Franklin D. Roosevelt

::FDR redirects here. For other uses, see FDR (disambiguation).

The second term

In the 1936 presidential election Roosevelt campaigned on his New Deal programs against Kansas governor Alfred Landon, who accepted much of the New Deal but objected that it was hostile to business and involved too much waste. In a lopsided year, he won 61 percent of the vote and carried every state except Maine and Vermont. The New Deal Democrats won enough seats in Congress to outvote both the Republicans and the conservative Southern Democrats (who supported programs which brought benefits for their states but opposed measures which strengthened labor unions). Roosevelt was backed by a coalition of voters which included the urban workers and middle class, small farmers, the "Solid South", northern African-American voters (who had traditionally been Republicans), Jews and other urban ethnic minorities, intellectuals and political liberals. This coalition, frequently referred to as the New Deal coalition, remained largely intact for the Democratic Party until the 1960s. The Roosevelt ascendancy also prevented the growth of both communism and fascism. Although the Communist Party USA saw some growth during the 1930s, and gained some influence in industrial unions affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), it was unable to break into the political mainstream. Roosevelt told Congressman Martin Dies, Chairman of the Dies Committee at a Herald Tribune forum in New York, "There is no menace here in Communism."

Related Topics:
1936 presidential election - Kansas - Alfred Landon - Maine - Vermont - Solid South - African-American - Jews - Intellectuals - New Deal coalition - 1960s - Communism - Fascism - Communist Party USA - 1930s - Industrial unions - Congress of Industrial Organizations - Martin Dies - Dies Committee

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Roosevelt's second term agenda included an act creating the United States Housing Authority (1937), a second Agricultural Adjustment Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which created the minimum wage. When the economy began to deteriorate again in late 1937, Roosevelt responded with an aggressive program of stimulation, asking Congress for $5 billion for relief and public works programs.

Related Topics:
United States Housing Authority - 1937 - Fair Labor Standards Act - 1938 - Minimum wage - Public works

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With the Republicans powerless in Congress, the conservative majority on the United States Supreme Court was the only obstacle to Roosevelt's programs. During 1935 the Court ruled that the National Recovery Act and some other pieces of New Deal legislation were unconstitutional. Roosevelt's response was to propose enlarging the Court so that he could appoint more sympathetic judges. This "court packing" plan was the first Roosevelt scheme to run into serious political opposition, since it seemed to upset the separation of powers which is one of the cornerstones of the American constitutional structure. Eventually Roosevelt was forced to abandon the plan, but the Court also drew back from confrontation with the administration by finding the Labor Relations Act and the Social Security Act to be constitutional. Deaths and retirements on the Supreme Court soon allowed Roosevelt to make his own appointments to the bench. Between 1937 and 1941 he appointed eight justices to the court, including liberals such as Felix Frankfurter, Hugo Black and William O. Douglas, reducing the possibility of further clashes.

Related Topics:
United States Supreme Court - 1935 - National Recovery Act - Unconstitutional - Court packing - Separation of powers - 1937 - 1941 - Felix Frankfurter - Hugo Black - William O. Douglas

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