“Would you go back to the 1920’s and take a potshot at FDR (during the time when he had polio) and then immediately return to the present day if you had to drink every drink for the rest of your life with a straw? ”
It's a great question Mikey, and I'm really glad you've asked it. I see the problem as a threefold:
1) What are the personal repercussions of taking a potshot at the man who many view as an American hero who I see as the father of the loan generation, the generation that borrowed from me and my fellow young people and now can't pay back. From a logistical standpoint, I'd be arrested, imprisoned, and/or shot in (I assume you meant) the 30's no less, which would definitely be a downside, but you did stipulate that I'd be immediately teleported back to present day, which would presumably prevent those back-in-time legal and physical issues to my person. Yet, there's no statute of limitations on assault, so could be that I'd be arrested in 2017 for punching FDR in 1934, and imprisoned now, which makes the whole straw thing a moot point. Drink from a straw, not from a straw, who gives a shit if I have to do 5-15 in a West Virginian prison? All this leads to a tentative, "rather not."
2) But the bigger issue is, what are the global repercussions, and that becomes a complex matter of time travel paradoxes and the butterfly effect, for which I and no one has a clear answer. The potential damage to the universe of me taking a potshot at FDR is catastrophic, especially considering I'd be physically attacking a sickly old man in a wheelchair right before the greatest armed conflict and moral battle of world conquest in the history of our species. That leads to a less tentative "no" on the hypothetical. Again, the issue of the straw drinking becomes largely irrelevant next to something as horrifying as the axis powers winning World War II or The Milky Way imploding because I ripped a hole in reality through which all nearby stars were pulled into an unfathomable realm of unbeing. At the very least, if I have the power to go back and punch historical figures from the era and I really wanted to risk disrupting the fabric of space and time, I'd punch Hitler. But that's beyond the confines of your hypothetical and so I apologize for the digression.
3) If you suppose that the punching is going to have no meaningful impact on history or reality, then the hypothetical becomes a little more tenable. I'd say "no" it's not worth it for me to punch a guy with whose policies, that are now several decades old, I firmly disagree, if I then have to drink from a straw for every drink for the rest of my life. I might enjoy the moment, but I'd not suffer the humiliation of drinking beer from a straw until the day I die. That'd be awful. And Pepsi and lemonade iced tea in my own home, with my own glasses, with my high quality filtered ice, with a straw? Abhorrent. I don't like these social programs, but I really don't like straws. Now, if I was able to bring a friend with me and he could film the repercussionless potshot on my iphone and then that footage could be uploaded to YouTube and turn me not only into a semi-sadistic celebrity overnight but also a symbol of free market politics and generational justice, I'd change my mind on the issue. Not because that alone outweighs the fucking straw, but because such fame would make it much easier to publish my novels.