The Great Depression

Elections:

 

Social:

The Bonus Army, an army of unemployed veterans marched on the Capitol in Washington DC and demanded to cash in their bonus now when they most needed it, the emergency bonus act was quickly proposed but rejected by the Senate, this furthered public opinion that Hoover was incapable of instituting the kind of change people demanded.

 

In the face of tragedy the starving individuals suffering from the effects of the Great Depression went to extreme measures in order to survive by participating in desperate crimes such as food raids in order to survive, shanty towns would be created and spitefully named Hoovervilles due to the popular opinion that Hoover was not doing nearly enough to counteract the major economic and social cost as of the Great Depression.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Political:

FDR won over the vote of the people of Chicago over after promising to name Garner Vice President. This helped him gain 2/3 of the vote in Chicago which was essential to his nomination to the 1932 election to represent the Democratic party. Roosevelt flew to Chicago in order to accept the nomination and made promises of a “new deal.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FDR was relatively popular for his policies that he implemented as Governor of New York in attempts to counteract the effects of the Great Depression within his state, though his policy had originally been relatively conservative.

 

There was a major shift in America from the Republican party to a landslide election that brought FDR and the Democratic party to power, this was largely to the demand of the people for change following the beginning of the suffering caused by the Great Depression.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Economic:

The absolute issue of the election was the Great Depression as many were dissatisfied with the unsuccessful policies of former president Hoover and longed for the new deal that FDR promised. There were few if any voters in America that were left untouched by the claws of the Great Depression. Millions of Americans were jobless and production was down to just 56% of what it had been in 1929.

 

Failed policies of Herbert Hoover resulted in a large number of people seeking change and for the government to do more than just something, they wanted real promise of real progress. The policy that really enabled people to point fingers at Hoover for making the depression worse than it could have been was the utter and complete failure of the Hawley Smoot tariff which only antagonized foreign markets and closed off any possibilities using foreign trade to help the economy out of the depression. The blame for this idiotic policy was put firmly on Hoover and used successfully as a tactic to eliminate the possibility of his reelection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agendas:

 

Social:

Roosevelt made it his goal to not only please the people believing greater optimism about the future in the American economy would benefit the economy in that of itself, but also to create a more stable market for the American economy to recover. In order to avoid the dangerous disapproval of the public Roosevelt implemented his geneous “fireside chats,” which broadcast across the country what he had done that week to try and improve the nation's economy. Through this FDR was able to, unlike Hoover, maintain a good public image as he was viewed as trying his hardest to end the depression and not doing too little too late as Hoover did as far as the public is concerned. Public reassurance became one of Roosevelt's top priority which is clear in the closing line of his inaugural address “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself!” He believed public confidence in the market was key to the recovery of the economy, this is why he highly prioritized policies and practices that theoretically would increase consumer confidence.

 

Political:

FDR won the election by a landslide as voters voted heavily Democrat across the board, highly contrary to the previous years in which the results were nearly always majority Republican, this lead to both houses of Congress to be a majority Democratic which proved critical for Roosevelt's first year in office and his 100 days policies in which due to the overwhelming majority he was able to pass 15 new policies targeted at pulling the economy out of recession. This was critical to the implementation of his promised “new deal.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Economic:

Another major issue of the Great Depression was the incredible number of unemployed individuals who were incapable of participating in the restabilization of the economy without income to spend on the surplus of products in the market, This is why FDR focussed a lot of attention on creating new jobs for the unemployed through programs such as the CCC which required its workers to send at least half their little income home in order to get money back circulating through the market after the credit markets froze up due to the excessive number of people buying on credit without the means of paying off the debt. FDR took a course of action that was unprecedented by any previou president that ambitiously attempted to tackle the depression head on and get the market up and running again and capital flowing through it again like a well oiled machine.