A NEW COALITION
In the 1936 election, Roosevelt won a decisive victory over his Re- publican opponent, Alf Landon of Kansas . He was personally popular, and the economy seemed near re- covery . He took 60 percent of the vote and carried all but two states . A broad new coalition aligned with the Democratic Party emerged, con- sisting of labor, most farmers, most urban ethnic groups, African Amer- icans, and the traditionally Demo- cratic South . The Republican Party received the support of business as well as middle-class members of small towns and suburbs . This po- litical alliance, with some variation and shifting, remained intact for several decades .
Roosevelt’s second term was a time of consolidation . The presi- dent made two serious political missteps: an ill-advised, unsuccess- ful attempt to enlarge the Supreme Court and a failed effort to “purge”
CHAPTER 11: THE NEW DEAL AND WORLD WAR II
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
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increasingly recalcitrant Southern conservatives from the Democratic Party . When he cut high govern- ment spending, moreover, the econ- omy collapsed . These events led to the rise of a conservative coalition in Congress that was unreceptive to new initiatives .
From 1932 to 1938 there was widespread public debate on the meaning of New Deal policies to the nation’s political and economic life . Americans clearly wanted the government to take greater respon- sibility for the welfare of ordinary people, however uneasy they might be about big government in general . The New Deal established the foun- dations of the modern welfare state in the United States . Roosevelt, per- haps the most imposing of the 20th- century presidents, had established a new standard of mass leadership .
No American leader, then or since, used the radio so effectively . In a radio address in 1938, Roose- velt declared: “Democracy has disappeared in several other great nations, not because the people of those nations disliked democracy, but because they had grown tired of unemployment and insecurity, of seeing their children hungry while they sat helpless in the face of gov- ernment confusion and government weakness through lack of leader- ship .” Americans, he concluded, wanted to defend their liberties at any cost and understood that “the first line of the defense lies in the protection of economic security .”