The 1932 Election

[Beet]

Hoover was a good man but terrible, terrible prez. One more year of how things were going under Hoover & there would have been a Communist Revolution in the U.S...no kidding, when do u think all those ppl busted in the late 40s got their ideology. The US Communist party had 2 million members, others were emigrating to the USSR. The West & Midwest were on the verge of serious riots. FDR saved capitalism.

[PBrunsel]

The Communists would have been subdued by the army if they had even tried.

[opebo]

Hoover! The New Deal was pure socialism - the beginning of the end for the American ideal.

[Reaganfan]

Hoover got my vote, but you all know FDR will win a landslide.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

"In Hoover we trusted and now we are busted"

[dazzleman]

Hoover was a good man but terrible, terrible prez. One more year of how things were going under Hoover & there would have been a Communist Revolution in the U.S...no kidding, when do u think all those ppl busted in the late 40s got their ideology. The US Communist party had 2 million members, others were emigrating to the USSR. The West & Midwest were on the verge of serious riots. FDR saved capitalism.

I agree that FDR saved capitalism by taking, or giving the appearance of taking, effective action to improve the economic climate.  Hoover gave the appearance of inaction in the face of conditions that were so bad that people demanded some type of action.  If something hadn't been done, people would have turned to something more drastic, like communism.

Having said that, I think that the New Deal made long term changes in the way the economy operates much more than giving a short-term economic boost.

The two big measures that come to mind are deposit insurance for banks and Social Security.  The deposit insurance was enacted in the first 100 days, and effectively stopped the severe banking crisis, allowing some type of normal banking activity to resume.  That didn't cure the depression or bring about the return of prosperity, but it took the edge off and had a long term impact (mostly, but not all, good).   Social security was an economic drain at the outset because taxes began in 1937 but payments did not begin for several years after that.

Many other New Deal measures were boondoggles, or were short-term and ineffective.  The New Deal in the long run did little to end the depression, and many of the Roosevelt policies and mentality could be said to have prolonged the depression.  The depression really ended with the gearing up of war production in the 1940-41 period, but even here, the companies responsible for defense production would not agree to make the investments necessary for large-scale production until Roosevelt agreed to revise some of his anti-business policies.  The fact is that Roosevelt's class warfare, and the policies that flowed from it, scared business off from investing and prolonged the depression.  His own wife told him that.

In short, Roosevelt wins because he promised to do something, while Hoover largely promised nothing.  In desperate situations, something, anything, will win over nothing.

[??????????]

All those social programs he put into effect should have had a expiration date on them. So we wouldn't be burdened by them today.

[dazzleman]

All those social programs he put into effect should have had a expiration date on them. So we wouldn't be burdened by them today.

You make a good point.  The New Deal social programs are really showing their age, and we will have to deal with them.

The FDIC insurance turned into an expensive boondoggle because the premiums were not risk-adjusted to take into account the riskiness of the bank's investing activities.  Add to that outright fraud (which is what the Whitewater case was really about), and you get a disaster that's very expensive to the taxpayers.

AFDC was repealed in 1996 as part of the Welfare Reform law, and it should have been repealed a lot sooner.  It subsidized family breakdown, with black families suffering the worst, effectively serving as the "canary in the coalmine."

Social Security is also going to fail if it not significantly reformed.

We need to move beyond government programs that transfer wealth to more opportunity-based programs that encourage, and make it easy for, people to provide for their own well-being.  This removes the government as the middle man and takes control of our money away from the politicians.  Partial privatization of social security is a good place to start.

[Neil.A]

FDR

[© tweed]

This is the most lopsided match-up poll I have ever seen.

[PBrunsel]

Hoover would of won without the bonus army.

[dazzleman]

Hoover would of won without the bonus army.

No, I think he still would have lost.

[© tweed]

Hoover would of won without the bonus army.

LOL!  The depression killed him, not his refusal to talk to the army veterans.

[The Dowager Mod]

i'm still the only vote for thomas.

[ShapeShifter]

Reagan's trickle down economics worked.

You go after FDR for creating huge defecits, and you praise Reagan for doing the same?

He is a partisan republican, why do you bother debating?

[JohnFKennedy]

Based on these polls, here is how the map would look if those were the results (i think I calculated correctly):



Roosevelt: 531
Hoover: 0

[© tweed]

Based on these polls, here is how the map would look if those were the results (i think I calculated correctly):



Roosevelt: 531
Hoover: 0

Looks about right

[JohnFKennedy]

THAT, followed by a similar result in the next election may just have destroyed the Republican party.

[© tweed]

THAT, followed by a similar result in the next election may just have destroyed the Republican party.

No effect really.  Wouldn't have destoryed the party.

[JohnFKennedy]

2 landslides in a row, winning 2 states in total out of 2 elections would SERIOUSLY hurt them though IMO.

[PBrunsel]

2 landslides in a row, winning 2 states in total out of 2 elections would SERIOUSLY hurt them though IMO.

Hoover won 6 states in 1932: Pennsylvania, Conneticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Deleware.

[JohnFKennedy]

2 landslides in a row, winning 2 states in total out of 2 elections would SERIOUSLY hurt them though IMO.

Hoover won 6 states in 1932: Pennsylvania, Conneticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Deleware.

nonononono, you misunderstand me PBrunsel, if the results on this poll were the national results, Roosevelt would have won every state (worked out by an adjustment). If this were to happen, followed by the actual 1936 election, the Republican reputation would be seriously tarnished imo.

[PBrunsel]

2 landslides in a row, winning 2 states in total out of 2 elections would SERIOUSLY hurt them though IMO.

Hoover won 6 states in 1932: Pennsylvania, Conneticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Deleware.

nonononono, you misunderstand me PBrunsel, if the results on this poll were the national results, Roosevelt would have won every state (worked out by an adjustment). If this were to happen, followed by the actual 1936 election, the Republican reputation would be seriously tarnished imo.

Oh, I see. I can be thick sometimes!

[Reaganfan]

Hoover could have fixed things.

[PBrunsel]

Hoover could have fixed things.

We could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.