The 1936 presidential election was known as one of the most lopsided presidential elections in the history of United States in terms of electoral votes since Monroe’s in 1820 (Boller, P.249). In this election, Franklin Delano Roosevelt also known as FDR campaigned on his New Deal programs against the Kansas Governor Alf Landon. Governor Alf Landon argued that the New deal programs were unconstitutional and it would affect the business (Kelly).
FDR enters the election with a strong, but not unbeatable, hand. The measures that FDR took during his first term in the White House didn’t produce prosperity. But they were able to pull the country out of depression and made sure that millions of people were better off than they had been when he first took office (Boller, P.240). Still the economy remained sluggish and eight million Americans were without jobs. At this election, he brought out the New Deal that would help all groups and firms. By this time Roosevelt had become the center of both passionate adoration and burning hatred. With millions of Americans support he had become more popular than the New Deal itself (Boller, P.240). Critics from various points on the political spectrum such as Father Coughlin and Dr. Francis Townsend had spent much of the previous two years attacking the President. They supported Representative William Lemke of the newly formed Union Party in the 1936 election (American President: A Reference Resource).
Due to the widespread popularity of FDR in 1936, the Republicans felt desperate to avoid a repeat of the 1932 failure in which FDR had trounced the incumbent Herbert Hoover. So the party had to select a candidate that could strongly oppose FDR and sweep all the electoral and popular votes. The Kansas...
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Boller, Paul F. Presidential Campaigns: From George Washington to George W. Bush. January 2004.
Kelly, Martin. Franklin D. Roosevelt - 32nd President of the United States.
Retrieved: April 11, 2012.
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/franklinroosevelt/p/pfdroosevelt.htm
Lakeside Publishing Group,LLC. 1936 Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democrat) Vs. Alfred “Alf” Landon (Republican). Flash Focus: Presidential Elections 1788-2000. 144-146. US: Lakeside Publishing Group, LLC, 2005. History Reference Center. Web. April 12, 2012
http://web.ebscohost.com/hrc/detail?vid=4&hid=12&sid=2b991135-2180-4381-8d9f-2978992fb1af%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9aHJjLWxpdmU%3d#db=khh&AN=18176223
Peter, Gerhard. The American Presidency Project. Retrieved: March 30th, 2012.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showelection.php?year=1936
Why People Voted for Roosevelt in 1932 There were many reasons why people voted for Roosevelt in 1932. These were to do with the effects of the great depression the unpopularity of Hoover and the appeal and promises of Roosevelt. Firstly an important reason that affected the fact that people voted for Roosevelt was the great depression and the Wall Street crash. The world wide economic slump began in October 1929 with the Wall Street crash and continued through to the 1930s. During 1920S while business in the United States prospered farmers did not.
The adage of the adage. Because of the division of the Republican party, it would make Woodrow Wilson’s road to victory immensely easier. Wilson accumulated 435 electoral votes to Roosevelt’s 88 and Taft’s 8 (Miller Center, sec. 4.
Roosevelt was the Democratic president from 1933 through 1945. During this time there were two wings of the Democrat party. The first wing were the southern, native-born, white, rural Protestants. The second wing were the northern, immigrant, urban, Catholics. Even though the Democrat party was divided, both sides were united than ever under Roosevelt. The Republican Party, however, began to believe government was the problem, not the solution.
