Backlash: The Killing of the New Deal
by Robert Shogan
Summary
On election night 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt was sitting on top of the political world. Within a year, two seismic events would transform the political landscape. A nationwide outbreak of labor unrest, particularly the spread of a new and potent union weapon, the sit-down strike, and FDR’s launching of a scheme to overhaul the Supreme Court would combine to generate a fierce public backlash that tarnished Roosevelt’s mystique and drained the lifeblood from the New Deal.
Excerpt
The presidential flag with its shield, eagle, and white stars waved from its staff above the portico of the imposing house overlooking the Hudson. Within the walls of the Roosevelt family home in Hyde Park on election night 1936, confidence was running high, so much so that the celebrating began well before the polls closed. After dinner, while the president himself withdrew to the privacy of his study to keep his own reckoning with the aid of a news ticker, friends and family gathered in the parlor to listen to the radio.
Betsy Cushing Roosevelt, wife of the president’s eldest son,
James, served drinks while Sara Delano Roosevelt, matriarch of
the household, ensconced in an armchair as if it were a throne,
presided over festivities. Tommy Corcoran, one of the brightest
and most engaging of the New Deal’s young lions, broke out his
accordion and began to sing a ballad with newly invented lyrics.
He dubbed it “Oh, Landon Is Dead,” in honor of the anticipated
defeat of the president’s Republican challenger, Kansas governor
Alfred M. Landon.
By 9 P.M. whatever suspense about the outcome might have existed
had been buried under the avalanche of Roosevelt’s victory.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, now assured of a second term in the White
House, swept into the room in his wheelchair to join his guests.
Corcoran promptly struck up “Happy Days Are Here Again,” the
Tin Pan Alley tune that had become the New Deal’s unofficial anthem.
Corcoran was soon drowned out by the blaring of a brass
band. Roosevelt’s admirers in Hyde Park had come to pay tribute,
and the reelected chief executive went out to greet them.
As the clock ticked away the last minutes of election day on
November 3, Roosevelt’s margin grew ever larger. It would ultimately
reach 61 percent of the popular vote. Then came the
phone calls—most from supporters and allies, like Postmaster
General James Farley, Roosevelt’s prescient campaign manager,
who had accurately predicted that the president would win every
state but two, tiny Maine and Vermont.
But probably Roosevelt relished no call more than the one
that came from St. Simeon, citadel of his archenemy, William
Randolph Hearst. Once the newspaper mogul and FDR had
been among the strangest of the bedfellows politics often makes.
In 1932, on his route to the Democratic presidential nomination,
Roosevelt had steadily wooed Hearst, chiefly by repudiating his
earlier support for the League of Nations and more broadly for
any U.S. involvement in European affairs. This courtship was
consummated at the 1932 Democratic Convention in Chicago
where Hearst brokered a deal assuring that Roosevelt would be
the party’s standard-bearer. As part of the bargain, FDR made
John Nance Garner of Texas, speaker of the House of Representatives
whom Hearst had boomed for the presidency, his vicepresidential
running mate.
The Hearst-Roosevelt marriage of convenience did not survive
Roosevelt’s first term.
Reprinted with permission of Ivan R. Dee Publisher http://www.ivanrdee.com
Reviews
"Shogan’s study is lively, fair-minded, well documented, and unusually accessible"—Library Journal
"Long on evidence, short and sweet on analysis, this is excellent narrative history"—Booklist
"Required reading.... American history and underlying political influences come to life in a vivid account"—California Bookwatch
Author's Biography
Robert Shogan has also written The Double-Edged Sword, The Fate of the Union, Hard Bargain, Riddle of Power, Bad News, Constant Conflict, and The Battle of Blair Mountain. A former prizewinning national political correspondent for Newsweek and Los Angelas Times, he now lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.