Character Application and Information Sheet
NS Nation Name: Turkducken
Character Name: Elizabeth Goodyear Roosevelt
Character Gender: F
Character Age: 33
Character Date of Birth: November 16th, 1927
Character Position/Role/Job: From 1954, Representing New York's 10th Congressional District, Member of the Committee on Education and Labor and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as a member of the subcommittees on Education Reform, Workforce Protections, Western Hemisphere; Civilian Security and Trade, and Africa
Character Country/State of Birth: Buffalo, New York
Character State of Residence: New York City, New York
Character Party Affiliation: Dynastic New Deal Democrat (Moderate)
Faceclaim: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Main Strengths:
The Power of a Name- Roosevelt as a family name carries a proud legacy in the United States. From the turn of the century to the Second World War Roosevelt has meant something to the people of America. Just having this name lends credibility and renown. Doors open for you that might otherwise be closed, and both Goodyear and Roosevelt are well respected and connected in the world of American Old Money.
Deep Pockets- The world has entered into an age of steel and rubber. The Goodyear name is, popularly, built on the vulcanization of rubber but this is only a misunderstanding. The Goodyears are a family that built America, rail, lumber, coal, all of these have proved to be massive boons for the financial wealth of one of America's oldest families. While only related to the business by blood Elizabeth has an enormous amount of discretionary spending.
Charming- Elizabeth is a lady of means, born into a prestigious family. She knows how best to flatter in personal conversations, without giving too much away, and how to deliver well rehearsed speeches.
Main Weaknesses:
The Other Roosevelt- Elizabeth's connection with her beloved 'Aunt' (see below) proves to be controversial among the hard core segregationists in the Deep South. The Former First Lady was no friend of theirs and they remember the agitation they endured from her during her husband's presidency.
A Woman of Words, Not Action- Any oratory skills are born of practice. It is rehearsal and recitation, not ideology or convictions that compels her to speak. Flowery words and a charming personality is not the end all be all for those with higher political aspiration, and she will struggle to be detailed or deliver convincing plans of action.
Political Tool- While Elizabeth herself has political aspirations, she is not a self made woman. To anyone in the know, she is a political project. The Great Political Machine of New York Democratic Politics has uplifted this chatty socialite to a position of power for their own ends. While she may posses ambition and political skills herself, her fate and decisions are not her own.
The 'Fairer Sex'- While being a politically active woman excites a certain amount of the progressive women in particular states, this is a regressive time of gender roles and 'women's work'. Elizabeth, through no particular fault or anything she might say or do, will almost certainly struggle to appeal to and convince a certain percent of voters in any particular state or region.
Biography:
Born the last of six children by R.F. Goodyear, Elizabeth was surrounded by the world of power and money from a young age.
The Goodyear Family possess a sheer amount of wealth and power that the average American cannot even comprehend it. Although her Father never held office, he was one of the most important Republicans in New York State. Gubernatorial hopefuls, State Representatives, Mayors, even county officials came to their doorstep. Silently her Father imparted the most important lesson she could learn, money is a means to an end and that end is power. Although she was very young at the time, she does recall the moment where a distant cousin entered the Gubernatorial Race. She can recall the uproar in her family when a blood relative ran for office as a Democrat, and she remembers the upset again when he won.
Elizabeth's new 'Uncle', Franklin Delano Roosevelt, dominated the New York political scene and came out bold and fighting for a 'Progressive' recovery when the Great Depression struck the world. She would now say in certain crowds she was inspired by his magnetism and action in crisis, even before ascending to the Presidency, but the truth is that she hardly knew him. Elizabeth found great companionship and interest in her new 'Aunt' the new governor's wife in Anna Eleanor Roosevelt. Young Elizabeth hardly understood the actual relation they all had together, but she took to the new members of her family with gusto even against her Father's disapproval.
Eleanor took to her 'niece' almost as another child. The two became nearly inseparable with the young Elizabeth even accompanying the future first lady on the occasional campaign trail. FDR's historic ascension to the Presidency was sudden, but the transformation of the young Elizabeth's life was almost instantaneous. The young girl had seen power and known wealth, but to be in the halls of the presidency were intoxicating to her young mind. Truly, she realized, it was one to know about Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, and their family's other Roosevelt but it was another to walk the halls they traveled, to sit in the same rooms they sat in, and to wield the tremendous power of the state as they weld it. At the terribly impressionable age of six, she remembers quite seriously telling her 'Auntie' Eleanor,
"You know, when I grow up, I'm going to be President too!"