“On November 4, 1936 Daley had won his first elective office. The only thing that kept the victory from being perfect was that David Shanahan, who died as speaker of the house in Illinois, had been a Republican, running unopposed. So Daley’s name had to be written in on the Republican side of the ballot. Richard Daley was elected to his first public office as, of all things, a Republican.” (Royko 46)
The stock market crash of 1929 set in motion a chain of events that would plunge the United States into a deep depression. The Great Depression of the 1930's spelled the end of an era of economic prosperity during the 1920's. Herbert Hoover was the unlucky president to preside over this economic downturn, and he bore the brunt of the blame for the depression. Hoover believed the root cause of the depression was international, and he therefore believed that restoring the gold standard would ultimately drag the United States out of depression by reviving international trade. Hoover initiated many new domestic works programs aimed at creating jobs, but it seemed to have no effect as the unemployment rate continued to rise. The Democrats nominated Franklin Roosevelt as their candidate for president in 1932 against the incumbent Hoover. Roosevelt was elected in a landslide victory in part due to his platform called "The New Deal". This campaign platform was never fully explained by Roosevelt prior to his election, but it appealed to the American people as something new and different from anything Hoover was doing to ameliorate the problem. The Roosevelt administration's response to the Great Depression served to remedy some of the temporary employment problems, while drastically changing the role of the government, but failed to return the American economy to the levels of prosperity enjoyed during the 1920's.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt takes office four years later with an understanding that he has to somehow reestablish the morale of the nation as a whole. The actions FDR takes to bring back economic prosperity all starts with “…an experiment in state building without precedent” (Gerstle 128). FDR knows that he needs to continue in the footsteps of what TR did and Gerstle even gives some notice to the amount he is actually able to authorize. The most prevalent is the government’s huge contribution to jumpstarting the American economy, since up to this point in time, the government tried to stay out of the regulation the economy; however, this forever will change that. Gerstle argues that FDR was successful and he supports his claim by giving a hypothetical speculation on if he was viewed as successful in the eyes of Theodore Roosevelt. Gerstle also relates FDR’s New Deal back to his thesis by saying how it “… shaped the civic nationalism of those years” (Gerstle 130). FDR, as well as TR, share a very important view point that Gerstle makes clear: they both have the same standpoint on racial hybridity. One of the most important parts of is how much influence TR’s New Nationalism had on FDR’s New Deal. This is a turning point in American history because it brings back the war mobilization of TR, since “FDR
The 1930s were a very rough time for most people. These were hard times because of the Great Depression and the Stock Market crash. The Presidents of the 1930s were Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Both of these Presidents came from different backgrounds and had the responsibility of trying to help people through the Great Depression. The two Presidents of the 1930s, Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt were faced with many problems during America’s Great Depression and had very different approaches at solving them. Franklin Roosevelt was favored by many and Hoover was looked down on by most of America’s people.
This was the only opportunity for work at the time for most. Politically, today's issues are handled differently and there is less support and teamwork within our society. In the 1930’s, the majority, including the candidates and congress, were supportive and willing to work together as one, and were not afraid to make mistakes to see what needed to be eliminated and what was a success that could be kept.
In his presidential acceptance speech in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed to the citizens of the United States, “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.” The New Deal, beginning in 1933, was a series of federal programs designed to provide relief, recovery, and reform to the fragile nation. The U.S. had been both economically and psychologically buffeted by the Great Depression. Many citizens looked up to FDR and his New Deal for help. However, there is much skepticism and controversy on whether these work projects significantly abated the dangerously high employment rates and pulled the U.S. out of the Great Depression. The New Deal was a bad deal for America because it only provided opportunities for a few and required too much government spending.
...for their misfortune. The rich blamed the poor, the poor blamed the rich, the middle class blamed the blacks, and no one took responsibility themselves. One complaint most of these classes (with exception to the few that benefited) was the lack of success of the New Deal and other relief efforts. Whether the blacks had too much employment, or the poor were too lazy to receive aid, very few Americans appeared to be happy with Roosevelt’s solution. This didn’t stop his popularity. Many Americans stood behind their president rain or shine, depression or big boom. Regardless of their positions, these citizens who turned to the President in their time of desperation proved that the pen is truly mightier.
Roy Jenkins, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, provides a brief overlook of Roosevelt’s life. As a foreigner, Jenkins is able to view Franklin’s accomplishments and failures from a rational view point. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, also known as FDR, was the thirty-second president of the United States, and the only one to be elected more than twice. Even though he entered the presidency during an economic crisis, Roosevelt made a huge on the United States.
In November 1932, F.D. Roosevelt won the Presidential election against Herbert Hoover. Roosevelt’s victory was a landslide win with 22,810,000 votes compared to Hoover’s 15,759,000 votes. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected at the darkest hour of the Great Depression, promising a new deal for the American people.
Thus a group of Senators, taking control of the 1920 Republican Convention when the principal candidates deadlocked, turned to Harding. He won the Presidential election by an unprecedented landslide of 60 percent of the popular vote.
The New Deal period has generally - but not unanimously - been seen as a turning point in American politics, with the states relinquishing much of their autonomy, the President acquiring new authority and importance, and the role of government in citizens' lives increasing. The extent to which this was planned by the architect of the New Deal, Franklin D. Roosevelt, has been greatly contested, however. Yet, while it is instructive to note the limitations of Roosevelt's leadership, there is not much sense in the claims that the New Deal was haphazard, a jumble of expedient and populist schemes, or as W. Williams has put it, "undirected". FDR had a clear overarching vision of what he wanted to do to America, and was prepared to drive through the structural changes required to achieve this vision.
Immediately following Herbert Hoover in the presidency line, Mr. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) became America’s 32nd president. This democrat, inaugurated on March 4, 1933, won the 1932 election against Hoover by a landslide. The new president made a promise to his citizens, “I pledge you, I pledge myself, a new deal for the American people.” He reassured Americans that he would change their lives. He promised to get people back to work and back in their homes (“New Deal Timeline 1).