The New Deal period has been considered to be a turning point in
American politics, with the President acquiring new authority and
importance, and the role of government in the lives of citizens
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.
It is worth
examining how the New Deal period represented a significant departure
from US government and politics up to then. From the start of
Roosevelt’s period in office in 1932, there was a widespread sense that
things were going to change. In Washington there was excitement in the
air, as the first Hundred Days brought a torrent of new initiatives from
the White House. The contrast with Herbert Hoover’s term could not have
been more striking. By 1934, E.K. Lindley had already written about The
Roosevelt Revolution: First Phase. Hoover, meanwhile, denounced what he
saw as an attempt to “undermine and destroy the American system” and
“crack the timbers of the constitution.” In retrospect, it was only a
“half-way revolution”, as W. Leuchtenburg has written. Radicals have
been left with a sense of disappointment at the “might have beens”, in
P. Conkin’s words.
But Roosevelt never intended to overthrow the
constitution, nor did he wish for an end to capitalism and
individualism. He harboured the American Dream just like the millions of
people who sent him to the White House a record four times. That,
indeed, was precisely why they loved him so much: because the American
Dream had turned sour in the Great Depression, and they trusted that he
would be able to find a way back towards it. As Europe gave in to
totalitarianism, the New Deal set out to show that democratic reform
represented a viable alternative.
Roosevelt’s enthusiasm for his
role as head of state established a new convention that the President
would lead from the front, and in his First
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