Which elicited a delighted laugh from the older woman. Touched by the child's determination and naivety. However, as the Roosevelt years went on the statement seemed to feel less and less outrageous. Eleanor herself was using the full authority of the White House to advocate for issues she cared about, just like before, and they were reaching a larger and larger amount of people. Elizabeth, as she grew older, got better and better at recognizing what people wanted and who they wanted it from. At the height of the Delano administration's power, she remembers influential members of the Democratic Party attempting to court her 'Auntie' into running for a Senate seat in New York, although her beloved aunt would always refuse such calls to action.
However these compounding recruitment attempts, and the First Lady's sample of real administrative power, came to convince herself that she was wrong about the naivety of her ambitious niece. She made sure to have Elizabeth receive a higher education in something more respectable than the 'Women's Studies' of the time and she would eventually graduate from Barnard with a modest bachelor's in History.
When President Roosevelt unexpectedly passed, it broke the First Lady. Elizabeth remembers consoling her favorite Aunt for hours many days after. She was old enough to begin to understand how complicated the President and First Lady's marriage was, and how much it must hurt to know that his mistress was at his bedside when he died. She began to understand how much he had hurt her Aunt, but she could only find how little this did to diminish her personal respect for his politics.
In time, the now Former First Lady, would recover. She reentered the political scene as a powerful and independent woman, with now President Truman appointing her to several token councils and boards but as well as making her the first Representative to the newly formed Alliance of Free Nations. She earned a standing ovation in one of the first resolutions drafted and proposed to the floor of this new body, the 'Universal Declaration of Human Rights', which would reaffirm the member nations of the AFN to their commitment against the horrors of fascism and Nazism. Elizabeth watched her Aunt with delight, and quickly found herself a part of this political dance.
In 1950, Elizabeth was partly cajoled and partly delighted to run for New York State Senate. Through a backhanded maneuver of party apparatus, Elizabeth Goodyear-Roosevelt appeared as a sudden mid-ticket substitute. Propelled into the State Senate partly by name recognition and partly by machine politics. She would run for reelection in 52, before making yet another leap in 54 to the Federal House of Representatives. Arriving on Capitol Hill, she turned a few heads as a shocking return of a national Roosevelt, and even more so when Democratic Leadership in the House elevated this freshman congresswoman into influential seats and showed preferential treatment. The message was received by most.
"This was someone important, do not get in the way."
Elizabeth is now at a crossroad. She sees herself in the same position as her Father, an influential member of her party that other politicians come to pay homage for her wealth and blessing. At the same time, her Aunt is responsible for her career and clearly wants her to succeed where she could not. So she finds herself in an unenviable position, caught between content and ambition and the assertion of her own identity to those that have created her.
She has many paths to national prominence and she recognizes this.
It just remains to be seen which Elizabeth will emerge onto the national stage.
Other Info:
Technical Ownership/Playing Eleanor Roosevelt- Former First Lady (1933-1945) Former Representative to the Alliance of Free Nations (1945-1952), Eleanor Roosevelt is a strong proponent of Civil Rights, Women's Rights, and a Pacifist. Although she currently opposes the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) and supports strong action against Nazi Germany. Following the death of her husband, she was courted to run for Senator in New York by her allies within the Democratic Party, but she declined. In the time since then she's groomed her technical 'niece' to do what she could not and become a leading national democratic figure.
Recently Mrs. Roosevelt was almost struck by a car in downtown New York, but was narrowly saved from danger by a daring pedestrian. She is a syndicated columnist and reaches an audience of a projected 4 million women with her daily column "My Day", although as she's gotten older she has asked her publishers to move her pieces to 'every other day'. She's received a fair bit of criticism for her support of planned communities and her efforts to enshrine the legacy of the New Deal into the American consciousness.
I have read and accepted the rules of the roleplay: Turkducken
Do Not Remove: COLDWAR
