>I've seen some arguments made
>both facetiously and earnestly that follow the slippery slope
>all the way down to the bill of rights and the irony that it
>was written by men who kept slaves - do we throw that out
>because its creators had unsavory aspects to their lives? Or
>do what people all through history have done, and learn that
>people are not infallible and just strive to do better going
>forward and learn from the dark side of powerful people's
>lives?

FDR is one of the greatest presidents we've ever had and is responsible for most of whatever social safety net we have.
He also threw people in camps based on their ethnicity for entirely political reasons (when his own advisors were telling him it made no difference in security, he said he wanted to keep internment going so as not to lose California in the 44 elections.)

Nobody is saying to throw him away entirely, but let's not paper over all of someone's negatives with the good things. Keep it all in perspective and don't deify anyone. The problem is, people build their entire lives around deifying artists and politicians, so if you say "the guy you admired your entire childhood is bad," they take it to mean that THEY are bad.