What about instituting a universal single-payer system, something Moore advocated for in his 2007 movieSicko, through a Congress that balked at a watered-down public option? According to Moore, all it takes is courage.
"We've been lied to for so long, and it works," he said. "It's amazing to watch a lie work. Only a strong leader, only a Roosevelt could confront this."
This line of reasoning annoys me because it's so ignorant. Roosevelt was an extremely strong leader, sure. But he took office before the advent of the cable news circus, before the partisan realignment, etc. Plus, he had 75% Democratic majorities in Congress at a time when the filibuster wasn't abused, and at a time when Republicans really were demoralized after several years of the Great Depression. And despite all this, he wasn't able to do everything in one fell swoop. Social Security and the National Recovery Act were mere shells of what Roosevelt wanted, but he was persistent and he eventually won those battles and got much of what he wanted in the end. There is a lesson for Moore to learn here, if he knew anything about politics instead of trying out to be an FDL personality (perhaps?).
This is not to sell Roosevelt's accomplishments short in any way. If you look at the country he inherited and the country (and the world) he left behind, the depth of what the man accomplished pretty staggering. He and Churchill literally saved liberal democracy in the world. But Roosevelt was, like Obama, a pragmatist and incrementalist with moderate inclinations. I have no idea how Roosevelt would fare in this sort of environment, but I suspect he would have run into many of the same troubles Obama has, because these troubles are largely not of Obama's making.
