THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND POLITICS
The disastrous consequences of the Great Depression shaped as much the economy as they shaped politics. Across the democratic world, voters shifted their political loyalties in response to how political parties and organizations handled the greatest economic crisis in history. The United States was no exception. With unemployment, poverty, and economic inequalities at the center of political debates, voters aligned their loyalties with those who responded to their personal plight. When during the 1932 presidential campaign Republican incumbent Herbert Hoover was largely blamed for the abysmal state of the national economy, his Democratic opponent, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, became the embodiment of hope and change that attracted many voters who had not sympathized with the Democratic Party before. Never in the history of U.S. elections was one's social class and ethnic origin such strong determining factors of how Americans would vote.
THE NEW DEAL COALITION
The 1932 election marked the beginning of the process when a wide and diverse base of voters, many of whom had not supported the Democratic Party before, turned towards Democrats. The groups that overwhelmingly aligned with Democrats and Roosevelt's New Deal agenda formed what would be known as the New Deal Coalition. The New Deal Coalition emerged in 1932 but solidified during the 1936 election. It consisted of:
- More recent European immigrants and their descendants, including Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Polish Americans and Eastern European Jews: Most of these voters, characterized by their ethnic ancestry, lived in the cities of the Northeast and the Midwest and belonged to the industrial working class or were other types of blue-collar workers. The Polish American case remains an illustrative example of how appealing Roosevelt was to the urban workers that some historians label as "ethnics." Although the majority of them supported Hoover in 1928, four years later Polish Americans joined other urban working class Americans of European origin and voted for Roosevelt. Another factor that characterized this group was that most of them were not Protestants so political loyalties formed also along religious lines (e.g. Catholic and Jewish).
- Organized labor and the industrial working class: As the New Deal greatly emphasized the rights of workers and the regulation of big businesses, labor unions and the industrial working class became its natural supporters.
- City machines: These urban political organizations, in which an authoritative boss would usually attract the support of a substantial number of voters by offering them tangible benefits in exchange, recognized the opportunities of the New Deal and particularly the Works Progress Administration, a flagship New Deal program that created a massive number of jobs through public works projects.
- Progressive intellectuals: At the end of the 19th century, progressivism was associated mostly with the Republican Party. Progressive intellectuals and urban reformers endorsed the idea that the government not only could but also should be responsible for the social reforms that would improve the well-being of Americans, particularly the rapidly growing ranks of white urban workers, and regulate big businesses. Two Republican presidents, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, endorsed that idea. However, Democrat Thomas Woodrow Wilson continued the progressive stand. Consequently, Roosevelt's New Deal was rooted in the earlier reformist ideas endorsed by both Republican and Democratic presidents.
- White rural voters: With the New Deal's focus on rural reforms, farm subsidies, and control of the agricultural market, white rural voters only strengthened their earlier support of the Democratic Party.
- White Southerners: This group of voters traditionally supported Democratic candidates so the New Deal coalition did not change their loyalties.
- African Americans: Black voters did not support Roosevelt in 1932. His alliance with white Southerners and lack of support for anti-lynching legislation and civil rights alienated African Americans. Roosevelt was also publicly silent on the fact that no other group of Americans was as disastrously affected by the Great Depression as black Americans. Historians note, however, that in 1932 black voters supported Hoover not because he had done much for black communities but rather not to support the candidate of the party that had a long history of suppressing African Americans. Although black Americans did not benefit from the New Deal as much as white Americans, their loyalty shifted gradually, mostly because of local Democratic organizations' increasing interest in the plight of African Americans and not because of Roosevelt himself. Some also note that Eleanor Roosevelt's efforts to convince her husband to make stronger connections with black communities attracted some black leaders to the Democratic Party. By the early 1940s, most black voters supported Democrats although at the time many African Americans continued to be disenfranchised.
The New Deal Coalition fell apart amid the disputes over the Vietnam War and civil rights during the 1968 election but some historians argue that its remains survived as long as the 1980s.
NEW DEALERS
Additionally to the New Deal Coalition, Roosevelt also attracted a new group of officials who both shaped and supported his agenda. Known as New Dealers, they were academics, politicians, and experts who did not form a unified formal group but all advised Roosevelt on a plethora of issues. Together they formed Roosevelt's Brain Trust or a body of advisers. Three Columbia University professors, Raymond Moley, Rexford Guy Tugwell, and Adolph A. Berle, Jr., constituted the original Brain Trust. Later, others joined the informal group but different historians label different influential figures as New Dealers, including Roosevelt's cabinet members as well as experts who were not members of the government. While they represented various approaches to the question of how to end the Great Depression, they all shared the view that the central government not only could but also should shape and oversee reforms and market regulations that would protect the well-being of Americans.
Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act, August 14, 1935. Standing with Roosevelt are Rep. Robert Doughton (D-NC); unknown person in shadow; Sen. Robert Wagner (D-NY); Rep. John Dingell(D-MI); Rep. Joshua Twing Brooks (D-PA); the Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins; Sen. Pat Harrison (D-MS); and Rep. David Lewis (D-MD).