A New Deal for America

Today in 1933, FDR opened his New Deal program to combat the Great Depression. He signed bills that dealt with the financial woes of the banks, rails, and industries across the nation. He also initiated farm aid.

By this point FDR had already appeared more combative to the Depression than his predecessor Hoover. Immediately after his inauguration in March ’33, FDR initiated a “bank holiday.” Nationwide banks closed for 8 days. Sound banks reopened at the end of the holiday, while other remained closed to secure them.

Through the Great Depression, the New Deal grew, changed, expanded, and contracted. It included programs that created jobs (through service, construction, and art: CCC, PWA, WPA, etc). Some New Deal programs regulated industry and protected the union (the NIRA for example). And some attempted to help farming, who had been suffering through a depression since the end of the First World War (AAA). Some of the most successful programs helped specific regions of the nation (TVA). As the Great Depression lingered, the Supreme Court found some of the programs unconstitutional. New Deal programs that followed the 1936 rulings of the Court tended to have less power than their predecessors. And as the decade ended, the New Deal gave way to preparing for a war that the U.S. did not want to enter (until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor).

Many still debate the effectiveness of the New Deal, especially as we continue to suffer in our Great Recession. Many have argued that the New Deal did not end the Great Depression, but that World War II did. Others recognize that while the New Deal might have helped stimulate the economy (or not), it ignored minorities and women.  New Deal programs focused specifically on white men, leaving minorities languishing in poverty. Companies regularly denied African Americans jobs. State governments sent Mexican Americans (including legal citizens) to Mexico. The government and media all but ignored women, who throughout the depression worked to help make ends meet.

In many ways, the New Deal was more of the same. However, it also brought some of the most important changes in U.S. history. Social Security became one of its longest legacies. And love it or hate it, it changed the role of the government forever.

Acronyms:

CCC: Civilian Conservation Corps; PWA: Public Works Administration; WPA: Works Progress Administration; NIRA: National Industrial Recovery Administration; AAA: Agricultural Adjustment Act & Administration; TVA: Tennessee Valley Authority

Politics as Usual

I have been thinking a lot about the U.S. government in history lately. I hear and read on the news almost daily now about how bi-partisan our nation currently is and how different this is from the past. Then there was Representative Joe Wilson calling President Obama a liar during Obama’s congressional address this past week. News media and politicians on both sides reacted to this outburst, Democrats calling it disrespectful and Republicans  shaking their heads at a time when there has been such much criticism lately about the behavior of their party. But what I find interesting is how shocked we all seem to be at this behavior, that we act as though our history has been filled with polite, perfect politicians. What history are they talking about? Does anyone remember President Jackson’s relationship with Henry Clay? Much less than peaceful. Or how about the entire Republican party’s relationship with FDR during the Great Depression?

The behavior of our elected representatives is anything but new to American history. In the years leading up the Civil War, politicians were extremely ill behaved. They were disrespectful, often finding themselves caught up in shouting matches. Determining how to to handle slavery as new states entered the nation was so emotional, so difficult it led the nation into its most brutal war. So out of control were politics, that congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner (an abolitionist) of Massachusetts with his cane. The attack was so brutal that Sumner fell into unconsciousness and Brooks’ cane was broken. It took Sumner three years to recover and return to the Senate. Somehow, Wilson’s outburst last week, pales in comparison (please do not take this as condoning of either yelling or beating fellow politicians with sticks).

The point here isn’t whether Wilson should have yelled or not, or whether bi-partisanship is appropriate or not (that could be a whole other blog!). The point is, however, that this is not new behavior. Politics can be passionate and should be, its about the leadership of our nation and its future. The media and American public expects that our leaders should be quite, calm, and collected and when that doesn’t happen, they complain. They discuss this behavior as if it is a symbol of the tragic path our nation is embarking upon. However, it is not new, it is not revolutionary. The nation finds itself in a difficult time, and just as we have seen in history, this leads to extraordinary (if not always appropriate) behavior.