Category: Disability Politics

• The FDR Secret Disability Plot

  The FDR Secret Disability Plot held that Franklin D. Roosevelt’s public disability story—paralysis after his 1921 illness—concealed a far more dangerous hidden condition: mental incapacity so severe that an inner circle of advisers, cabinet members, and physicians effectively ruled in his name. In this theory, Roosevelt’s known struggle with paralysis served as a visible explanation that distracted from a darker administrative reality. The historical core is real but different: Roosevelt’s disability was managed carefully in public, later health concerns were serious, and journalists often cooperated in minimizing visual evidence of his limitations. The conspiracy version extended concealment from the body to the mind, turning governance by advisers into governance without a truly functioning president.