http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1936
I’d have voted for FDR again obviously.
Voted for FDR in the poll, but, come to think of it, since I’m sure FDR is going to win anyway, I feel I can safely vote, just as a gesture, for Thomas and the Real Thing.
Very dark days in American history. Very sad really.
Of course it was, it was the Great Depression.
FDR is simply the only choice. FDR and Eleanor saved America in its hour of need comparable only to Lincoln in the Civil War. In both cases, I don’t think there was anyone else who could have pulled the nation through, and we lucked out both times.
P.S. Not sure this even rates a footnote, but I’m astonished that Prohibition dared have another go in '36. WTF?
How can you not vote for FDR? There were Washington, Lincoln, and FDR as the truly great presidents.
They still are around to-day: http://www.prohibitionparty.org/
I haven’t voted in the other threads because of possible conflicts of what I may have believed at the time and what I believe now. But in 1936 it would have been obvious to those not ideologically blinkered that FDR’s policy was far superior to what came before. In March 1933 the economy hit rock bottom. Then laws were passed, reforms put forth and output grew at a fast clip from a very low starting point. The economy wouldn’t be truly strong however until WWII.
In 1935 the first coherent description of the macro-economy was written by Keynes. FDR didn’t pay much attention and indeed cut the budget deficit in 1937. Consistent with Keynesian prediction the economy foundered. Reversing course restored growth.
Leaving the gold standard in 1933 was also a good move, as it permitted the loosening of monetary policy.
The plutocrats and the crazies hated FDR - and he replied that he welcomed their hatred. What else is there to say?
It’s not just that Roosevelt led America out of the Depression (and he did, despite what conservatives now claim). By 1936 we were past the worst of that crisis. But Roosevelt was in the middle of preparing for the next crisis - World War II.
Most Americans in 1936 were still isolationist and figured if we didn’t think about war, war wouldn’t think about us. Roosevelt was pretty much the only major politician who thought war was on the horizon and America needed to get ready. So if anyone else had been President in the critical years from 1937 to 1941, Germany might have won World War II. And the general consensus among historians* is that would have been a bad thing.
*David Irving cast the dissenting vote.
It’s worth noting that this is the way virtually everyone saw things in 1936. Roosevelt’s economic policies had been vindicated. Nobody, including Landon, was saying we should go back to the Hoover policies on 1932. Roosevelt’s main challengers were those who felt he hadn’t pushed his New Deal program far enough.
I voted for Landon, but Landon was running as basically a Democrat-lite due to the untenability of conservative ideology. But Landon also had more respect for the Constitution than FDR did, and FDR would prove how much contempt he had not long after this election in a way that shocked even his supporters.
What are you referring to? The attempt at court packing?
Yep. Which was caused by his desire to pass unconstitutional legislation. Let’s not forget that NRA fell 9-0. Landon was going to be New Deal lite. I think that the nation had to elect FDR in 1932, and if we’d known we’d get into war, we’d want him for that war too. But knowing what America knew in 1936, I would have voted for Landon over constitutional concerns.
He thought better of the court packing and didn’t do it. I can’t fault a guy too much for floating a lead balloon. His biggest mistake didn’t happen until his 3rd term with the Japanese-American imprisonment.
I’ve always wondered why he did that. Did military intelligence really think they were any threat?!
It was mostly political. A lot of Californians disliked and resented the Japanese anyway, and a lot of them were jealous of Japanese farms…that those farms should belong to white people, and then after Pearl Harbor, there was a bunch of anti-Japanese hysteria. On top of that, General Allen Gullion, who was the Army Provost Marshall, and a big supporter of internment, fought the Attorney General’s office and the FBI to make it happen, supported by California politicians. Both Attorney General Biddle and J. Edgar Hoover tried to fight internment, but the mood being what it was, they didn’t have a lot of success.
Hm. A reason to think well of JEH!
Ookay, but some parts of the New Deal were barmy, while others needed to be pushed harder. Still others were done pretty well. And as I noted earlier, both the Fed and the Federal government retrenched in 1936-37, leading to the dip of 1937-38.
J Edgar Hoover actually came to power as a reformer. He advocated new techniques and methods such as file cards, IIRC. The problem is he stayed on too long. He probably should have stepped down during the 1940s.
Or if Edith Keeler had gotten to him first.
Roosevelt was a Rockefeller stooge.
Besides that, your government high school version of events is losing credibility among some mainstream economists.