Politics & Power Quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt

Roosevelt’s line is a velvet-gloved warning: democracy doesn’t usually die by coup in America, it dies by neglect. By insisting that “nobody will ever deprive” voters of the franchise “except the American people themselves,” he flips the typical villain narrative. The threat isn’t some cartoon tyrant storming the ballot box; it’s the slow, self-inflicted hollowing-out that happens when citizens treat voting like a favor they do for the system rather than a lever that controls it.

The construction is doing heavy work. “Nobody” sounds absolute, reassuring, patriotic. Then comes the trapdoor: “except.” FDR uses that pivot to shift responsibility from government to governed, converting civic rights into civic duties. The final clause - “the only way... is by not voting” - is plainspoken on purpose, the kind of moral arithmetic meant to land with people who don’t read political theory but do understand consequences.

Context matters. Roosevelt governed through the Great Depression and World War II, eras when confidence in liberal democracy was not a given. Fascism abroad and economic desperation at home made “strongman solutions” feel temptingly efficient. His broader project was to keep Americans invested in democratic legitimacy: if people disengage, they create the permission structure for machines, bosses, and demagogues to rule in their name.

The subtext is also defensive. Coming from a president often accused by opponents of expanding federal power, FDR frames the ultimate check not as courts or constitutions, but as turnout. Rights, he implies, aren’t only taken; they’re surrendered.