The Depression and New Deal Years, 1929–1939
excerpts:
Franklin Roosevelt was not capable of ending the Depression by himself, but he was willing to try almost anything, and try he did. He brought a sense of hope to Washington and conveyed it to the American people. FDR was by no means without critics, however; those on the left accused him of being a closet capitalist, and those on the right accused him of betraying his patrician class with socialist ideas. Roosevelt took it all in stride, commenting that because he was being attacked from both sides of the political spectrum, then he must be doing something right. FDR’s New Deal did not end the Depression, but it changed the relationship between the government and the American people forever, and its legacy is still with us. Memories of the Great Depression have all but disappeared except among the very old, but the effects of the Depression have never completely gone away.
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The Election of 1936
Although the focus of the opposition to Roosevelt’s programs came from Republicans, who were heavily outnumbered in Congress, there were plenty of conservative southern senators and congressmen who were unhappy with various aspects of the New Deal. Critics on both sides argued that Roosevelt, if not actually a Communist, was dragging the country in the direction of socialism, or even worse, that he was flirting with Communism. Although such charges could be written off as political attacks, FDR was nevertheless obliged to defend himself against them by declaring in his 1936 reelection campaign that Communism was not an issue between the two major parties, and that people should “put that red herring to rest.”
Some of the opposition to Roosevelt’s reelection from the left came from within his own party. Some of his Democratic critics believed that Roosevelt’s reforms had not gone far enough, that he was just “fronting” for Wall Street, as Huey Long had charged. Several of Roosevelt’s critics organized a Union party, presenting a populist alternative to the mainstream Democrats. Also on the left was the Communist Party led by Earl Browder, whose convention at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1936 attracted a large crowd. Browder claimed charges that Roosevelt’s programs were communistic were ridiculous and merely a cover-up for capitalism. (The appeal of Communism was blunted by the fact that communist sympathizers—“fellow travelers”—were disturbed by the belief that international Communism was controlled mostly from Moscow.)
Despite the critics on the right, left, and even in the center of the political spectrum, Roosevelt won a second term by a huge landslide. His opponent, Governor Alf Landon of Kansas, won only two states and eight electoral votes; FDR had 523.
http://www.academicamerican.com/twentiesdepww2/depressionnewdeal/depression.htmLengthy article, but well worth the read.
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