. Read in that light, the quote isn’t just about policy outcomes; it’s about political mythology. Flynn is challenging the comforting narrative that crisis politics can be radical in practice and conservative in retrospect. If you want Roosevelt the savior, he warns, you can’t also sell Roosevelt as the mechanic who returned the original engine untouched.